LeBron James Is Teaching Athletes That It's Cool To Care

By wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is teaching athletes that it is cool to care about social issues outside of sports.

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This week, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Derrick Rose decried the ruling not to indict the New York police officer who killed Eric Garner, further inflaming the nationwide fury over a decision millions have deemed unjust. Simply by stepping onto a basketball court in black shirts that read “I Can’t Breathe,” they brought more attention to police mistreatment of black people than all the think pieces published since Michael Brown died in Ferguson.

They showed the power of celebrity and proved that even their small actions can generate headlines in major publications. When three of the four most-recent MVP-award winners speak out on a topic this divisive, it makes the news.

All of the largest newspapers in the country covered it.

Most of these nationally — and internationally — circulated publications included photos of the stars wearing the “I Can’t Breath” shirts. Many of the editors assigned follow-up pieces that ran on subsequent days, and small papers from Maine to Oregon picked up the story, too. Newspapers aren’t what they once were, but they spent a whole week running stories about black men wearing black t-shirts.

Thats is power.

Only Barack Obama and a handful of other people in the United States could draw such attention — and that list doesn’t most movie stars or Congress members. Athletes, when they reach the stratosphere of Kobe and LeBron, can move the masses. When the issue is seen as a black cause — and these two players may be the second- and third-most-recognizable black men in America — that power multiplies.

Naturally, those who believe the justice system failed Garner have cheered LeBron, Kobe, and Rose’s actions. Those who don’t see injustice wish the athletes would just play basketball. There is no unraveling the cause from the actions of the players here. Given how important it is to have equal rights under the law, there is no reason to try.

What everyone should agree about, however, is that it is commendable for visible people to use their platform to stand for something.

People like Kobe and LeBron can either use their fleeting time in the spotlight to try to make a difference or they can be ballplayers. There is nothing wrong with going to work everyday and only doing your job as an athlete, but having no visible interests outside of sports will define you. There is a reason Muhammad Ali is The Greatest — with a capital G — and Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player.

MJ, despite his willingness to be a walking billboard for corporations, stayed out of the limelight on real-life issues. He surely has given money and time to causes, but his cynical stance to speaking out in public — famously saying he wouldn’t support a democratic campaign because “republicans buy sneakers, too” — meant that any cause he did support never got the weight of his celebrity.

For all the articles that compare today’s stars to Jordan’s playing ability, LeBron, Kobe, and Rose aren’t following in his footsteps in this respect. And more than the specific message about judicial or racial injustice these shirts represent, that’s what LeBron, Kobe, and Rose are changing. They are showing young people and other athletes that apathy is not a virtue.

It’s fitting that Dikembe Mutombo was courtside — sitting with literal royalty — watching King James play basketball in Brooklyn the night he wore his “I Can’t Breathe” shirt. Arguably, no NBA player has ever given more than Mutombo.

Starting in the mid-1990s, he started work to build a hospital in his native Congo. It took a decade, countless connections, endless fundraising, and tens of millions of dollars of his own money. But he finally finished the project, and since it opened in 2006 it has helped more than 30,000 people — many of which wouldn’t have received proper medical treatment otherwise. Mutombo has saved lives.

In comparison, what LeBron and Kobe have done is a small act. But their effect — especially if they continue to stand up for causes — could eventually prove just as large. Its doubtful that LeBron or Kobe will themselves do anything as noble as Mutombo, but their willingness to speak out can change how the millions who look up to them see the world.

Maybe there is a high school phenom out who saw his hero take the court in an “I Can’t Breathe” t-shirt. Maybe that kid will start to pay attention to social issues. Maybe that kid will grow up to save lives.

Maybe their can be a whole generation of pro athletes who stand up for things and see that as more important than chasing rings.

LeBron James Is Teaching Athletes That It’s Cool To Care

By Jared Wade | Dec 12, 2014

By wearing an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James is teaching athletes that it is cool to care about social issues outside of sports.

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