Look: Internet offers reward to vandalize new LeBron mural, immediately finds a taker
During LeBron James’ two stints in Cleveland, a 10-story banner of his likeness was one of the city’s landmarks.
The city of Los Angeles hasn’t gone that far since LeBron signed with the Lakers last week, but two local artists did create a mural outside of a restaurant in honor of King James.
https://instagram.com/p/Bk6C4w9l-cJ/?utm_source=ig_embed
The mural was created by Jonas Never and Menso One and is outside of Baby Blues BBQ in Venice. However, some Lakers “fans” were unhappy of the tribute to LeBron and one fan in particular went as far as to offer a reward for the vandalism of the mural.
Twitter user @BenOsaze, who has since deleted his account, tweeted a $300 reward to anyone who vandalized the mural. When another user asked why he would want someone to deface a mural of someone on his own team, @BenOsaze responded “no murals until he wins a title.”
It didn’t take long for someone to take him up on that offer, whether it was legitimate or not, as the mural was indeed vandalized on Sunday.
https://twitter.com/LWOSLALakers/status/1016053652853788672
LeBron James mural in Venice vandalized just days after completion https://t.co/Ja4D2QXlVs pic.twitter.com/jGbZsr5jBZ
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) July 9, 2018
LeBron’s face is spray painted as are several insults including “we don’t want you,” “LeFraud,” “No King,” and “3-6” which is the record of James’ teams in the NBA Finals.
The vandal posted proof of his work on Twitter and asked for his $300 reward. He then deleted his account Sunday at about the same time @BenOsaze did. There’s no word on if there was an actual transaction between the two but the defacement didn’t last long.
Jonas Never, one of the original artists behind the mural, responded quickly to his work being ruined and sprung into action on Sunday night.
He cleaned up the spray painting on the mural and restored the mural with one exception. The original called LeBron “The King of LA” while this version simply refers to him as “The King.”
https://instagram.com/p/Bk_CkYXleU-/?utm_source=ig_embed
Never also hilariously suggests that it was maybe Kobe Bryant who defaced the mural in his Instagram caption. He doubles down in another Instagram post in which he writes, “Wow, some folks love Lebron, some hate him and some reeeeealllly love Kobe…”
Some on Twitter even jokingly asked if Bryant pulled a Bryan Colangelo and used @BenOsaze as a burner account despite Bryant openly welcoming LeBron to the Lakers family.
KABC-TV in Los Angeles says it does have surveillance video of the vandalism but doesn’t know if the vandal has been identified.
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