Historically, telling LeBron James to stop speaking his mind does not have the desired effect.
Soccer iconoclast and former L.A. Galaxy star Zlatan Ibrahimovic became the latest to question the outspokenness of the 36-year-old Lakers star, calling his involvement in politics and other social issues a “mistake.”
“That is the first mistake people do when they become famous and they become in a certain status,” Ibrahimovic said on Thursday in an interview with Discovery+ Sport. “Stay out of it. Just do what you do best, because it doesn’t look good.”
James owns a media company called “Uninterrupted.” He funded a documentary about athlete activism called “Shut Up and Dribble,” to swipe a phrase from a conservative talk show host who once sniped at him. He does not take kindly, or quietly, to being told what to say – or not to say.
When asked about Ibrahimovic’s comments after the Lakers’ 102-93 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night, James leaped for it as if it was a floating lob near the rim, quickly citing the things he speaks about: Social inequality. Racism. Voter suppression.
“At the end of the day,” he said. “I would never shut up about things that are wrong.”
James is at the forefront of several big movements: Over the summer, he helped found More Than A Vote, which attempts to push back against voter suppression in predominantly Black communities. He was a major negotiator with NBA owners in August when the Milwaukee Bucks caused a work stoppage, and he was pivotal in pushing owners to open their arenas as voting sites for the November presidential election. James has been outspoken against law enforcement’s use of lethal force against Black people, and against gun violence at large.
The third-leading scorer in NBA history famously opened the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, which now serves 450 students who have been chosen for enrollment specifically because they’ve fallen behind. James pointed out that those children grow up in the same difficult circumstances he knew when he was a child of a struggling single mother: “I’m their voice and I use my platform to continue to shed light on everything that may be going on, not only in my community but around this country and around the world.”
James also implied that Ibrahimovic was being hypocritical, citing a 2018 instance when the AC Milan striker said he did not receive the credit he deserved from his homeland in Sweden because of “undercover racism” due to his last name, which is not traditionally Swedish. Ibrahimovic is the Swedish-born son of a Bosnian father and a Croatian mother.
“I’m kind of the wrong guy to actually go at,” James smirked, “because I do my homework.”
James, 36, and Ibrahimovic, 39, overlapped in Los Angeles for about 16 months from the summer of 2018 until November 2019, when Ibrahimovic left the Galaxy to return to Europe.
Drawing inspiration from athletes like Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown, James has been at the vanguard of a kind of renaissance of athlete activism that he’s proud has spread to another generation, including Boston Celtics forward Jaylen Brown and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
He drew special attention to Renee Montgomery, who on Friday became the first former WNBA player to become a team owner when her group purchased the Atlanta franchise from former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. Montgomery and other athletes around the Dream had made public protests of Loeffler’s ownership after she objected to the league’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement and other social justice initiatives and the league pressured her to sell her share of the team.
“We’ve got a lot of guys speaking from the heart that didn’t believe they had a voice at one point in time or now they’re coming into it and they see that they can have a voice and that their voice really matters,” James said. “That makes me proud.”
Ibrahimovic suggested that he himself sticks to soccer because that’s what he’s best at, and people like James should also stick to their respective disciplines. James responded that athletes have been told again and again that they should simply be grateful for their physical gifts and not speak out about serious social issues.
That’s not the image James has created over the last eight years, and it’s not the world of sports that he’s helped shape.
“That’s not the case anymore,” he said. “As long as I’m around, it won’t be the case for a long time.”
“I have 300+ kids at my school who need a voice and I’m their voice…I’m the wrong guy to go at, I do my homework.” @KingJames weighs in on the recent comments made by soccer superstar @Ibra_official that people should “do what they’re good at” and “stay out of politics”. pic.twitter.com/Scfp6HhnP2
— Spectrum SportsNet (@SpectrumSN) February 27, 2021
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