{"id":31633,"date":"2018-12-26T13:12:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T17:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/?p=31633"},"modified":"2019-01-17T17:55:47","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T21:55:47","slug":"lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"LeBron Shoots Air Ball with NFL Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite National Football League owners not imposing<\/a>\u00a0a rule to stop players from kneeling on the field in protest while the national anthem is played, professional basketball star LeBron James has still declared the owners to be largely \u201cold white men\u201d with a \u201cslave mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Members of the National Center\u2019s Project 21<\/a>\u00a0black leadership network are criticizing James for seeking to raise his public profile by demeaning and diminishing what real slaves endured to score cheap political points.<\/p>\n

Football players who knelt while the national anthem was played during the 2017-18 football season turned off fans<\/a>\u00a0and may have had a long-lasting negative effect on the sport. This year, after the league considered but later abandoned a policy against kneeling,\u00a0few<\/a>\u00a0players actually chose to continue their protests. Yet James recently sought to revive the issue and single out the owners on his HBO program \u201cThe Shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a discussion on the show, James said: \u201cIn the NFL, they got a bunch of old white men owning teams, and they got that slave mentality. And it’s like, \u2018This is my team. You do what the f*** I tell y’all to do or we get rid of y’all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

James made this declaration<\/a>\u00a0about an allegedly intolerant and indignant NFL, even though the National Basketball Association he plays for has a rule against players kneeling. The NBA policy<\/a>\u00a0states that \u201c[p]layers, coaches and trainers are to stand and line up in a dignified posture along the sidelines or on the foul line during the playing of the National Anthem.\u201d When NFL protests were near their height in 2017, the NBA reached out<\/a>\u00a0to owners and managers to made sure professional basketball skirted the controversy.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the roster of NBA owners has only one team owned solely by a black person. Former NBA star Michael Jordan is the owner of the Charlotte Hornets. Other teams have\u00a0black owners among several members of an investors group.<\/p>\n

\"\"About James, Project 21 member Christopher Arps<\/a>, who has discussed the NFL kneeling controversy in commentary<\/a>\u00a0and in broadcast media<\/a>, says:<\/p>\n

In my opinion, a true \u201cslave mentality\u201d is being a highly paid and highly visible overseer for a political philosophy that discourages free thought and expression among its most economically and culturally disadvantaged adherents.<\/p>\n

This is yet another example of James trying to find relevance outside of the basketball arena with divisive remarks in already deeply divided nation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Project 21 member Adrian Norman<\/a>\u00a0adds:<\/p>\n

James\u2019s comments demean and diminish the plight of actual slaves.<\/p>\n

NFL players aren\u2019t chained and forced against their will to work in horrific conditions with no pay. They choose to try out, after spending years preparing, and when they get to the league their employer pays them a salary<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 on average \u2013 37 times higher than the average U.S. worker.<\/p>\n

For an elite millionaire who spends $1.5 million per year<\/a>\u00a0just taking care of his body to equate a pro athlete\u2019s privileged status to slavery shows just how little James knows about both slavery and reality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"And Project 21 member Richard Holt<\/a> adds:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

LeBron’s comments highlight a classic division between black labor and white wealth. But I think it’s difficult for someone who makes millions of dollars to complain about a 1% of which he’s a part.<\/p>\n

The old divisions between the black laborer and the white business owner from early American times of major class divisions are vastly different than millionaire employees now complaining about their bosses’ decisions that they don’t like.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite National Football League owners not imposing\u00a0a rule to stop players from kneeling on the field in protest while the national anthem is played, professional basketball star LeBron James has still declared the owners to be largely \u201cold white men\u201d with a \u201cslave mentality.\u201d Members…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":31634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,36],"tags":[77],"yoast_head":"\nLeBron Shoots Air Ball with NFL Criticism - The National Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Almasi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Almasi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/#\/schema\/person\/986101645c65e8d001dc8de54beb396d\"},\"headline\":\"LeBron Shoots Air Ball with NFL Criticism\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-12-26T17:12:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-17T21:55:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/\"},\"wordCount\":584,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/LeBron-min.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"ConservativeBlog.org\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Blog\",\"Project 21\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationalcenter.org\/ncppr\/2018\/12\/26\/lebron-shoots-air-ball-with-nfl-criticism\/\",\"name\":\"LeBron Shoots Air Ball with NFL Criticism - 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