Kareem Abdul-Jabber is what young basketball fans like to call, an old-head. Although this may be true, it's tough to have any issue with Kareem, considering he is undoubtably one of the best big men to ever play the game and surely a top five NBA player ever.
This year, Abdul-Jabbar has used his voice to levy criticism against many of today's athletes, including football players Henry Ruggs and Aaron Rodgers in November, for their respective DWI and COVID mishaps. COVID has been a big talking point for Kareem too, as he fired shots at NBA stars like Kyrie Irving, Bradley Beal and Andrew Wiggins for not getting vaccinated.
Now, for the second time this young NBA season, Kareem has taken aim at LeBron James. This time, his point of emphasis is on LeBron's recent on-court antics. In a game on Nov. 24 against the Indiana Pacers, LeBron hit a pivotal 3-pointer for the Lakers and proceeded to do a "big balls" celebration, first conceived by Sam Cassell in his playing days.
Bron would end up being fined $15,000 for the move, but that was not all in terms of backlash. On his Substack channel yesterday (Dec. 4), Kareem questioned James' greatness because of his unnecessary willingness to boast: "Why do you need to do a stupid, childish dance? It doesn't make sense.....GOATs don't dance."
When Kareem first criticized LeBron earlier this year, it was because of his stance on COVID vaccines, where James said it was a personal choice for everybody. Abdul-Jabbar emphasized how much respect he has for LeBron, but did not approve of his comments: "I’m a huge fan of LeBron James, both as one of the greatest basketball players ever and as a humanitarian who cares about social injustice... I admire him and have affection for him. But this time LeBron is just plain wrong—and his being wrong could be deadly, especially to the Black community.”
While his argument about COVID is fair, Kareem's anger towards LeBron about his playful celebration sounds salty and unwarranted. Check out what Kareem had to say below.