I saw a video on YouTube of these guys in Pakistan petting a grown male lion. At first he did nothing, but then it turned around suddenly and bit one of the guys on the arm. You don’t play with wild animals, people. And when they attack you they’re not “playing,” they think you’re food or they’re annoyed.
Actually, your typical housecat will do the exact same thing when he wants you to stop petting him.
And there are such things as friendly big cats.
That said, on a whole they are a bad choice for pets and people should not treat them as such unless they’ve been told that a specific cat is friendly.