Regardless of what people think about LeBron James’ rank amongst the all-time NBA greats, no one can question what he has done off the court.
James has taken pride in giving back to his community, even going so far as to open up his own charter school. And perhaps most importantly, he has not hesitated to speak out on controversial issues.
James has been upfront and open about his thoughts on any number of issues, especially those that impact the black community. Where many athletes have shied away from topics over the years for fear of hurting potential endorsements, LeBron has never backed down and following the awful death George Floyd in Minnesota which has sparked outrage across the country, James took to social media to make his thoughts known.
LeBron went on his Instagram, posting a picture which included former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick taking a knee:
The incident was the just the latest in a number of accusations of police brutality against African-Americans in this country. Police were called after a report of a customer attempting to use counterfeit money.
Disturbing video from a witness shows an officer keeping Floyd on the ground with his knee across Floyd’s neck as Floyd could be heard telling the officer that he couldn’t breathe and to not kill him.
The death has drawn comparisons to that of Eric Garner in 2014, when famously said “I can’t breathe” while being detained by police and ultimately perished. Teams across the NBA began wearing shirts with the phrase during warmups and James harkened back to that in a separate Instagram post:
But James wasn’t the only Laker to speak out, as Kyle Kuzma also posted the disturbing photo to his own Instagram with his own message:
The four officers involved in the incident have been fired, but that has not stopped the people of Minnesota from protesting angrily, with some violence even being reported in the area.
In the end, everyone wants a better, safer world to live in and James has never been shy about speaking on what he believes are injustices. As someone with as big of a platform as he has, it is honorable that he is not afraid to step up when others may not be willing to do the same.