Artist suspects Kobe fans defaced LeBron mural

The Mamba Army may think that they’re slick, but Jonas Never can see right through them.

Speaking with ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk on Wednesday, the Los Angeles-based muralist indicated that he suspects Kobe Bryant fans were responsible for defacing his highly-publicized mural of new Laker LeBron James.

“I thought I had learned a long time ago to never touch religion or politics. I guess it is never touch religion, politics or anyone against Kobe,” he joked.

“I got a ton of support,” Never went on to add however. “At first when we had the original piece, there was a ton of positivity, but also a ton of like pro-Kobe, anti-LeBron sentiment. [Some] people didn’t like it in general, not necessarily the work, but the sentiment that went with it.

Never, who has done over 100 murals in the Los Angeles area, including ones of other celebrities like Dave Grohl and Ronda Rousey, completed the mural of James last Friday, less than a week after The King agreed to sign with the Lakers. It was vandalized within days however, and Never said that many objected to the message “The King of LA” on the piece.

Never then fixed the mural and removed the word “of” from it, but it was defaced again on Wednesday for the second time in five days. That led to Never deciding to paint over it for good.

While it’s truly unfortunate that such a magnificent piece had to go to waste because of a couple of knuckleheads, at least this Kobe Hive incident didn’t involve somebody driving 40 miles to try and throw hands on Christmas.