LeBron James and the Frankness of the NBA
When Laura Ingraham of Fox News recommended that LeBron James and Kevin Durant “shut up and dribble” earlier this month, she conjured the standard, insidious argument that athletes should stick to sports. Her remark came in response to an interview with ESPN’s Cari Champion, in which the two basketball stars discussed social inequality and the country’s political divisions. In it, James said of Trump, “The No. 1 job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn’t understand the people, and really don’t give a fuck about the people.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ingraham’s remarks—in which she also called James’s argument barely intelligible and ungrammatical—became the main topic of conversation at the NBA’s All-Star weekend in Los Angeles.“I will definitely not do that,” James , replying to the Fox News host’s suggestion in front of a throng of media that Ingraham’s comments were, in his eyes, “racist.” (In response, Ingraham to her longtime use of the “shut up and”critique and said there was “no racial intent in my remarks.”)
