On February 15, Laura Ingraham abruptly addressed LeBron James and Kevin Durant’s commentary on an Uninterrupted special with host Cari Champion. James and Durant touched on social issues, politics and most notably, President Trump. Ingraham received enormous backlash on social media for her comments towards the basketball stars.

In one comment James made about the president he said, “It’s not even a surprise when he says something, it’s like laughable. It’s laughable, and it’s scary.” He later acknowledged the issue of racism in America saying: “No matter how far, money, or access, or how you become in life as an African American man, female – they will always try to figure out a way to let you know that you still beneath them.”

Hearing statements like this have become synonymous with people who have a platform – celebrities, athletes, public figures, socialites, etc. – so to most of America, what he was saying was coming from a place of truth and genuine concern for our country, however, that’s not how Ingraham took it:

“Must they run their mouths like that?” Ingraham sharply questioned. She even went so far as to question James’ intelligence because of his success in basketball, which allowed him to go straight to the NBA: “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. And it’s always unwise to seek political advice from someone who gets paid a hundred million dollars a year to bounce a ball.” She ended her segment with a vain, “shut up and dribble.”

On February 17, James offered a rebuttal to Ingraham: “We will definitely NOT shut up and dribble. I will definitely not do that. I mean too much to society. I mean too much to the youth. I mean too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out and they need somebody to help lead them out of the situation they’re in.”

To Laura Ingraham – First off, James never left high school a year early, he graduated and proceeded to accept an offer that not even you would turn down. Second, young kids across the globe look up to athletes like James and Durant for countless reasons aside from their ability to ‘bounce a ball.’ They are positive role models in so many people’s lives and use their fame for good, so to tell athletes to lower their voice and not take advantage of the vast platform they are given is unjust and goes against what this country is supposed to stand for.

Athletes are more than athletes.