Barley a week up and the Lebron James, "King of LA," mural has already been tampered with. Some Lakers fans did not take too kindly to the news that the former Cleveland MVP was making his move to the sunshine state.
The mural, which is painted onto the side of Baby Blues BBQ in Venice, shows a photo of Lebron James wearing a Lakers jersey with the words "King of LA," written above. The paint was barely dry when one Twitter user decided to take out a "hit" on the art, asking for someone to assist in destroying it. The tweet from user handle @BenOsaze and the name “Lakers Fanbase,” has now been deleted, but initially read:
“I’m offering $300 to anyone who destroys this mural and shares a video. The mural is located at Baby Blues BBQ – 444 Lincoln Blvd, Venice, CA 90291 #Lakers #Kobe #LeBron”.
Either the $300 or the chance to figuratively dethrone James was enough incentive to lead the vandals out with cans of paint. CBS reports that security footage from Baby Blue was able to catch one vandal spraying “We don’t want you,” “LeFraud,” “No King” and “3-6" (James’ NBA Finals record).
“I mean, everybody’s entitled to their opinion, it was just a piece of art,” said Baby Blues manager Rob Aguirre. “All it was meant to do was welcome LeBron, try to capture some of the excitement that was going on in the city.”
By Sunday, although the mural was fixed, it appeared to be missing a small word - "of." One of the artists tweeted out that the mural is far from ruined.