He does. But people shouldn't criticise LeBron for only speaking on one issue when James doesn't speak on ANY issues. It's not all or nothing.
If you look around, many critics are Lebron haters or doubters anyway. They will find some other dirt on him at another time. He isn't safe.
I think people who feel sports should remain sports and not political have a right to criticize Lebron.
They aren't your toys, they are adult human beings who have ownership and dictate their own behaviour. They don't exist simply to please you. Tilman Fertita owns the Rockets, he is a donor to the President. Politics is inseperable from sport when you have billionaire owners.
Precisely why Westbrook and others didn't dare to attack him on that matter. Trump is so rich that he can fund himself, they just do not let him.
I love James Harden and would highly value hearing his opinion on basketball, strip clubs, cars, beard care, some types of clothing/footwear, and maybe some restaurants and travel destinations. But James Harden's opinion on politics? Respectfully to James, no one cares. Frankly, it's off-putting to be lectured by celebrities on political matters. Their opinion is no better than the rest of ours, and most of the time, it's actually less informed. Nothing about being great at basketball leads me to believe that a basketball player has unique insight on political topics. It's also James Harden's choice - and his choice alone - whether he wants to speak on political matters. Shaming or pressuring him to do so is awful.
I don't believe I ever pressured him or shamed him, as I said I have no right to judge him at all and I dont. But, many people actually do care what James Harden thinks. That's why he has 6.8m followers on Twitter. And while you may fancy yourself as more informed than he is, I am going to bet you don't have a fraction of that. Let's look at LeBron James's last tweet "We demand change. I'm sick of it'. Just the 250k retweets and 1m likes. Yeah, you're speaking for yourself when you say 'no-one cares'. If nobody cared, Nike wouldn't have made an advertising campaign around Colin Kaepernick.
Sorry but coming from a culture where charity is mandatorily kept private, you are sounding so extremely presumptuous. It's the most common thing to not advertise your good deeds. For most of 7bn people, that's a common thing. As far as supporting the cause, he says that he does. Moreover, maybe he has problems with the Black Lives Matter strategy but not their goal. Things are more complex than this. Some players don't even believe in this stuff and will act like they do. Others do believe in this stuff and act like they don't. This happens out of fear, paranoia and desperation. Read about what happened around MLK when he said change must be forced. They said it's not that bad, better than it's been, no need to over-react, it's going to cost money, economy will suffer, where's your plan, bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. This all comes out of a handbook guys. The oppressors have read it thoroughly. Stop creating division in the cavalry. That is the trademark of their oppressors. Sit, stand, kneel, shut up, shout, whatever, doesn't matter, inconsistent, no immediate plan, etc. These are all excuses and it's not a coincidence these narratives are born out of media entities that belong to friends of your team owner. They are all one and the distance between the current situation and the average desired situation is so vast that these nitpicky criticisms are irrelevant in comparison.
But they aren't all one. Some are rich and most are going from paycheck to paycheck. A superstar can afford to lose 35% of his next years' salaries and go through a cba lockdown. A roleplayer cannot. A 10 day contract and a g-leaguer definitely cannot. A player on a 2round pick contract cannot. Race, and beliefs may be the same but their pockets and their class isn't. Some are billionaires almost as rich as the poorest owners and some are middle class.
Every human's class is the same, thank you very much. I think you mean middle income. I don't want to get into terms like middle class, this is oppressor dictionary. It indicates the person is of the calibre to potentially enter that class through the perspective of a person who already is wealthy. This definition has no working use to the public except to know how those people see them - as chess pieces. They agree on one single thing only: things need to improve by multiples in poor, black neighborhoods and they want to do it by ordering - not negotiating - structural changes in those institutions. Everyone who didn't go to their job to support MLK could have gotten fired btw and dealt with a lifetime of financial problems and catastrophe. Probably some are still dealing with it. Many activists of that time are still in jail. Many still can't get a job. Those NBA players can go flip burgers for now. They can borrow money. Then can endure hardship. They can split the bills with someone. Whatever. OBVIOUSLY those in power will not give in to demands without murdering some humans first, threatening some careers, cutting off their daddy's money. That is standard in history. If Americans are not prepared for this, then they don't actually want this change. They just wish it would fall into their laps. I don't believe that's how Americans are. I think Americans can endure some pain to get rid of 10 times more pain in the future. They will do it.
I would love if the best came to Europe where there isn't that much bullshit coming through with politics, and rule changes. Come here and play real ball stress free
Ah yeah, stress free while playing through monkey noises and getting coins thrown at them for being black.
