It was quintessential LeBron James taking control of the chaotic boycott created by the Milwaukee Bucks’ players and threatening to take his ball and go home to pressure the NBA to do more to support racial justice.
To begin with, I find it impossible to believe LeBron James really wanted to cancel the playoffs despite how angry and disappointed he may have been with the lack of progress and support for the Black Live Matter movement. Remember LeBron’s first comment after the Milwaukee players announced their decision to boycott their game with Orlando was an Instagram post reminding everyone the playoffs were “BOYCOTTED NOT POSTPONED.”
No disrespect to his commitment to Black Lives Matter as we all know how hard LeBron has fought for justice, education, and opportunity for the black community but he’s also on a mission to win his fourth NBA championship. As Kevin Ding reported, LeBron’s mission has always been two-fold: “Play the game at a high level. Bring a championship back to L.A., hopefully. And continue to push the envelope on creating change for my people.”
These are not mutually exclusive goals. In fact, they’re synchronized goals that are best accomplished synergistically. The more successful LeBron is as a pro basketball player, the more power he has to lobby for social change. LeBron’s also smart enough to understand the source of his social power is his standing as one of the greatest players in league history and the NBA playoffs are his best platform and opportunity to wield that power.
The behind-the-scenes reporting is LeBron and players from other NBA teams were blindsided and infuriated by the decision of the Bucks’ players because they acted alone, without notice to, or in concert with other teams. LeBron’s informal vote to cancel the playoffs and decision to walk out of the meeting was to send a message to players who didn’t understand the stakes and pressure the NBA for more support in the fight against racial injustice.
The media reports about how the ensuing meetings and discussions were able to convince LeBron to change his stance and support continuing the playoffs are laughable and naïve and insult his social savvy and intelligence. More than any superstar in sports, LeBron understands how to use his platform as the face of the NBA to lobby for and force social change. LeBron was playing chess while the rest of the players were playing checkers.
The morning after LeBron walked out, the players had a meeting and came to a unanimous decision to move forward with the playoffs. That evening they discussed their decision on a group team call with the league owners. Per Taylor Rooks: “Lebron was the last player to speak on the call and delivered a strong, thoughtful message to the owners that the work has to continue, and the owners have to truly dedicate to advancing this cause.”
Why LeBron grabbed the mike at the end of that meeting was to remind the NBA the viability of the playoffs depends on his and the Lakers participation and the league needs to step up to the plate and do more for racial justice. From Taylor Rooks this morning: “The NBA and NBPA took major steps toward tangible change and social justice. That is the most important part of these two days. Progression and the advancement of equality.”
This morning, the NBA and NBPA announced three new measures designed to support social justice and racial equality: (1) A social justice coalition to promote access to voting, civic engagement, and meaningful police and criminal justice reform. (2) A commitment to work to convert NBA arenas and facilities into safe in-person voting locations. (3) An program with NBA partners to provide advertising spots during each game to promote voting.
It’s not a coincidence the new measures announced by the NBA align with goals of the Voting Rights Group LeBron James and other black athletes and entertainers created to protect and promote African-American voting rights. LeBron James, Chris Paul, and players pushing for social change know legitimate progress on racial justice, education, and opportunity issues is totally dependent on black Americans voting in the November election.
LeBron is now taking flack from Stephen A. Smith and some of the younger players for acting like he was a king and taking over the boycott to push his agenda but that’s what great leaders do when chaos offers opportunity.
One thing that’s worrisome is the NBPA does not seem to be in total agreement as to how to proceed and the comments by Stephen A. Smith about the younger players being upset at LeBron taking over the mike and talking for 15 minutes at the end of the owners’ call are concerning.
Obviously, I have a different take in that I think LeBron took advantage of the chaotic situation to choreograph additional concessions from the NBA to help his ‘More Than a Vote’ non-profit organization he created last month to educate and register African-Americans to become involved and vote.
Please read the article and give my your take. I think this was a masterfl masterful move by LeBron and a sign he recognizes how important it is for black Americans to start participating in our democracy. They have the power and just need to be shown how to wield it by learning and voting.
