LeBron James can’t win — and we’re not talking about the Lakers’ season. At the NBA All-Star Game this weekend, the 22-time All-Star was asked a simple, friendly question: did he have a message for his fans back in Israel? His answer was about as vanilla as it gets. He praised Israeli-born Portland Trail Blazers star Deni Avdija, said he hopes he inspires people over there, and mentioned he’d love to visit someday. That’s it. No political statement. No controversy. Just a guy being gracious about his global fanbase.
Enter Mehdi Hasan, the former MSNBC host who has made a second career out of anti-Israel commentary since the October 7th Hamas terror attacks. Hasan took to X and called LeBron “a disgrace” — not for saying something controversial, but for saying something nice. Let that sink in. In the upside-down world of far-left politics, expressing goodwill toward fans in a democratic ally of the United States is now grounds for public shaming from the radical left’s loudest voices.
This is the same Mehdi Hasan who has drawn repeated backlash for his hardline positions against Israel in the aftermath of the deadliest terror attack in that nation’s history. Hamas terrorists murdered over a thousand innocent people and took hundreds hostage on October 7, 2023 — and yet in Hasan’s world, LeBron James offering words of encouragement to Israeli basketball fans is the real outrage. It tells you everything you need to know about where these people’s priorities lie.
The irony here is thick. LeBron James has never been shy about wading into left-wing causes — from social justice campaigns to endorsing Democratic candidates. But the moment he extends even the most basic human courtesy toward Israel, the progressive mob turns on one of their own. Meanwhile, Deni Avdija — the only active Israeli-born player in the NBA — made his first All-Star appearance this weekend, a feel-good story that apparently wasn’t feel-good enough for the anti-Israel crowd. The message from the radical left is clear: no amount of goodwill is acceptable if it involves the Jewish state.