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LeBron James Apologizes For ‘Jewish Money’ Post, League Won’t Take Action

LeBron James Apologizes For ‘Jewish Money’ Post, League Won’t Take Action

Written by Ann Brown

Jan 03, 2019

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The lyrics to the 21 Savage song “ASMR” go like this:

“Don’t go big on me, you might get hit with this MAC (Brrah)

I don’t need no holster, you get burned like toaster (21)

I don’t drink no liquor, but I’m smokin’ on mimosa (Yeah)

We been gettin’ that Jewish money, everything is Kosher (On God).”

Recently, basketball great LeBron James posted part of the song’s lyrics — the part about “Jewish money” — on his Instagram account, which has 45.9 million followers. Of course, this didn’t go over too well.  James’ comment was called out as anti-Semitic.


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James claimed he was only repeating a song lyric.

The NFL decided it won’t take action against James, according to ESPN.

James says it was all a misunderstanding. He told ESPN‘s Dave McMenamin, “Apologies, for sure, if I offended anyone. That’s not why I chose to share that lyric. I always (post lyrics). That’s what I do. I ride in my car, I listen to great music, and that was the byproduct of it. So, I actually thought it was a compliment, and obviously it wasn’t through the lens of a lot of people. My apologies. It definitely was not the intent, obviously, to hurt anybody.”

Now 21 Savage has apologized for his lyrics. He said in a tweet: “The Jewish people I know are very wise with their money so that’s why I said we been gettin’ Jewish money. I never thought anyone would take offense. I’m sorry if I offended everybody, never my intention, I love all people.”

Image: Twitter


The comments to both apologies ranged from understanding to outrage. “Responses to the tweet ranged from people identifying themselves as Jews who thought the lyrics were funny or a compliment to those that called critics too sensitive,” the Jerusalem Post reported.

While the apology by James about his Instagram post seemed to appease the league and most of his fans, some are speaking out. “LeBron James did something this weekend that was undeniably offensive. On his Instagram, he posted the words, ‘We been getting that Jewish money. Everything is Kosher.’ The words came from a rap lyric, but that didn’t matter to me. If a white athlete drops the n-word on social media and says, ‘Hey, it was from a rap lyric,’ that would still be offensive to most of us,” wrote writer Michael Rosenberg in Sports Illustrated.

James has made other controversial remarks as of late. In December he said during an episode of his HBO sports series “The Shop“:  “In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality. And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the f— I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.’”

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