LeBron James is nicknamed King James for his dominance on the court. He came into the NBA straight from high school in 2003, a hoped-for generational megastar the same year Michael Jordan retired (for a third time).
Like Jordan, James has been a high-profile star, winning four NBA championships in 20 seasons. But unlike Jordan, James has used his platform to advocate for Black people and protest their treatment by police. In 2018, James attracted the ire of Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who said on her popular primetime program that he should “shut up and dribble.”
NPR reported at the time, “Ingraham said she was not interested in the political advice from ‘someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.’”
James hasn’t backed down from speaking his mind on social issues. In 2020, as protests for racial justice followed the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, James posted on twitter: “Why doesn’t America love us?” He had previously worn a T-shirt during game warmups reading “I Can’t Breathe,” a reference to the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York City.
James was far from the only athlete who participated in sports protests or other gatherings in 2020 related to racial justice.
In August 2020, the entire Milwaukee Bucks team refused to play in a playoff game after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., prompting several nights of protests and riots. Other teams across the NBA and minor baseball league followed suit.
As NPR reported, “James, with 47 million Twitter followers, spoke for many athletes when he tweeted an expletive, and then this: ‘WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT.’”
I think Lebron was able to enhance the activism, he has a tremendous amount of followers on varies social media platforms as well as being possibly one of the biggest names in the NBA so seeing someone push for activism especially for the Black Lives Matter movements its great to see a strong Black figure within the community trying to do their part by pushing the message itself as well as getting other people abroad for example him and his team mates all wore shirts with that message on it. As well as the shoes he launched one being a white pair and the other shoe is black but on the back they read ”Equality” showing that everyone is equal regardless of race, color, etc.