I wrote something about LeBron James that
needs further explanation.
I called LeBron James a bigot.
I wrote a column this week headlined
Whitlock: LeBron James is a Bigot
I did that
because of the way LeBron James has reacted
in this moment of civil unrest,
racial tension throughout America
LeBron James has been promoting this racial tension.
why is this proper leadership?
Is this a mature response
to the problems we're having here in
America?
In Kenosha, Wisconsin this week
as all of you all know, the police shot
Jacob Blake seven times in the back
as he resisted arrest
and tried to get into his car.
We don't have enough facts
about this case for anybody to be
rendering some kind of strong
over-the-top opinion about who's right or who's wrong.
There's time to figure that out.
But LeBron James
and the way our system is set up now, and the way
social media has put these athletes
and other celebrities on a pedestal
and given them an outsized voice in the media space.
LeBron James has more than 40 million
Twitter followers
probably got another 30, 40 million
followers on Instagram.
He has a bigger platform right now to speak
to America than any individual person in the media.
A basketball player.
A six foot nine basketball player
who did not attend college.
A six foot nine prodigy, athletic prodigy
who wasn't required, as most athletic
prodigies are not, and probably and shouldn't be
wasn't required to probably study all that hard in high
school, and I say that
again everybody knows one of my dear
friends is Jeff George
who was an athletic prodigy on the same
level as LeBron James as a football player that
Jeff was a hell of a basketball player
hell of a baseball player, could have
been a third baseman in first round draft
pick in baseball, probably could have been a shooting
guard in the NBA
certainly was the number one overall pick.
Jeff George and I grew up together.
A prodigy.
Again, the academic requirements for a prodigy
are not the same
for non-athletic prodigies.
Even for me, who was just a good athlete
the academic requirements weren't the same for me
but somehow we've taken an athletic
prodigy like LeBron James
put him on a pedestal
as if he's some kind of social and cultural
and political leader
and no one's supposed to question him
when he does things and behaviors that are the exact
same as the white bigots
that he says he's fighting against.
And so I went into detail about his response
to what happened in Kenosha.
With less than 24 hours
after the shooting of Jacob Blake
LeBron James tweeted out, uh
his initial report, and I guess he's down in the
the bubble in Florida
also operating a police review board while
also participating in basketball games.
But he put out a tweet, "and y'all wonder..."
"why we say what we say about the police..."
"someone please tell me what the hell..."
"what the f is this?"
"Exactly another black man being targeted..."
"This shit is so wrong and so sad..."
"feel so sorry for him his family and..."
"our people, we want justice."
I just- this kind of, this is what we say this is why we say
what we say about police
based on an anecdote or a series of anecdotes.
This is a dangerous precedent being set
by LeBron James.
As a black man, what I fought
my entire life and what the generations before me
fought their entire lives
don't take an anecdote
or even a series of anecdotes and apply them
to all black people.
Don't take OJ Simpson and say, "this says something..."
"about all black people."
So why would I stand here in silence as
LeBron James takes an anecdote in Wisconsin
an anecdote in Minneapolis
an anecdote with Trayvon Martin.
This series of anecdotes over the last seven, eight years
and say, "oh, this explains it all about policemen..."
"and we're targeted..."
"and we're being hunted."
Because the police kill about 1,300 people a year.
300 black people a year.
And somehow this is a sweeping
indictment of the police.
Most of those killings are justified
but we don't want anybody
when the rampant violence in black communities
all over America in black poor communities
all over America.
We don't want anybody making generalizations about us
about what goes on in Chicago on a daily basis.
This- what LeBron James and athletes are doing
is not well thought out.
Period.
End of discussion.
And I'm sorry if that offends some people
but I don't have to sit here and pretend
like LeBron James, who can't even say the word subdue
the dude said "say do."
"They need to find a way to say do and detain..."
"Jacob Blake"
I don't have to sit here and pretend like
this dude's a rocket scientist.
I don't- he's not a road scholar.
He's not a political thought leader.
He's not a social thought leader.
He's ignorant and he's speaking out of ignorance.
Way too often.
Let the facts come in.
At some point Monday night after playing
the Portland Trailblazers, he holds another postgame
press conference.
And, and wants to comment about the police
and the deal in Kenosha.
"I know people get tired of hearing me say it..."
"but we are scared as black people..."
"in America. Black men, black women, black kids..."
"we are terrified."
Are you kidding me?
Are you kidding me?
LeBron James now speaks for all black people
and we're all scared and terrified of the police.
Are you kidding me?
What black community has LeBron James
lived in where black people are living
in terror of the police?
Stop it.
That's a blatant lie and he knows it.
Stop it.
We know the violence that is ravaging black communities and
it ain't the police.
It's a lie.
It's a political game
that he's playing.
Stop it.
And then instilling this fear, this irrational fear
of police will provoke people to behave improperly
when engaging with the police.
But LeBron James continued.
"You're sitting here telling me that there was..."
"no way to say do..."
he meant subdue
"that gentleman or detain him..."
"or just before firing guns, then you're..."
"sitting here lying to not only me..."
"but you're lying to every African-American..."
"every black person in the community."
This- he's playing basketball but somehow
he's investigating the police
and reviewing their behavior.
He's not even aware that there's an additional video
beyond the little 20 second video that went viral
that shows the police
with Jacob Blake before they shoot.
On the other side of the car
wrestling with him on the ground.
He fights them off, gets up and walks to the
other side.
They did try to wrestle him.
Kyle Kuzma complained that they didn't taser him.
They did try to taser him.
The athletes are uninformed and they're talking about
controversial and emotional issues
that are leading to civil unrest
all over America.
