Dethroning “King” Lebron James

 

“The art of fakeness has led many individuals to reveal their true character later.” Dr. BLR

 

As a kid, I never really looked up to athletes as role models. I enjoyed watching them play whatever sport, but that was the extent of it. Fast-forward several decades, and there have been generations of young people who place athletes on a pedestal. I cannot blame them, given the proliferation of social media platforms such as Instagram and X, podcasts, and the numerous sports programs on cable television. This, unfortunately, is the world we live in today.

Athletes’ lifestyles are often admired for what their salaries have enabled them and their families to achieve. The big homes, luxury cars, and lavish vacations are often captured in the media. How could you not look up to them? Well, if you look beyond the surface and examine who they are, what they represent, and how they invest their money, you may think twice before hanging up a life-size poster of them on your children’s walls.  

However, over the years, I kept track of one athlete I thought was spectacular and a phenomenal person. He is LeBron James. A lot has been written about this young man, including his stance on Black Lives Matter, his philanthropy focused on educating inner-city youth, and his reputation as an all-around good guy. 

As I’ve watched his games, I’ve often read hateful comments about him on some websites, but I’ve dismissed them as just “haters.” However, what did they know that I didn’t? What was I not seeing? He has nearly all the scoring records and has won several NBA championships and MVP awards, but there had to be something else.

I began noticing him in several commercials for innocuous products and didn’t think much of it. How he makes money is his business, but when I saw him in a commercial promoting gambling alongside the industry-favorite unfunny comedian, Kevin Hart, I became upset. How could he support an industry capable of destroying lives and families and still be okay with it? I became instantly soured on his behavior and vowed not to support him any longer. He was a billionaire and didn’t need the money. So why did he do it?

While watching an interview after the All-Star basketball game, a reporter asked LeBron about an Israeli player, Deni Avdija, and LeBron spoke glowingly of the player’s basketball skills. He should’ve left it there and moved on, but he then mentioned Israel and said, “I've never been there. If I have fans over there, then I hope you’ve been following my career. I hope I inspire people over there to not only want to be great at sports but also be better in general in life. So, hopefully someday I could make it over there. Like I said, I’ve never been over there, but I heard great things.” 

“Great things!” What fucking great things? I almost threw up in my mouth. Was he blind? I know he pays attention to public issues, so there’s no way he wasn’t aware of the genocide in Palestine. How could a person who’s a big supporter of issues affecting the Black community be so tone-deaf while thousands of Palestinian women, children, and the elderly are continually slaughtered by the Israeli military? Then it all made sense. Like so many other Black athletes, i.e., Stephon Curry and Kevin Durant, who’ve sold out to the establishment, I thought LeBron was different. The social media platform X has now referred to them as Stephanyahu, LeKud James, and the KDF, respectively. Their co-option by those responsible for maintaining an apartheid system is reprehensible. Moreover, Stephen Curry was previously awarded the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award. How could he reconcile this? You can’t make this hypocrisy up. By the way, we also see you, Draymond Green. This may be fodder for another essay. 

In many people’s eyes, LeBron was up there alongside Muhammad Ali, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Colin Kaepernick, and Kyrie Irving, athletes with significant platforms who challenged those in power, risking endorsement deals and future earnings. They have enough money for the “generational wealth” dialogue, but I guess for LeBron, it is never enough. 

He dethroned himself in the eyes of many who believed he cared and was better than the rest. I guess not. He and his ilk should be haunted by the memory of Hind Rajab, the five-year-old Palestinian girl who was shot more than three hundred times by apartheid forces while she called out for help. They should also be reminded of her whenever they deposit the money from their investments into their bank accounts. There should never be any redemption for them.