LeBron James 'disappointed' as media asked him about Kyrie Irving but not Jerry Jones' controversial pic
DALLAS, TEXAS: NBA star LeBron James recently asked reporters why they failed to ask him about a controversial photo featuring Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. The Washington Post recently unearthed an image from 1957 in which a teenaged Jones is seen in the crowd while a mob of White boys blocks six Black students from entering Arkansas’ North Little Rock High. It was snapped at a time when schools had started to desegregate in the United States. Jones said that he was an observer during the incident and was unaware of what was going on.
“I got one question for you guys before you guys leave. I was thinking when I was on my way over here, I was wondering why I haven’t gotten a question from you guys about the Jerry Jones photo,” James said to reporters, according to the Guardian, after the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Portland Trail Blazers. “But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.”
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The Brooklyn Nets suspended Irving after he tweeted a link to an antisemitic film and refused to apologize. Irving has since returned after offering an apology. Last month James was questioned why he believed so few NBA players had remarked on Irving’s initial lack of apology. The basketball legend criticized antisemitism when asked about the situation.
LeBron just called out the reporters for not asking him about the Jerry Jones segregation photo and told them to “keep the same energy” they had for Kyrie 😳 pic.twitter.com/a7POasQrRz
— LakeShowYo (@LakeShowYo) December 1, 2022
James appeared to accuse reporters of double standards on Wednesday, November 30. “When I watch Kyrie talk and he says, ‘I know who I am, but I want to keep the same energy when we’re talking about my people and the things that we’ve been through,’ and that Jerry Jones photo is one of those moments that our people, Black people, have been through in America,” said James. “And I feel like as a Black man, as a Black athlete, as someone with power and a platform, when we do something wrong, or something that people don’t agree with, it’s on every single tabloid, every single news coverage, it’s on the bottom ticker. It’s asked about every single day."
He added, "But it seems like to me that the whole Jerry Jones situation, photo – and I know it was years and years ago and we all make mistakes, I get it – but it seems like it’s just been buried under, like, ‘Oh, it happened. OK, we just move on.’ And I was just kind of disappointed that I haven’t received that question from you guys.”
James said he had stopped supporting the Cowboys in October after Jones had sworn to bench any Cowboy who “disrespect[ed]” the flag during the 2017 national anthem protests. Jones later went back on that promise and knelt with players before a Monday Night Football game. “I had to sit out on the Cowboys, man,” James said in October. “There’s just a lot of things that were going on when guys were kneeling. Guys were having freedom of speech and wanting to do it in a very peaceful manner. ... The organization was like, ‘If you do that around here then you will never play for this franchise again.’ I just didn’t think that was appropriate.”
