Early this week the Los Angeles Lakers officially finalized the signing of NBA superstar LeBron James to a four-year, $153 million contract.
The announcement came eight days after James revealed through Klutch Sports Group that he intended to continue his illustrious career with the Lakers, who were considered heavy favorites to land the 33-year-old’s services heading into the free agency process.
Most Lakers fans — especially those in the Los Angeles area — immediately celebrated the arrival of one of the greatest superstars in NBA history to the city, coming together at various locations, including outside of Staples Center where some mimicked his chalk toss.
In addition, artist Jonas Never welcomed James to Los Angeles in the form of a lifelike mural, painted on the back of a wall at Baby Blues BBQ restaurant in Venice.
While the mural was etched as a token of appreciation to James, some fans didn’t take too kindly to the gesture. The painting was vandalized multiple times until Never decided enough was enough and removed it himself.
That led to Lakers guard Josh Hart taking to Twitter to express his displeasure with the vandalism of James’ mural:
This is sad and disrespectful…. LA we better than this https://t.co/PfSVQI2lAi
— Josh Hart (@joshhart) July 11, 2018
The small minority of Lakers fans opposed to Never’s artwork were particularly unhappy with the “King of LA” caption that accompanied James’ mural. Those fans presumably believe the rightful holder to that nickname is Kobe Bryant, who won five NBA championships during his playing days with the Lakers.
After taking down his artwork, Never joked that he learned a valuable lesson in never painting a mural that could be taken as offensive to Bryant or his fans.
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