LeBron James turned to Barack Obama for advice when deciding how the NBA should respond to racial injustice in America earlier this year.
The Los Angeles Lakers star and the former U.S. President spoke candidly about their phone conversation during the the latest episode of James’s HBO talk show, “The Shop: Uninterrupted”.
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The pair opened up about the call that they shared after the Milwaukee Bucks boycotted the NBA Eastern Conference quarterfinals in response to the shooting of 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake, by police in Kenosha, Wisc.
James said, “We were trying to figure out if we leave or if we stay, what is our plan? What is our call to action? I am lucky enough to have a friend in the 44th president that allowed me and allowed CP [Chris Paul] to get on the phone with him and get guidance.”
Obama then revealed the guidance that he responded with.
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“Protest is useful in terms of raising awareness, but given the power that the NBA players had, my suggestion was that we use that platform to see if you can start asking for some specifics. This isn’t something that’s just a one-off. That’s sadly what we’ve seen, as it happens again and again,” Obama said. “So, one of the suggestions I had for the players was: Is it possible for you guys to set up an office that allows you, on an ongoing basis, to take best practices that are going to start making incidents like [Blake] less likely?”
The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) later formed a social justice coalition, composed of players, coaches and team governors.
The NBA season continued with the Lakers ultimately being being crowned 2020 champions.
Obama added, “As I told them though, it’s not going to be solved overnight. This is something that we got to stay on. We got to keep on moving.”
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