LeBron James wants the tough questions – and never nearly Kyrie Irving.
After the Lakers’ 128-109 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night, James asked reporters why he hadn’t been asked concerning the recently-circulated photo of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, which shows him looking over a bunch of white students attempting to block six black students from entering a highschool in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957.
“I got one query for you guys before you guys leave. I used to be considering once I was on my way over here, I used to be wondering why I haven’t gotten a matter from you guys concerning the Jerry Jones photo,” James said. “But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was occurring, you guys were quick to ask us questions on that.”
After the Nets announced the suspension of Irving, who circulated an anti-Semitic film on his Twitter account, James was asked why he believed few NBA players commented on the situation.
“Me personally, I don’t condone any hate to any kind. To any race. To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities. You guys know where I stand,” James said on the time. “I think what Kyrie did caused some harm to a number of people. And he has since, during the last, I believe it was today, or yesterday, he apologized. But he caused some harm, and I believe it’s unlucky.”
James wanted questions on the photo of Jones, which surfaced in a Nov. 23 story by the Washington Post examining Jones’ track record of hiring black coaches.
When asked concerning the photo, Jones said he was observing the situation.
“I didn’t know on the time the monumental event really that was occurring,” Jones said. “I’m sure glad that we’re a great distance from that. I’m. That will remind me [to] just proceed to do the whole lot we will to not have those sorts of things occur.”
In October, James, who grew up a Cowboys fan despite being from Akron, Ohio, explained why he stopped rooting for Dallas.
“I had to take a seat out on the Cowboys, man,” James said. “There’s just a number of things that were occurring when guys were kneeling. Guys were having freedom of speech and wanting to do it in a really peaceful manner. The organization was like, ‘When you do this around here, then you definately won’t ever play for this franchise again.’ I just didn’t think that was appropriate.”
When many players began to kneel for the national anthem in 2017 in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, Jones said he wouldn’t tolerate the disrespect of the flag shown by the players.
