LeBron James Caught in Difficult Balancing Act in Addressing Social Issues
It was a night of princely pomp, due to the presence of the royal couple, and solemn circumstance, with NBA players showing support for a Staten Island man killed by police.
And then, on an already eventful Monday evening—wearing an "I Can't Breathe" shirt in honor of the late Eric Garner, helping the Cleveland Cavaliers rout the Brooklyn Nets and gifting the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with cupcakes and jerseys—the NBA's ultimate multitasker smiled as he shared some momentous news with the still-loitering media.
"I won my first-round fantasy playoff game!" LeBron James announced, adding how he had the fine fortune of benefiting from the finest game of journeyman receiver Charles Johnson's short NFL career, though he still needed to check on what the opposing quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, was up to.
Just in case we needed a reminder, James, for all his celebrity resources and cultural influence, is in many ways just like you, me or the average American or world citizen.
The man sometimes needs a break from reality, too.
He has less free time than most of us, with fans, teammates, coaches, reporters, marketers, philanthropists, friends and family members pulling him in every imaginable direction, and splits the little time he does have between a variety of interests and concerns, some of much greater international import than others.
Of late, as he nears his 30th birthday, he has devoted more of those few spare minutes to pondering the weightier matters of our day. Further, he has more frequently stepped out of the shadows where other sportsmen such as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and even the otherwise-opinionated Kobe Bryant have sought shelter, wading into the minefield by making it much clearer where he stands.
He has been diverse in his activities, organizing (along with Dwyane Wade) the Miami Heat's hoodie photo in honor of Trayvon Martin, taking the strongest initial stand among prominent players against Donald Sterling's continuing Los Angeles Clippers ownership and even serving as a television pitchman for President Barack Obama's polarizing health care program. He has done so while exceedingly aware that the press and public are prepared to pounce on the slightest misstep in his manner of expression, and many observers, no matter the presentation, won't see his side or even his right to choose one.
Yes, he has earned some praise from peers and predecessors for his increasing expressions of social conscience, with Magic Johnson, at Friday's "Giants of Africa" celebration of Nelson Mandela in Toronto, asserting that athletes "have to get involved socially, because it affects them, too, and it affects their families" and crediting James for being "a great example" and "if he's out in front, being the best player, then the other players usually follow the best guy."
That need not mean, however, that James should be expected to serve as the immediate and definitive voice of gravitas on every complex, controversial issue that arises in our political and sociological spheres. That shouldn't be his burden to bear, nor will it serve our collective discourse especially well—with the fallout becoming a distraction—if we demand that he weigh in on everything, whether or not he has delved into it deeply.
And yet, you get the sense that's where this is going, even as he's repeatedly reminded reporters that he intends to be selective about which issues he addresses. He made that clear during a lengthy, thoughtful preseason interview with CNN's Rachel Nichols, in which he spoke, among other things, about what he teaches his kids in the wake of the NFL's domestic abuse incidents. And he has explained his approach, over and over, to media scrums since. He had to do so several times during the Cavaliers' recent Northeast swing through Manhattan, Toronto and Brooklyn, while the unrest in America's cities, including New York and Cleveland, was dominating the news, due to African-Americans losing their lives in confrontations with police.
Following last Thursday's morning shootaround at Madison Square Garden, he was asked whether it's an athlete's place to speak out.
"It doesn't matter if you're an athlete or not," James said. "If you feel passionate about it, or it hits home for you, then you have the right to speak upon it. That's why we have freedom of speech. For me, I've never shied away from something that I feel for, for families that I feel for. That's just who I am. But I don't think we should add pressure to anybody, first of all, that doesn't have enough knowledge about it, who is not educated upon it, to speak about something they just don't know about it. If you feel passionate about it, you speak upon it. If not, don't worry about it."
Then, after the win in Brooklyn, after he, Kyrie Irving and several Nets wore the "I Can't Breathe" shirts, in reference to Garner's last words while in a chokehold by an officer, James was asked why he feels a responsibility to take certain stands.
"If it feels important to me, then I respond," James said. "If it doesn't, I don't. There [are] a lot of issues that I haven't talked about. For me, it's about knowledge and knowing. It's about the gut feeling, if it hits home for you, if you feel it, then go about it. If not, then don't worry about it."
That's not just lip service, either. Sources close to him say that, prior to making any sort of statement on a hot-button issue, he will request articles and other research from his team of advisers. Only after he reviews those materials will he respond to questions about the topic in any sort of public setting, and in some cases, when he still doesn't feel comfortable, he will deflect, preferring to steer the conversation back to more solid basketball ground.
Some will characterize this as him simply taking special care to craft the right answers to protect his image, but that doesn't fit with some of the stances he's ultimately taken. Again, ObamaCare was unpopular with more than half of the nation when he agreed to cut a commercial to assist in the President's late sign-up push, but he did so anyway, and not just to help a friend.
In that case, he explained to Bleacher Report that his mission was to get others to seek information as he does. "I think a lot of young adults and African-Americans, as well, are afraid because they are not even educated about it," James said at the time. "And hopefully my voice, and hopefully the other people who've done it, can get them more knowledgeable about it."
