LeBron James isn’t the first superstar athlete to take strong stances. Muhammad Ali was one of the most fearless athletes ever, refusing to enter the Vietnam War. Tommie Smith and John Carlos, two Black Americans, raised their fists in protest during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. The WNBA as a league has been brave and active. Even James himself has been brilliantly political.
But what James did on Halloween evening will go down as one of the most remarkable political acts any athlete has ever done.
James has consistently endorsed Democratic presidential candidates going back to Barack Obama’s two presidential runs. James also endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden four years ago, writing then, “We need EVERYTHING to change.’
This time, it’s not just that James endorsed Kamala Harris, as he did on Thursday, it’s how he did it. The video he released accompanying his endorsement was one of the most effective ads of the entire political season.
‘What are we even talking about here??’ James said on X. ‘When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!’
I don’t want to overstate this but I also don’t want to understate it. In the past, extremists on the right have told James to shut up and dribble. He’s declined. He’s shown a special type of bravery we no longer see from athletes of his caliber.
With this move, James shows he has no effs to give, and it’s a beautiful thing. Again, this isn’t unprecedented for an athlete, but it is for one of his historic stature, and it’s the way he endorsed Harris with the video that is stunning.
The video — shared to James’ 159 million Instagram followers and 53 million X followers — begins with clips of comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s racist speech at Madison Square Garden about a Black friend “carving watermelons together.”
The ad also features Trump’s own words demeaning various communities of color and how former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke endorsed Trump.
This ad will be remembered for a long time. Maybe decades.
How effective will it be? Who knows? But it’s the act itself that’s important and says so much about James.
James could do what many athletes have decided in these extremely divided and political times. He could sit all of this out. He could just shut up. He could do his commercials and play ball and do nothing. Many athletes are taking this route and there will be people who will say they don’t want to hear from athletes unless they’re breaking down how they scored on a long touchdown run.
James has decided this type of inaction is gutless. James sticks his neck out and does it over and over. But doing it now means something more significant than ever before. The right has already started to attack him for this endorsement and these are not days of peaceful disagreement. Some are violent and gun obsessed. There is real personal risk to James and his family with this type of move.
James isn’t going to lose his job for this (duh) but this endorsement risks angering fans who disagree with him politically. Again, he doesn’t care.
When you think of all the great activist athletes, James isn’t always mentioned high on the list. That’s going to change. It’s changing in a big way now. It has to.
When Laura Ingraham attacked James, the star player at the time said it motivated him: ‘We will definitely not shut up and dribble. I mean too much to society, too much to the youth, too much to so many kids who feel like they don’t have a way out.’ James hasn’t shut up since.
We have to start talking about James in the same way we do Ali and a handful of others who fight for progress, who fight hate, and fight for democratic ideals. Who fight for America despite its flaws.
James does all of this and then some.
