Baron Davis is dunking on Zlatan Ibrahimovic about as hard as he dunked on Andrei Kirilenko back in 2007.
The soccer star Ibrahimovic was in the news this week after criticizing LeBron James over James’ sociopolitical activism.
“[LeBron] is phenomenal at what he’s doing, but I don’t like when people have some kind of status, they go do politics at the same time,” Ibrahimovic said, per ESPN. “Do what you’re good at. Do the category you do. I play football because I’m the best at playing football.
“I don’t do politics,” Ibrahimovic added. “If I would be a political politician, I would do politics. That is the first mistake people do when they become famous and they become in a certain status. Stay out of it. Just do what you do best because it doesn’t look good.”
James clapped back at Ibrahimovic’s comments on Friday after a win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
LeBron James responds to Zlatan’s statement on staying out of politics.
"There’s no way I would ever just stick to sports because I understand how this platform and how powerful my voice is." – @KingJames
: @SpectrumSN pic.twitter.com/CPHWkXQaPU
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) February 27, 2021
“I would never shut up about things that’s wrong,” the four-time MVP said. “I preach about my people, and I preach about equality. Social injustice. Racism. Systematic voter suppression. Things that go on in our community.
“It’s funny he say that,” James added about Ibrahimovic. “I believe in like 2018, he was the same guy who said when he was back in Sweden, talking about the same thing. Because his last name wasn’t a certain last name, that he felt there was some racism going on when he was out on the pitch … I speak from a very educated mind, so I’m kind of the wrong guy to actually go at because I do my homework.”
Davis, the retired NBA guard, took it a step further on Saturday. Linking to a video of James’ comments, he absolutely went in on Ibrahimovic.
“Zlatan stay yo a– out of LA,” Davis tweeted. “Galaxy suck anyway. And you dumb as hell. Take that stolen Zoohan look and give it back to Sandler. Now let the King Speak!!!!
There are a couple of funny layers to Davis’ tweet here. One is the reference to Adam Sandler’s movie “You Don’t Mess With The Zohan.” Another is the fact that Ibrahimovic does not even play for the Galaxy any more, having left in 2019 to return to Serie A club AC Milan. But Davis played for UCLA and the Clippers, while James now stars for the Lakers. Thus, there is probably some Los Angeles pride involved here.
James does indeed have a very powerful platform that he uses to try to bring about social change here in America. As for Davis, he himself does not sound too willing to just stick to sports either.
Photo: Brian Solis/Flickr via CC-BY 2.0
