LeBron James said a lot in that "Uninterrupted" video, with Kevin Durant and Cari Champion, to make people angry, vengeful, bitter and emotional in every conceivable way — about the state of the country, about his own role in impacting it and, of course, about the job the president is doing.
What he never said was who was allowed to talk about it, and who should shut up about it. The response, from a Fox News host, was to tell him to shut up about it.
Because that’s what athletes and other celebrities are told all the time. And even with that, only certain athletes and celebrities.
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They’re not the only people who get routinely get told that they’d better remember their place, that they’d better stay in their lane and that they’d better stick to whatever role they occupy while making their living. Never stray from it into conversations where they don’t "belong." In this host's words, "shut up and dribble."
It’s a tried-and-true, terribly unoriginal tactic by certain segments of the population to silence dissent, to restrict real debate, to homogenize thoughts, opinions and policies and to erase entire undesirable populations.
James belongs to one of those populations, as does Durant, and throughout the excerpts of that interview, they talk about starting their lives one way and taking it in an entirely different direction. Specifically, it took them to this weekend's NBA All-Star events, which puts him in the crosshairs of commentators who eagerly exploit people like them for their own purposes.
Laura Ingraham says #LeBronJames should "shut up and dribble" and leave political comments to people who didn't leave high school a year early. pic.twitter.com/vwInOpZJZq
— Thomas Bishop (@bishopk0s) February 16, 2018
That's likely just one of many motivations for the likes of that Fox News host, her employers, their supporters and the people they support. Their success and profitability depend on keeping the likes of James and Durant right where they started — and, just as important, to make sure everyone like them stays quiet and invisible.
At least while they’re not serving their prescribed purpose in life, to entertain. What the two world-class athletes didn’t do in the back of that car on camera was entertain the way they are required to entertain.
Stick to sports. Stick to being silent. And stick to being, in so many words, dumb and sweaty.
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Understand, of course, that James doesn’t have to provide credentials to be allowed to speak about the state of the nation and the job performance of the president. The fact that so many people felt compelled to defend his intelligence, accomplishments or qualifications is as demeaning as it gets (and proved that the Fox News host's strategy worked).
He doesn’t have to show his resume, or his college diploma, or his high school diploma. (Speaking of that, do not ever forget that host told a bald-faced lie about him by saying he left "high school a year early to join the NBA." And never forget she didn't apologize for it in her follow-up statement.)
It advanced her argument greatly to tell the world that LeBron, that guy who had the nerve to disparage the president, was a high-school dropout who lucked out and got rich anyway and ought to be grateful he’s not being forced to go back and do a Billy Madison before he can even show his face in public again. She apparently won’t ever face consequences for slandering him in front of a national prime-time cable audience on a network that has the term "news" in its name.
But for her intended audience, claiming LeBron didn’t even get through high school gained her a lot of cache.
Nevertheless, even if he had never started high school in the first place — or, for that matter, had ever become renowned for basketball — there’s nothing she nor her network could do to stop him from trashing anyone in the seat of government any time he wanted to.
But he is a sports superstar, and he referenced the power that position had for him and others as he was growing up and now (the same way, he pointed out, that being president did).
You hold those positions, he said, and you can be inspirational and influential. He had a platform because of it. It’s no less a platform than the Fox host, who as far as anyone knows does not have to show her diplomas or resume before her show starts every night to be allowed to speak on hers.
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Her platform does not cancel his. She used hers to try to cancel his anyway. In her mind, hers counts, and his doesn’t.
If any of this sounds familiar, it’s because "stick to sports" has become the go-to phrase for those who don’t like certain athletes functioning outside of the box the public shoehorned them into. They’re resisting the athletes’ resistance.
When in doubt, tell them they’re out of their lanes. Or that they’re not carrying the proper credentials, random, arbitrary and irrelevant as that concept it. "Show your papers," this host is essentially saying to James. Yes, that should send a chill through you. Just from a sports perspective, this is what was demanded of Colin Kaepernick two seasons ago, too.
James never told anyone to shut up, about the life he lived but they didn’t, the family he’s raising but they’re not and the opinions on this country that he holds but they don’t.
For doing that on his platform, someone got on her platform and told him he doesn’t deserve his.
As if a platform was hers to give. He’s got it, whether she likes that or not.