What about how the program's detractors would react?
"I mean, I can't worry about that," James said. "Especially who I am. I mean, I know that everything that I do is going to be bigger than what it should be or blown out of proportion. But what I believe in and the people that I support is what it's all about. So I can sleep comfortably at night."
The Martin case was controversial, too, with George Zimmerman garnering a good number of supporters. Some fellow NBA stars were not inclined to step into the swirl.
"I won't react to something just because I'm supposed to, just because I'm African-American. That argument doesn't make any sense to me. So we want to advance as a society and as a culture, but, say, if something happens to an African-American, we immediately come to his defense? Yet you want to talk about how far we've progressed as a society? Well, if we've progressed as a society, then you don't jump to somebody's defense just because they're African-American. You sit and listen to the facts just like you would in any other situation, right? So I won't assert myself.
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Those words echo much of what James has been saying in recent weeks. But in the Martin case, Wade and James did feel it was their place. Wade responded to Bryant's comments in a conversation with Bleacher Report: "It was our backyard, and being in our backyard, being something that a lot of guys on this team—not only growing up in the kind of environment that Trayvon was in—but also having young boys. Knowing that he is a big fan of the Miami Heat. That is something that we got behind. As a team. I can't even say the organization. It was as a team. We got behind it. And it was more so that than the color of his skin."
The Sterling situation had an even clearer racial component, but there was less of a cultural split, since most people agreed that his comments were offensive. Still, there were complicated issues of privacy (a taped conversation) and property (ownership of a team) at play, and so James had to know he wouldn't get everyone's head nodding when, after declaring prior to a Heat playoff game in Charlotte that, "if the reports are true," not only was it "unacceptable in our league," but as "as a commissioner of our league, you have to make a stand and you have to be very aggressive with it" because "there's no room for Donald Sterling in our league. There's no room for him."
There's room for everyone in James' fanbase. It runs the range of races, ages, ethnicities and socioeconomic backgrounds. Most of those who can afford to buy his jersey weren't raised in conditions similar to his, when as a child, he felt fortunate to have just enough to eat and some idea of where he'd sleep. They can't all relate to everything that most affects them, and James can't account for their acceptance of whatever he expresses. In a sense, he can't win, at least not as easily as he wins basketball games, where so much more is under his control.
Such is his status that he can't even take a photo with Prince William and Duchess Kate without inadvertently creating an international stir, with an etiquette expert scolding him in the Daily Mail for violating royal protocol:
"Although I am sure the Duchess of Cambridge won't have worried about it, Mr James should not have put his arm around her....A shower would have been preferable but he had just finished a game—so even more reason for him not have opened his pits by lifting his arm and placing it around Her Royal Highness!
"
When it comes to things that actually matter, such as race relations, James is observed with an even more critical eye. If he says or does something strong, he runs the risk of offending some, or much, of his audience. If he doesn't say or do anything at all, some will label him self-absorbed or spineless. Or if he says or does anything after someone else does it—in this case, Derrick Rose wore the "I Can't Breathe" shirt first—he may be called a copycat, just covering his bases.
At times, it will just come down to whether someone is predisposed to like him or not. When James was playing for the Heat, and I posted James' quotes on social issues, I read universal support of him from my Twitter following, most of which is based in South Florida.
When I've done so lately, my mentions have been flooded with rebukes of him. Some shout that he shouldn't inject himself. Others bemoan he's been too tepid in speaking about the incidents in Ferguson (Michael Brown), Cleveland (Tamir Rice) and Staten Island (Garner).
He has certainly been consistent, repeating similar phrasing, that "it's a sensitive subject right now," that "violence is not the answer and retaliation is not the solution," and that "it doesn't matter what race you are" to believe that "as a society we just have to do better." He has stayed completely clear of criticizing law enforcement, insisting that "I'm not pointing the blame at anybody that's making it happen," and that "I'm not going to get too far involved in the logistics of things, because I'm not part of it, but you pray for the families."
That, he said, is primarily what the "I Can't Breathe" gesture was about. It was, in his words, "a shoutout" for the Garner family—and, thus, by extension, the Martin, Brown and Rice families—those most touched by recent high-profile cases. That T-shirt would say more for him than he cared to say 45 minutes prior to warm-ups against Brooklyn on Monday night. He was curt during a brief media session, irritated by the line of questioning, as he was pressed to reveal whether he would wear it ("it's a possibility"), and what will determine whether he would wear it ("um, when y'all stop asking about it").
The media will not stop asking, of course. Not when the next issue comes along, and the next, and the next. Not now, now that he's opened the door, now that he's shown a propensity to occasionally engage. Some will say he's brought this ongoing burden upon himself, not only by the enormity of his profile, but by his recent willingness to lend his voice. But that doesn't mean we need to bring all of our biases to him, and demand that, in every case, he say something to validate them.
If we're counting on one man in sports to solve every problem, even as much time as he's set aside to educate himself about many, then something he recently said about society, relative to race relations, applies to those expectations and demands, too:
"We've come a long way, but it just goes to show how much further we still have to go."
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick
