Lebron James wonders why he wasn’t queried on 1957 photo of Dallas Cowboys’ Jerry Jones
NBA Star LeBron James, who recently announced he is no longer a fan of the Dallas Cowboys because of how Jerry Jones treated his players in regards to the protests during the national anthem, chastised the media Wednesday night for not asking him about a photo of Jones appearing to protest desegregation efforts at North Little Rock High school in 1957.
James wanted to know why he had he not been asked about the photograph of a 14-year-old Jones standing in a crowd white students who were attempting to block six Black students from entering the doors of North Little Rock High School, especially considering the same media had asked him about Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving sharing a link to a documentary containing antisemitic views on social media.
“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. “But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.”
James continued: “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.”
The Jones photo resurfaced in The Washington Post on Nov. 23 in a story about Jones never having hired a Black coach and his perceived refusal to impact minority hiring in the NFL the same he does business endeavors.
The issue hit home for James because he grew up a huge Cowboys fan in Akron, Ohio.
But on Instagram Live to promote his podcast “The Shop” partnering with Amazon to provide an alternate telecast for “Thursday Night Football” in October, James let it be known that was no longer a Cowboys fan because of Jones.
In 2017 when many NFL players began kneeling during the national anthem in a peaceful protest against police brutality against people of color, Jones said his players would stand with their toes on the line or they would not play for the Cowboys. Jones said he would not tolerate his players “disrespecting the flag.”Jones did soften his stance in 2020 when asked fans to show his players grace if they chose to kneel.It was too little too late for James.
“I had to sit out on the Cowboys, man,” James said on the Podcast. “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 organization 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.”
This story was originally published December 1, 2022 at 9:13 AM.
