'So damn tired': LeBron James backlash over deleted message

LeBron James has copped backlash in the US after sending out a tweet shortly after Derek Chauvin was convicted of all three charges of murder and manslaughter in the deadly arrest of George Floyd.

The 12-member jury found Chauvin, 45, criminally liable in Floyd's death last year after considering three weeks of testimony from 45 witnesses.

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James was one of the biggest sporting icons to tweet out his joy in the result with a one word post: 'ACCOUNTABILITY'.

Despite later slamming the Las Vegas Raiders' tweet, which was heavily criticised on social media for missing the mark, James also tweeted about a recent event involving an police officer in Ohio.

James tweeted about a Columbus, Ohio police officer who shot and killed a young black girl named Ma'Khia Bryant on Tuesday.

Body camera footage showed the officer responding to a 911 call.

Bryant was allegedly swinging a knife at another woman before the officer calls for everyone to get down.

Bryant then allegedly approaches the other girl, before the officer shoots her.

Having already commented on the Chauvin verdict, James posted a photo of the officer in Colombia with the words: 'You're Next'.

The post caused plenty of backlash for the NBA star with many people pointing to the body cam footage.

James later deleted the post.

He followed it up with an explanation.

"ANGER does any of us any good and that includes myself," he wrote.

"Gathering all the facts and educating does though! My anger still is here for what happened that lil girl. My sympathy for her family and may justice prevail!"

He added: “I’m so damn tired of seeing Black people killed by police. I took the tweet down because its being used to create more hate -This isn’t about one officer.

"It’s about the entire system and they always use our words to create more racism. I am so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY,” the four-time NBA champion tweeted on Wednesday evening."

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