Initially, you may not think there are a ton of similarities between the 6-foot-9, 250-pound Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James, a black man in his 30s, and the 6-foot, 158-pound United States President Joe Biden, a white man in his 80s.
But think about it.
Both James and Biden are the dubious “leaders” of their respective teams. Both James and Biden have been described as past their prime. Neither James nor Biden will be going to Trump rallies anytime soon. And both James and Biden are closer to China than anyone would prefer.
Well. Now they can add one more weirdly specific similarity — they both received raucous reactions at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.
Those reactions just happened to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.
You see, on Tuesday, James celebrated breaking the NBA’s all-time scoring record, surpassing Kareem Abdual-Jabbar, with an F-bomb and plenty of cheers from the Los Angeles crowd.
One part of that celebration involved pre-recorded videos from various prominent figures and celebrities congratulating James on scoring the most points in NBA history. Joe Biden recorded one such video and, well … It’s probably best if you just listen for yourself:
LOS ANGELES : Crowd boos Joe Biden’s speech for Lebron in honor of becoming all time NBA scoring leader pic.twitter.com/y4f5q6KXq3
— Breaking Digest (@breaking_digest) February 8, 2023
Can you take anything Joe Biden says seriously?
Yes: 1% (11 Votes)
No: 99% (814 Votes)
😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/9jxAtwXDFj
— AG 🔥 (@Yolo304741) February 9, 2023
Just like the cheers that James received that night, Biden’s jeers were audible and noticeable.
Now, to be completely fair, a few social media clips of booing fans is not necessarily representative of the whole arena. Perhaps it was just a few isolated-but-vocal pockets of the audience.
But even just a few pockets of dissidence are a damning sign for Biden, given the context of the situation.
This pre-recorded clip of Biden wasn’t being shown in some deep-red Republican state or a GOP rally.
It was being shown in downtown Los Angeles, the elitist hub of the wildly Democratic state of California. It was being shown on a night when thousands of people flocked together to celebrate LeBron James, who is perhaps the purest distillation of the leftist ideal for a pro athlete. It was being shown on a night when the Crypto.com Arena audience imported some of the biggest names among coastal elites, far-left demagogues and LeBron James sycophants in anticipation of the celebration.
And yet Biden was still booed.
Unfortunately for Biden, while his pre-recorded self was being booed in California, his actual self was giving a State of the Union Address that was being panned across the country, marking a rather rough Tuesday evening for the president.
James, meanwhile, also didn’t leave his historic night unscathed. The Lakers suffered an agonizing 133-130 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that night, dropping the Lakers another game behind in a Pacific Division that the team is already last place in.
