After repeated vandalism of the mural of “King of L.A.” LeBron, the artist fully painted over it

Celebrating LeBron James signing with the Lakers with a giant mural was an interesting idea, but one that didn’t last for long. Artists Jonas Never and Menso One put up a mural of LeBron in a Lakers’ jersey with a script “King of L.A.” on the side of Baby Blues BBQ in L.A.’s Venice neighborhood Friday, but by Sunday, that mural had been defaced with messages like “We don’t want you,” “LeFraud,” “No King,” and “3-6.” (Who knew Skip Bayless was into defacing murals?) On Wednesday, Never showed up and painted over the mural, saying he didn’t have enough time to keep cleaning it up:

@never1959 taking down the @kingjames mural…said he will try it again another time but didn’t have enough time to clean this one up. Caught this as I was posting the first pic. Someone got it with a gallon of paint at midnight. #streetart #lakers #lebron #graffiti #venice #bleacherreport #sportscenter

A post shared by Preet (@partypreet) on Jul 11, 2018 at 10:15am PDT

Never then added “Fun while it lasted” into an updated caption of his initial shot of the mural on Instagram:

Fun while it lasted! Thanks to everyone (both the good and the bad) for making this mural such a hot topic… and really just making the Lakers part of the conversation again #lebronjames #kingjames #lakers #mural

A post shared by Jonas Never (@never1959) on Jul 8, 2018 at 2:01pm PDT

So those angry about LeBron coming to Los Angeles, or about him not showing up at Blaze Pizza, or whatever else the world is currently mad at him for, will have to find new targets. That new white paint where the mural once was could lend itself to some photoshopped images, though. Like, say, this…

[For The Win; painted mural photo from @LeBronBurner on Twitter]