LOS ANGELES LAKERS star LeBron James made some poignant comments about NFL owners on Friday.
James, 33, blasted owners for their approach in the NFL, saying they were inflexible.
“In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,” James said on his show, The Shop, via the Washington Post.
“And it’s like, ‘This is my team. You do what the f*** I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.’”
James’ show, The Shop, features the four-time MVP alongside other athletes and influential people from across the nation.
Friday’s episode featured James’ friend and business partner Maverick Carter, rapper and actor Ice Cube and Los Angeles Rams running back Todd Gurley.
The Lakers star has started to speak more on social issues in recent years and has been outspoken about injustices he has seen in the United States and in other sports.
He had comments in particular on USA president Donald Trump’s stance against NFL players taking a knee.
The four-time MVP went on to say he appreciates NBA commissioner Adam Silver for how he not only runs the league, but how he interacts with the players.
“I’m so appreciative in our league of our commissioner,” James said.
“He doesn’t mind us having … a real feeling and to be able to express that. It doesn’t even matter if Adam agrees with what we are saying, he at least wants to hear us out.
“As long as we are doing it in a very educational, non-violent way, then he’s absolutely okay with it.”
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Since when are slaves paid millions and millions.
@Derek Durkin: In fairness the vast majority of NFL players aren’t paid that much but simple generalisations like this from Lebron aren’t helpful, things are far more complex.
@Derek Durkin: the mimimum is 1 million for someone that you will never ever see as he will never get a game. Callimg white men that pay them millions is a generalisation
@Paul O Mahony: a lot of NFL players on the big rosters are lucky to make 100 grand a year.
@Derek Durkin: league minimum is about 500k, so I’m not sure where you are getting your information from.
Laughable from Lebron, owners only care about winning, NFL rosters are over three quarters black when black people are 13 percent or the US population.
@Kieran Woods: Think you’re going a long way to proving his point there.
He has a very valid point… Glad he is speaking out on such things. LeBron is fairly bullet proof so he has the ability to add to any discourse without having to pay for it later.
Slave definition is noun: “a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them” & verb:”work excessively hard”.
Are players forced to obey?
@Jonathan Meany: Colin Kaepernick didn’t obey. Mark Sanchez is now deemed more worthy of a starting job than him. That says it all in my book.
@Jonathan Meany: while they are getting paid, the teams exert a lot of control over the players, but they are free to leave at anytime and seek employment elsewhere.
@Ciarán Brennan: Mark Sanchez is not a starter, he is a third stringer who is starting because the 2 ahead of him got injured. Kapearnick is a borderline starter/back up, and owners don’t want the circus or backlash that would surround his signing. If he was a surefire starter it would be a different story.
@William Boland: stupid comment do ur research on how god kappernick was when the prob rob 5qb got injured and he got his chance lead his team first finals in years ,
@William Boland: stupid comment do ur research on how god kappernick was when the prob top 5 qb in league got injured and he got his chance lead his team first finals in years ,
He’s absolutely correct on this. Is Kaepernick was white he would ABSOLUTELY have a new team by now. That’s straight out racism.
Whether the owners pay black athletes millions is irrelevant. They’re business men first and foremost.
@The Irish Pain: NFL teams have resigned black players after domestic violence, illegal gun possession and even murder convictions (Ray Lewis)in the past, the Kaepernick situation is a PR disaster for any team. Fans won’t support a player who won’t stand and face d anthem and flag. To say it’s just racist is a bit of a stretch. They knew he was black when they signed him, there’s more to it than that.
@MarkSul: Ray Lewis was not convicted of murder. He was charged and the charges were dropped. The lead investigator for those murders has said that Lewis should never even have been charged, but local prosecutors sought to make a name for themselves by charging a famous football player.
@Talleyrand Frye: ya fair enough, he went to jail for it but pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Was only using it as an example. My point was he still broke the law and had a career after. Actually won d Super Bowl d following year. If the owners are in fact racist as stated in the comment I replied to then how did Ray Lewis and many other black players who broke the law go so well in d NFL after.