LeBron James took Christmas Eve as an opportunity to fire off a spicy meme on Instagram.
As the Lakers, like many other teams, face personnel losses due to COVID-19, James posted a variation of the “Spider-Man Pointing at Spider-Man” meme, implying there’s little distinction between COVID-19, the flu, and the common cold.
As of Thursday, the Lakers were missing head coach Frank Vogel and five players — Trevor Ariza, Kent Bazemore, Avery Bradley, Malik Monk and Austin Reaves — due to COVID-19 protocols. The team had 12 players available for its game against the Spurs.
The Lakers will play the Nets, who will be missing Kevin Durant due to COVID-19 protocols, on Christmas day.
LeBron is not the first prominent athlete to hang a lightning rod on social media as the Omicron variant rips through the United States and positivity numbers surge. Others called out the public health response to Omicron, since it is believed to be less deadly than previous strains of the virus.
“Serious question since I’m not a dr.,” golf legend Phil Mickelson tweeted Thursday. “If omicron is contagious but not deadly(25,000 cases in Africa with no deaths) why try and control it? Why not let it go and let people get it and develop immunity? Especially for those who won’t get vaccinated? Pls no hate, I’m just curious.”