NBA star Lebron James turned tables on the media when he ended a press conference with a rhetorical statement for the unsuspecting reporters:
“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. When the Kyrie thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.”
A photo of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at a desegregation protest in 1957 made its rounds on Twitter last week, and Lebron’s response questioned why this wasn’t as big of a story as Kyrie Irving’s controversial opinions.
As one reporter began to respond, James interrupted to finish his thought:
“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. 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.”
