Muhammad Ali dies at age 74 leaving behind a legacy that will be unmatched. Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James reacted to the passing of The Greatest.
Muhammad Ali passed away late Friday night after he was hospitalized for a respiratory illness on Thursday. He battled the illness that was connected to his Parkinson’s disease he has battled since 1984.
Ali was a three-time heavyweight champion whose legacy extends well beyond the ring. One of those people who felt the impact of Ali was Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James who spoke with ESPN about the passing of the boxing and cultural icon.
"“When I was a kid, I was amazed by what Ali did in the ring,” LeBron told ESPN.com. “As I got older and started to read about him and watch things about him, I started to realize what he did in the ring was secondary to what he meant outside of the ring — just his influence, what he stood for.”“The reason why he’s the GOAT is not because of what he did in the ring, which was unbelievable,” James said, referring to the acronym commonly attached to Ali, which stands for “greatest of all time.”“It’s what he did outside of the ring, what he believed in, what he stood for, along with Jim Brown and Oscar Robertson, Lew Alcindor — obviously, who became Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] — Bill Russell, Jackie Robinson. Those guys stood for something. He’s part of the reason why African-Americans today can do what we do in the sports world. We’re free. They allow us to have access to anything we want. It’s because of what they stood for, and Muhammad Ali was definitely the pioneer for that.”"
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