FoxNews.com reports that
Los Angeles County SheriffAlex Villanueva on Monday challenged NBA star LeBron James to match and double the reward money being offered for information on the gunman who ambushed and shot two deputies over the weekend.
Speaking with KABC Radio on the John Phillips Show, Villanueva said the reward money reached $175,000 — a combination of donations of $100,000 from the county and $75,000 from two private individuals.
“This challenge is to Lebron James. I want you to match that and double that reward,” Villanueva said. “I know you care about law enforcement. You expressed a very interesting statement about your perspective on race relations and on officer-involved shootings and the impact that it has on the African-American community.
“And I appreciated that,” he continued. “But likewise, we need to appreciate that respect for life goes across all professions.”
The Los Angeles Lakers star has been one of the most vocal professional athletes to speak on social issues and to condemn police misconduct. After Jacob Blake was shot multiple times by officers in Wisconsin last month, James said Black people in America are “terrified” of police misconduct.
“I know people get tired of hearing me say it, but we are scared as Black people in America,” James said following the Lakers’ Game 4 win over the Portland Trail Blazers last month. “Black men, Black women, Black kids, we are terrified.”
He earlier tweeted his frustrations about police shootings.
“And y’all wonder why we say what we say about the Police!! Someone please tell me WTF is this???!!! Exactly another black man being targeted,” James wrote. “This s— [sic] is so wrong and so sad!! Feel so sorry for him, his family and OUR PEOPLE!! We want JUSTICE.”
It was not clear if James was aware of Villanuena’s challenge. Messages to the Lebron James Foundation were not immediately returned.
“Let’s see what he does,” the sheriff said. “I’ll be very curious to see what his response is, if any.”
Don’t hold your breath, sheriff.
Please allow me to make a confession. It has been quite a few years since I was a serious NBA Fan. I’ve kept up from afar, just so I could engage in Water Cooler Talk at work. However, until “wokeness” and the Chinese Coronavirus happened, I enjoyed college basketball infinitely more than I did the professional product.
I suppose that it is because of my rather youthful age of 61 and having grown up during some of the greatest times in the history of sports.
In the NBA, I can remember the Knicks, Celtics, Lakers, and Pistons playing hurt and leaving everything that they had out there on the court.
I am also a lifelong Memphis State/University of Memphis Tiger Basketball Fan.
There is a reason for that…
The year is 1972. A skinny, undersized asthmatic kid, new to Wooddale Junior High, in Memphis, Tennessee, is about to be annihilated in a game called Bombardment, a rather sadistic game thought up by the 9th grade P.E. coach for his personal amusement.
Resembling the movie “Dodgeball” on steroids, two teams (usually the delinquents on one side and their victims on the other), would line up against both sides of the bleachers waiting for the coach’s whistle. Then the massacre would ensue.
Sure that I was about to breathe my last, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and a kind voice telling me to stand beside him. I looked up to see the smiling face of Larry Finch, Senior shooting guard on the Memphis State University Tigers Basketball Team. He had just taken an Internship at my school!
Of course, that was the school year that they lost the NCAA Championship to Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. I don’t think that anyone in the nation hollered at their television set louder that night than I did.
Over the semester, we became friends. I became a Tiger fan for life, eventually receiving my degree there in 1980 in Radio, TV, and Film. While there, I had the privilege of calling radio play-by-play for the Women’s Basketball and Men’s Baseball teams.
Larry is also the reason that I went on to play and coach basketball, a 4th grade team and a church team, respectively. My coaching record is 24 – 5.
But, I digress…
The reason that I drifted away from being a big fan of the NBA is that they drifted away from me.
As an average American, living here in the Heartland, I still believe in Traditional American Values, such as Faith, Hard Work, Loyalty, Gratitude, and Respect.
The recent actions and words being seen and heard coming from the outrageously paid professional athletes of both the NFL and now, the NBA, are not the words and actions of “professionals”. Rather, they are the whining, screaming, and lashing out of cry-baby millionaires, who neither respect their fan base, nor those who have made their path to fame and fortune possible through the shedding of their blood for the flag and country which they are so intent on insulting and diminishing.
And now, these “professional” who are extravagantly paid for playing a game that you can watch being played in playgrounds and gymnasiums across the country are supporting a bunch of Marxist Anarchist spoiled brat thugs simply because the fact that Donald J.Trump IS our president OFFENDS them.
Oh, sure.
They tell us that it is because of “racial injustice” that they are disrespecting America and all that it stands for along with the sacrifices made by those who comprise the “Thin Blue Line”. However, if that was their concern, why have these multi-millionaires waited until now to voice their concern and why didn’t they put their money where their big mouths are and do something about it a long, long time ago?
Well, listen up, you ungrateful overpaid pampered pu…err wussified excuses for professional athletes.
You cry-babies offend US!!!
By “us”, I am referring to average Americans just like me, who are out here killing ourselves in our 40-plus hour a week jobs, just to make it from paycheck-to-paycheck, including those of us who actually still attend your games, shell out our hard-earned cash, just to see you disrespect our president and, at times, sleepwalk your way through games on your way to collect your millions.
You misanthropic ungrateful jackasses are not worthy to lace up the tennis shoes of those who have gone before you in your chosen field of athletic endeavor.
Those American Athletes knew whom they were playing for and who paid their salaries. And, they also had the sense to keep their mouths shut about the leader of the country in which they were able to have the freedom to have the job that they wanted and be paid handsomely for it. They also had the home-training and grace to go to the White House and meet the sitting president, if they were lucky enough to be a part of a team which won their league’s championship.
They knew that young boys followed their every word and action, idolizing them as sports heroes. And, the overwhelming majority of professional athletes back in the day, took that very seriously.
You guys do not seem to take anything seriously…except your own notoriety and your enormous paycheck.
So, LeBron and the rest of you “disenfranchised” millionaires…
As you watch your popularity, the fans in the stands, and your undeserved paychecks dwindling before your eyes…just remember:
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18 (KJV)
If you keep running off at the mouth and commit mass seppuku as the NFL is in the process of doing…then perhaps Shaq can get you a job with Papa John’s Pizza…delivering.
But hey…that’s the way the ball bounces.
So…
#SHUTUPANDDRIBBLE
Until He Comes,
KJ
Kingsjester's Blog 