LeBron James mocked Kyle Rittenhouse as a fake cryer on social media.
On Wednesday, the White teenager accused of murder in the shootings of three demonstrators last year in Wisconsin broke down in tears during his testimony, prompting the judge to call a recess.
The basketball superstar accused Mr. Rittenhouse of the courtroom equivalent of flopping.
“What tears????? I didn’t see one,” Mr. James tweeted Wednesday night. “Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court.”
The Los Angeles Lakers star’s post ended with three laughing emojis.
The tweet was retweeted or quote-tweeted more than 42,000 times and garnered almost 230,000 likes.
Mr. Rittenhouse shot and killed two White men, and wounded a third at a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. He is charged with multiple homicide and lesser counts, but claims self-defense.
There was much negative reaction to Mr. James’s tweet on social media, with some conservatives pointing out, among much else, that the NBA star has rebuked others for criticizing China’s human-rights abuses.
“Did Xi approve this tweet?” asked Lavern Spicer, a Republican congressional candidate from Florida, referring to Communist dictator Xi Jinping.
“If you are suggesting he was somehow faking it, then he is a much better actor than you were in Space Jam,” added talk-radio host Dan O’Donnell.
Sign up for Daily Newsletters
