NBA star LeBron James has come under fire after posting what many have described as anti-Semitic lyrics on his Instagram account.
The 33-year-old Los Angeles Lakers forward posted a photo of himself captioned with lyrics from a song by American rapper 21 Savage, writing: "We been getting that Jewish money. Everything is Kosher".
Shortly after, James extended apologies for his actions, saying that he did not want to "hurt anybody".
"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", James told ESPN.
Sports Business reporter Darren Rovell was quick to react by urging James' followers to "go find a Jew and read this to them".
Rovell was echoed by others who accused James of saying "irresponsible things" and urging the NBA "to take some action" and suspend him".
One netizen argued that by LeBron had "made a huge mistake" because "this will stay with him for the rest of his life".
James' millions of supporters, in turn, ridiculed the anti-Semitic insinuation by his critics amid a social media debate on "whether someone posting song lyrics can be held accountable for simply sharing the words", according to Newsweek.
James' post came after he made controversial remarks on the HBO show "The Shop" where he claimed that African-American players are frequently subject to treatment that he likened to slavery.
"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**k I tell y'all to do. Or we get rid of y'all,'" he said.