LeBron James is not going to shut up and dribble.
Having built a platform for himself like few others in the world of sport, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar has taken and created every opportunity possible to show he is more than an athlete.
On the latest episode of his HBO show, The Shop, which aired Friday night, James was in conversation with, among others, L.A. Rams running back Todd Gurley about protests over social injustice when he gave a scathing review of NFL owners and the impression he has of how they view players.
“In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,” James said. “And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the [expletive] I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.'”
This is not the first time that an athlete has made this comparison. Former Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson spoke along similar lines back in 2011. As recently as Oct. 27 of last year, former Houston Texans wide receiver Cecil Shorts III tweeted in response to then-owner of the Texans, the late Bob McNair, who said that “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
Inmates, slaves and products. That’s all we are to the owners and others. Not grown men with families, kids, wives, values, and morals.
— Cecil Shorts III (@CecilShortsIII) October 27, 2017
Tension between NFL owners and players have been on the rise since 2016, when former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick became the first to protest social injustice by kneeling during the national anthem. The 31-year-old hasn’t played a game since Jan. 1, 2017 and no team has signed him to a contract after he opted out of his deal later that summer.
Over time, more players felt empowered by this act and did the same, leading to the NFL deciding this past May that teams would be fined if players didn’t stand during the national anthem while on the field. Players could remain in the locker room if they wanted to but remained open to punishment by their respective teams.
After a grievance by the players’ union, the league and the NFL Players Association issued a joint statement in July stating that those rules would not be enforced.
“It’s definitely, it’s a touchy subject,” Gurley said when asked to share his views during the show. “And some guys feel some type of way, some guys don’t, and some guys honestly could give a [expletive] about how somebody else feels. But, you know, you don’t want to be that type of teammate or that type of guy as well too.”
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James then further added how grateful he was to be playing in the NBA and having Adam Silver as commissioner.
“I’m so appreciative, in our league, of our commissioner. He doesn’t mind us having the feeling, like, to be able to have a real feeling and be able to express that,” James said. “It doesn’t even matter if Adam [Silver] agrees with what we are saying, he at least wants to hear us out. And as long as we are doing it in a very educational, non-violent way then he’s absolutely ok with it.”
LeBron, First Vice-President of the NBAPA, opened the I Promise school through the LeBron James Family Foundation this past summer to create better educational opportunities for at-risk youth in Cleveland and has expressed his views and shown support for victims of police violence in the past.
“At the end of the day, the players are who make the ship go,” James added. “We make it go. Every Sunday without Todd Gurley and without Odell Beckham Jr., you know, without those players, those guys, there is no football. And it’s the same in the NBA. There are certain players and certain teams and things of that nature. You’re not disrespecting the Rams or the Lakers or whatever the case may be.
“I am very educated about what I believe in and I’m not doing it in a violent way. I’m not knocking on your door saying, ‘Listen, I’m kneeling today and if you don’t kneel with me, I’ll knock you the [expletive] out.’ But, you know, people go crazy when things are done outside the box. People don’t know how to react.”
