Why did Israeli sports journalist Sharon Davidovitch say “LeBron James is now the most hated person in Israel. It’s a little bit joking and a little bit true: These days I can only compare the Israeli hate for LeBron James to the hate for Hamas.”
LeBron James by Erik Drost is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
A. He wrote this in 2001, when James was a junior at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Cleveland. LeBron’s team played against the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland in the annual parochial school basketball tournament. James scored the winning basket as time ran out, making St. Vincent-St. Mary the citywide champion, leaving Hebrew Academy to receive the runner-up trophy.
B. He said this in January, 2016, when the Cleveland Cavaliers fired their Jewish head coach, David Blatt, who was formerly the coach of the Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team. Many Israelis (and others) believe that LeBron James was instrumental in Blatt’s dismissal.
C. He said this in 2014, when James criticized Israel during the Gaza war known as Operation Protective Edge. James issued his statement after an Israeli bomb killed Palestinians who were watching the World Cup in a Gaza cafe.
D. He said this right after the Cavaliers won the 2016 NBA championship, beating the Golden State Warriors, who are hugely loved in Israel. The Warriors, founded in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, were first coached by Eddie Gottlieb, a Jewish immigrant from the Ukraine. Gottlieb’s first Jewish involvement in basketball was at age 19 in 1917, when he organized a Jewish men’s basketball team at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Philadelphia. This Jewish connection has made the Warriors the most popular NBA team in Israel since its founding, thus leading to the antipathy for LeBron James in this championship series.
E. He said this after a visit to Israel by James in 2014. The trip, sponsored by the Hebrew Union College/Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, included a prayer service at the Western Wall. The women on the mission intended to hold their own Torah reading on their side of the wall along with the Israeli Women of the Wall organization. However, the woman who was carrying a Torah scroll to place on a table for reading was detained and the Torah scroll seized by the religious authorities who oversee the area. In anticipation of this possibility, the men also had a Torah scroll, which James was able to hand over to the women, despite the 8-foot divider between the two sides, which was no barrier to the 6’8” superstar with an 8’10.25” standing reach, thus enabling the women to hold their service.