So blessed to have Lebron on the Lakers..He is a role model to me and I’m older than him
Lakerholics, please give a hearty welcome to a new member, Curt Brown AKA Kortezcb. Met Curt on Twitter where we’ve had some great conversations and it’s great to have him join Lakerholics. Welcome to community, Curt.
Welcome Curt!
Moi aussi! French for me too, ain’t I awesome!
LT will tell you so! Lol! Maybe not.
What’s up Curt! Welcome aboard.
Hey Jamie what’s good?? Just waiting to watch Lakers close this thing out tonight.. Hoping a few of Markieff’s shots drop tonight
Hi, Curt. Welcome to the Laker Family. Let’s enjoy tonight’s game.
Myself as well!
Listen to the video with Skip and Shannon as they confirm everything I said in the above article. Shannon’s opening comments were spot on.
I don’t know about all this ‘masterful moves’ and chess vs. checkers’ projecting people are doing with this. For my part I don’t need to project what I feel or want onto what the NBA is doing. It’s two very different things. On the one hand you have a multi-billion, corporate institution that is working with one of the most powerful unions on planet Earth whose members are mainly African American and millionaire athletes. That’s a pretty unique combination.
What the NBPA chooses to do push their agenda and what the owners choose to do to support, or not support, is one thing. How those 2 entities choose to co-exist and move the sport forward is a completely different discussion. Let’s be honest about a couple of things:
-This wouldn’t be happening were it not for COVID-19. The time the players spent in their communities during the height of the pandemic wouldn’t existnnot have been had it not been for the league choosing safety over profit as quickly and instantly as it did. The Bubble wouldn exist, this large number of alpha-male players wouldn’t be in a pressure cooker together. And so on. So much about this is unprecedented.
-The NBA or any other sporting league won’t “fix” this issue. Politicians, either. You can’t legislate morality or good behavior. If that were the case making it illegal to drink and drive would have been the one step needed to reduce alchol-related car fatalities, for example. What we’re talking about is providing platforms and messaging so, in that regard, it’s almost cartoonish in my opinion to bestow gloaing praise on anyone for making bold strides forward. We’re improving our ability to create a constructive dialogue would be a better way to frame all of this. Is it a dialogue long over-due and on the right side of morality and justice? Hell yes, hell yes it is. But this won’t produce a tangible fix.
-Lastly LeBron is one man and I can say that, were I to be a player that wasn’t LeBron I wouldn’t necessarilly want him to commandeer the mic and take the stage in a way few are allowed to do in terms of social acceptance. This is not necessarilly LeBron’s fault. It’s not his fault that FOX news told him to ‘shut up and dribble’ or that the President of the United States singles him out on Twitter and all of that. But he’s also no Muhammad Ali or Lew Alcindor, at best he’s better than Jordan and Kobe ever were on social issues. He, like all of us, has much to improve on in terms of allowing the lowliest of us to have a chance to shine. Is he a succsful athlete? yup, one of the best and most succesful in the sport of basketball. Has he done well for himself? Absolutely, he and his busines partners have made a lot of the right moves in making the LeBron brna d a global and respected one. None of that means he’s right or that he can’t just walk out of a meeting angrily and wake up with a cooler head. In fact if you read Mark Medina’s post below it sounsd like that’s exactly what happened according to Danny Green (no insult intended to Skip or Shannon’s “journalistic” skills sets…). People are not in their right kind when they are as hot as it sounds like the players got, when there’s nowhere to go but your boring hotel room away from all your creature comforts, family and friends. That’s just a human being a human. I, for one, don’t feel the need to project a more impressive version or less-human aspect to that. Better to let it be real.
What happened is the Bucks jumped the gun and created a chaotic sitation and LeBron used his power to control and direct it towards the goals he and CP3 had been working on.
The reality is LeBron does have the power no other player has and he used it. Had he decided he was going to go home, these playoffs would now be over. Any other interpretation ignores the elephant in the room. No LeBron and Lakers? No playoffs. Period.
One of my favorites lines is: “Build a School like LeBron! “