People are getting shot and killed
in Kenosha, Wisconsin as this civil unrest plays out.
Shot and killed.
Injured.
Businesses destroyed.
Creating more poverty in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Poverty kills.
It's more deadly than COVID-19 and all this other stuff
the media preaches about and wants you to
be in fear of at all times.
Poverty.
And they're creating more of it in
Kenosha, Wisconsin.
They're sentencing more people to death
and destruction and misery in Kenosha, Wisconsin
with this civil unrest.
LeBron James, Doc Rivers, none of these
athletes will talk about that.
They're way out over their skis
and as it relates to LeBron James, I'm sorry
he's behaving in a bigoted fact
in a bigoted fashion.
That's just facts.
James continued and speculated about the
mindset of the police
in Wisconsin or in Kenosha, Wisconsin
and said, "You have no idea how that cop that day..."
"left the house. You don't know if he woke up on the..."
"wrong side of the bed. You don't know if..."
"he had an argument at home with his significant other..."
"You don't know if one of his kids..."
"said something to him..."
"and he left the house steaming..."
"or maybe he just left the house saying that..."
"today is going to be the end for one of..."
"these black people."
"That's what it feels like."
"That's what it feels like. It just hurts..."
"It hurts."
This is just not a very intelligent statement.
If you under any understand anything about
the mindset of police
they're not as stupid as LeBron James suggests they are.
Killing someone
as a cop, complicates and potentially destroys your life.
That's not their goal.
They don't roll up out of bed
I'm gonna kill somebody today!
It's gonna be easy and I'm just gonna go back
and things will be, no, you think
Darren Wilson's life is normal?
You think it's not complicated and
hasn't been destroyed by his engagement, interaction
with Michael Brown and Ferguson?
What the police want to do
is take people to jail.
That's their job, that's their goal
that's their revenge.
Let's say you're a racist cop with bad intentions.
Your goal isn't to put your own life at risk
by killing someone.
Your goal is, I'm gonna take this black person
a person I don't like, latino person brown per-
to take them to jail.
And let the criminal justice system have at them.
That. The criminal justice system
is the systemic abuse, unfairness
racism, exploitation.
Prison is hell on earth.
That's what cops want to do.
The good ones and the bad ones.
Take people to jail see them punished.
Let them deal with that.
Complicate their lives? Put their lives at risk?
Put their families at risk to kill Jacob Blake?
A guy wanted for sexual assault?
A guy that has a criminal record and has
been charged with domestic violence
pulling a weapon
and threatening people at a bar?
It's really worth risking your life over that?
That is not the goal.
I'm just sorry.
These athletes are uninformed.
They're out over their skis
They not qualified to trying to lead some movement
and they're acting like bigots.
They're generalizing about white people
the way we don't want to be generalized about.
There are people dying in Kenosha
and LeBron James with his 40 some odd million
Twitter followers and 40 some odd million
Instagram followers
is inspiring the unrest that is damaging the lives
of innocent Americans.
It's inappropriate.
It's wrong.
It's irresponsible.
It makes me wonder, whose side is he on?
Who is he trying to benefit?
This is- the hostility that we're turning up
against the police and generalizing about them
has real consequences
for the black people that live in those communities
where the police are afraid to police.
The black on black murder rate escalates in those cities.
There will be more black deaths
because of the behaviors
we're seeing, and the hostility being stirred
by professional athletes.
Stop it. Play your role, man.
I'm talking to all the athletes.
I'm talking to Doc Rivers and all of them.
Michael Malone, the coach of the Denver Nuggets.
The Detroit Lions skipped practice yesterday
over Jacob Blake.
The Detroit Lions
where 250-300 black men get murdered every year
in Detroit.
Most of those murders go unsolved.
Go unsolved.
No perpetrators get convicted for those crimes.
The same complaint we have about Breonna Taylor
and, oh my god, they didn't charge the police
or they got off.
All of that goes on in Detroit
and most of these major cities.
The clearance rate on these murders is not very high
because...
and everybody sits, hops out their cell phone
oh, police are engaging with somebody
let me pop out my cell phone and record this action.
But let a gangster disciple, a crip, a blood
come through the neighborhood shooting folks
and see if anybody whips out their phone to try to record
it and put it on social media and tell on those guys.
Doesn't happen.
People don't get convicted, generally
when a three, four-year-old child is innocently
slaughtered by a stray bullet.
It's-
We gotta quit worshipping the athletes.
They're not worthy of worship.
None of us are. I'm not worthy of worship.
None of us down here on earth are.
There's one person worthy of worship.
Put him on a pedestal, or call him her, whatever.
The most high, whatever you believe in.
Put that on the pedestal.
LeBron James
and these delusional, pampered, spoiled
irresponsible athletes?
Clap when they dunk.
Clap when they score a touchdown.
Get their autographs.
Go to their parties, all of that, hang out with them
but don't worship them.
Don't mistake them as some sort of
social justice leaders.
They're not even willing to do the minimal research
to get any type of information to even
know what the hell they're talking about
or to know what they should be fighting.
We shouldn't be fighting $60,000 a year policeman.
They're not the problem.
The creators, the architects
of the criminal justice system
and the prison industrial complex
the politicians that LeBron James is fighting so
desperately for you to elect?
They're the actual problem.
They created the system.
But LeBron James is spending millions of dollars
to make sure you register to vote.
Get out and vote!
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, they gonna save us!
They put together the crime bills
they locked up people all over California.
They gonna save us!
Kamala and Joe!
They gon' save us!
Get the f*** out of here.
Alright, I'm done
