LeBron James Wishes Obama Was Still President
LeBron James opened up about who he wished was President of the United States following the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 5 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
“President [Barack] Obama is a great man, and I wish he was still the President of the United States,” James admitted.
Earlier in the week, the Lakers star and several other prominent NBA players called President Obama and requested his counsel on whether they should continue on with the NBA Playoffs.
After the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, players staged a temporary strike on Wednesday to demand a series of important initiatives from the league and owners. The goal was to promote social justice and voting rights.
The Bucks decided to step up and send Jacob Blake a little gift this week. https://t.co/55U3BuiGP4
— Game 7 (@game7__) August 29, 2020
Related: Patriots Fans React To Cam Newton’s Jacob Blake Message
James acknowledged on Saturday night that when the strike first began — sparked by the Milwaukee Bucks’ spontaneous decision to not take the floor against the Orlando Magic — his mind immediately began to race on how it could be used to make the biggest impact.
“From that point on, my mind began to figure out what is the plan going forward, and if we don’t have a plan, then what are we talking about, why are we still here?” he said.
“That’s where my mind went to. At one point there was no plan of going forward, there was no plan of action. I’m not, me personally, I’m not that type of guy. I’m not the type of guy who, one, doesn’t have a plan, and then isn’t ready to act on it as far as action, so we had a couple days to kind of figure it out.”
“We put together a plan and we had action.”@KingJames on the NBA players’ social justice initiatives. pic.twitter.com/sFxDuiCVJy
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) August 30, 2020
Initially, the talks regarding how to proceed were heated and very raw. After hours of conversations between players, no resolution was reached on Wednesday night.
However, the following morning, representatives from each team, owners, the league and the NBPA gathered on a call to hash out a plan. That’s when all parties involved came to an agreement on how to proceed.
“Yeah, there was some doubt,” James said.
“But when you’re able to put that you feel that’s very important, that can change the landscape of what’s going on right now, both on and off the floor, then you can have more clarity.
“Myself having more clarity, and every other player in the league having more clarity on us going forward with the initiatives that were put together over the last couple of days.”
On Friday, a joint statement from the league and players detailed precisely what sort of actions would be taken to promote social justice awareness and voting rights.
“In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID,” the statement read.
“If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving board,” it continued.
All in all, this was obviously a very stressful week for James and the rest of the players involved in this process. None of them planned to spearhead a movement – it just sort of happened.
That said, despite how spontaneous it all was, tangible results were achieved. The players waged a war to promote voting rights and won.
Will progress continue? Time will tell.
Related: 1 NFL Team Considering In-Game Protest For Week 1
A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
Maybe the fans should protest all sports programs until they realize really what is going on in the world today. I watch all uniforms jerseys which some have really word `equality’ on them. When I look on the teams that is isn’t the fact. The world has progressed greatly, but I will agree it needs to do more. I have grew up in more than six decades watching the world change. I lived within a hundred yards of a school in the late 50s and 60s where I should of been able to attend this school; however I had to walk another 6 blocks to attend classes. I thought that wasn’t fair, because the students on the other side of the school couldn’t pass it to attend the other school which was by my house. So I had to attend a school of mixed races which I had no problem with because they were friends of mine. I played ball with them all through school as time changed. The school beside my home was closed. I even had the principal from that school as one of my teachers, and we talked about why they would not allow me to attend his school, I was even friends with his sons. By the way I am a white man!
So it does work both ways King James. You look at History and you will find that colleges and work places had to either allow a certain number of scholarships and jobs for the minority or the government would give them problems about funds given to them. As I look at the players in sports these days doesn’t there is no equality! So please tell me why this world isn’t practicing what it preachs!
lebron is showing how stupid he is!
maybe lebron you should run for president?
LeBron has great basketball intelligence; but loses credibility in politics. Obama is mostly considered the worst President ever; running a policy agenda of “managed decline” to weaken our country and satisfy his globalist masters. Also, LeBron is beholden to China who ran wild against Obama with no pushback. James will eventually learn from other young African-Americans that Democrats only believe ” Black VOTES matter!