LeBron James praises Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes for speaking out on social-justice issues
Lakers star LeBron James on Friday responded to criticism for his activism away from the court. That sort of thing has happened in the past, but there was a twist in this instance.
The person telling James to stick to sports was an athlete: soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“That is the first mistake people do when they become famous and they become in a certain status,” Ibrahimovic said, per the Orange County Register. “Stay out of it. Just do what you do best, because it doesn’t look good.”
Following the Lakers’ win Friday against Portland, James was asked about Ibrahimovic’s comments.
“I would never shut up about things that are wrong,” James told reporters.
James was then asked what he thought about the younger players in the league who have spoken out. That’s when James mentioned Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who joined other NFL stars for a Black Lives Matter video last summer.
Mahomes also teamed with James to fight voter suppression.
“It makes me feel proud to be a part of a generation where our voices are heard and guys are speaking from an educated mind-set, but more importantly I think when you speak from your heart, it rings bells even louder,” James told reporters.
“And 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. So that makes me proud.”
James then gave a shout-out to a fellow NBA player and two NFL stars, including Mahomes.
“You see guys like (the Celtics’) Jalen Brown, who’s ... educated beyond his years now, and I love what he stands for in our league,” James said.
“And you see Pat Mahomes, also a younger guy, and Alvin Kamara in the NFL and those guys speaking about things. They’re young, but they speak about things that they feel like is unjust as well in their communities and whatever that’s going on in the whole grand scheme of things.
“As athletes, obviously, we’ve been hearing this for a long time .... you should be privileged, you should be thankful to be able to dribble a ball or run a football or be able to do 100-yard dash or be able to swing a baseball bat. Things of that nature. You shouldn’t be able to speak about anything else. No matter if it’s right or wrong, you should just do that. But that’s not the case, it’s not the case anymore. As long as I’m around, it won’t be the case for a long time.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2021 at 8:29 AM.
