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LeBron James wants the tough questions – and not just about Kyrie Irving.
After the Lakers’ 128-109 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday (all times AEDT), James asked reporters why he hadn’t been asked about the recently-circulated photo of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, which shows him looking over a group of white students trying to block six black students from entering a high school in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
“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.
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“But when the Kyrie (Irving) thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.
“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. 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.
“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.”
After the Nets announced the suspension of Irving, who circulated an anti-Semitic film on his Twitter account, James was asked why he believed few NBA players commented on the situation.
“Me personally, I don’t condone any hate to any kind. To any race. To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities. You guys know where I stand,” James said at the time.
“I believe what Kyrie did caused some harm to a lot of people. And he has since, over the last, I think it was today, or yesterday, he apologised. But he caused some harm, and I think it’s unfortunate.”
James wanted questions about the photo of Jones, which surfaced in a November 2 story by the Washington Post examining Jones’ track record of hiring black coaches.
When asked about the photo, Jones said he was observing the situation.
“I didn’t know at the time the monumental event really that was going on,” Jones said. “I’m sure glad that we’re a long way from that. I am. That would remind me (to) just continue to do everything we can to not have those kinds of things happen.”
In October, James, who grew up a Cowboys fan despite being from Akron, Ohio, explained why he stopped rooting for Dallas.
“I had to sit out on the Cowboys, man,” James said. “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 organisation 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.”
When many players began to kneel for the national anthem in 2017 in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, Jones said he would not tolerate the disrespect of the flag shown by the players.
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