NBA All-Star Game MVP LeBron James says he will not "shut up and dribble" when it comes to political and social issues. Sunday night in Los Angeles, he said he can't stay silent knowing what NBA and other sports legends experienced decades earlier.
James spoke of a moment he'd had in the just-completed game at Staples Center, telling TNT's "Inside the NBA" panel on NBA TV:
STEELE: LeBron's platform can't be torn down by Ingraham or anyone else
"I was down courtside, we had a timeout and all our guys walked to the bench, and I glanced over and I [saw] Dr. J [Julius Erving], I [saw] Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar], I [saw] Bill Russell and I [saw] Jerry West, and I just thanked them, I thanked them, and the Big O [Oscar Robertson] is not here and I thank him, too."We all know what Kareem and Russell and all those guys went through in a time where whatever they said was like, 'No, you're not allowed to say that; shut up and dribble.' And I can't sit here and allow that to happen because of what they went through.
"It would have been the same as telling Jackie Robinson to shut up and slide into home base, or Jesse Owens to shut up and just go triple jump. I can't do that because of so many people that's looking up to me and it's so many that's going to come after me, so I've got to continue down the path."
James came under criticism last week from Fox News host Laura Ingraham over James' profanity-laced opinion of President Donald Trump. Ingraham used the phrase "Shut up and dribble" — a longstanding play, she said, on the title of her 2003 book "Shut up & Dance" — to tell James he has no clue what he's talking about.
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King James made it clear throughout All-Star Weekend (this SN video is one example) he won't heed Ingraham's call. The faces he saw Sunday helped remind him why.
