LeBron James Defends 'Pointing Spider-Man' Meme Comparing COVID To The Flu

NBA player LeBron James is playing defense against accusations of spreading COVID-19 hesitancy after posting a Spider-Man Pointing At Spider-Man meme to Instagram that appeared to suggest the virus is the same thing as the common cold and flu.

James posted the meme on Christmas Eve, captioned "🤷🏾‍♂️ Help me out folks," where it racked up over 2.4 million likes in five days. The meme is a classic format from the 60s Spider-Man cartoon used to call out a number of seemingly different things for actually being the same. It shows three Spider-Men pointing at each other, one labeled "COVID," one "FLU" and one "COLD." Some of the top comments show support for James, including one from actor Jamie Fox, who wrote "Gotta point haha" and another from NBA player Trae Young who simply commented the "💯" emoji.

Not all NBA players have been so kind to James, though. On Monday, former NBA player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an outspoken supporter of the COVID-19 vaccine, published a piece to his Substack titled "Dear LeBron: Here’s the COVID-19 Help You Requested in Your Spider-Man Meme." In the piece, Jabbar attempts to explain the difference between the cold, flu and COVID-19 to James, writing "since he asked, let me help him out by explaining the difference--and how knowing that difference might save lives, especially in the Black community."

Throughout the article, Jabbar accuses James of spreading "vaccine hesitancy" with the meme and with a statement he made in September about being skeptical towards the vaccine and respecting everyone's choices. Jabbar also links the issue to racism, citing larger COVID-19 death rates in the Black community partly due to hesitancy. In direct response to James' request for help, Jabbar wrote:

"[…] no one thinks colds and the flu aren’t serious. In the 2019-2020 flu season, 400,000 people were hospitalized and 22,000 people died. In 2020, 385,428 people died of COVID-19, while so far in 2021, 423,558 have died in the U.S., for a total of 808,986 deaths. Experts agree that COVID-19 is at least 10 times more lethal than the flu. As for the common cold, death is extremely rare."

James was asked to respond to Jabbar on Tuesday night following a victory for the Lakers, where he said he has "no response" to the former NBA player. He then defended his use of the meme as a genuine plea for help, saying, "If you saw the post and you read the tag, you know that I’m literally, honestly asking, ‘help me out.’" He continued, "People like literally forgot about the flu during these times. Like that’s still going around, it’s flu season. People have forgot about the flu, people have forgot about common colds. That happens, especially with a lot of our kids that’s in school." Jabbar has not responded further.