"Shut up and play."
These are four words that have resonated through the ears of sports fans across the nation for years. During this time, athletes were told, regardless of race, religion, or upbringing, to stay quiet and stick to what they get paid to do. In recent years though, athletes have used their fame to speak out against injustices, especially against minorities, and have become increasingly more active.
LeBron James, the NBA’s poster child and superstar forward for the Cleveland Cavaliers, recently sat down for an interview with ESPN broadcaster Cari Champion and was joined by Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant which got both of them in hot water with the media.
James and Durant commented on a lot of different things during their ride with Champion through LeBron’s hometown of Akron, Ohio including upbringing, the all-star game and most importantly to this piece: politics.
“It’s all about leadership, and I learned that playing basketball. I learned a lot of life skills playing basketball.” Durant said. “You need to encourage people and that’s what builds a great team, and I feel like right now as a team, as a country, it’s not ran by a great coach.
Durant is of course referring to President Donald Trump, who during his campaign and first year as President of the United States, has said some questionable statements.
“It’s not even a surprise when he [Trump] says something. It’s like laughable. It’s laughable and scary,” James said.
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham then lambasted James and Durant for talking politics on a segment on the conservative-media network.
“It’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid 100 million dollars a year to bounce a ball,” Ingraham said. Keep the political comments to yourself.” She then later added onto her remarks by ending her segment with the quote, “shut up and dribble.”
First off, you obviously did not do your research because LeBron’s yearly salary is 30.96 million dollars to bounce said basketball, so here is case of bad journalism number one, but that is nitpicking at something really not important, so I digress.
I cannot speak for other people, but I can speak from someone who has studied sports for his entire life and is currently enrolled to get a degree in sports media. These comments are not only out-of-line from a media professional, but they are misinformed blanket statements. They serve absolutely no purpose other than to try and belittle the political statements of a man who scraped his family out of poverty in Akron by working hard and forging a career path by going to the NBA. Fox News claims to support the quote-on-quote American Dream, but Ingraham instead used James’ ascent to fame to discredit him.
“Look there might be a cautionary lesson in LeBron for kids. This is what happens when you attempt to leave high school a year early to join the NBA,” Ingraham said.
Cautionary lesson? I personally do not see ANY problem looking up to a man that has used his fame to help others. A man that used his foundation to send 1100 kids who grew up in troubled backgrounds like he did, to the University of Akron for no cost, which would total around 41.8 million dollars in tuition.
Just because someone is an athlete, or a celebrity, or someone that does not sit in front of an anchor desk, does not mean that their opinion on the current state-of-affairs is invalid. The fact that Ingraham called James out because of his upbringing and profession and not the validity of his points, whether you agree with James’ statements or not, is one of the most unprofessional things I have ever seen a member of the media do.
James and Durant are still black men living in this country. No amount of money earned can take away their upbringing or race.
“I’m a black man with a bunch of money. Having a crib in Brentwood and having the word 'n-----' spray painted over my gate. That lets you know I’m not too far removed and I still have a lot more work to do,” James said.
Athletes will not be silenced politically, they never will be. They have the right to comment on anything that happens in this country as I do, my neighbor does, or anyone else that is a citizen of the United States. Upbringing does not matter. Profession does not matter. What does matter is action. From what I know, James and Durant have both done incredible things with their fame to reach out to the less-fortunate. That is what matters.
