Lebron James is today’s Mohammed Ali. It’s time to put that respect on his name.
I will not fall into the trap that today’s athletes are the greatest ever; advances in technologies, nutrition, and training must be held in account. Nor am I simply speaking about Mr. James and Mr. Ali as athletes. To me, and millions of other admirers, these two great men transcend sport, as well as ethnicity and nationality.
But we might as well start with sport. Both were the best of their generations, and arguably, the G.O.A.T.s of their respective sports.
Cases in point:
Muhammed Ali took boxing to a level few thought was possible (after all, boxing’s popularity in mid-20th century America far exceeded that of football, hockey, and basketball). Ali (as Cassius Clay) broke onto the scene in Miami and “introduced to boxing and to sports in general the marriage between mass and velocity”, writes David Remnick. An Olympic gold medalist in 1960, a heavyweight champion 14 times over, Muhammed Ali was so much more than a just a poet on his feet and in elocution. He was a god.
Lebron James, dominant in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for nearly two decades, is closing in on Michael Jordan’s six titles. The strongest and the smartest person at any given time on the court, never has someone with such physical and intellectual prowess put on the NBA uniform. It has been the perfect storm for witnessing the sublime.
More consequential than their sporting mastery is James and Ali’s social activism. James is the only sporting figure today that can approach Ali’s stature in this respect (more than the praiseworthy Colin Kaepernick). Both put their reputations, not to mention their financial livelihoods, on the line for what they believed was right. Ali, in 1967, was sentenced to five years of jail time and a three-year ban from boxing for his objections over his draft into the Vietnam War. As thousands of African-Americans were sent to the front-lines in Southeast Asia, Ali famously said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong.” Back then, you simply didn’t say ‘no’ to Uncle Sam. It was beyond unpatriotic; it was dangerous!
Lebron James lent his weight (joining Black Lives Matter and others) to the response over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Jacob Blake by organizing his fellow NBA players to consider completely shutting down the 2020 season as the playoffs got underway. Keep in mind the NBA generates nearly $9 billion of revenue annually, so this decision would come with serious ramifications. With some counsel from former President Barack Obama, heads and hearts came together to restore the season.
Prof. Ibram X. Kendi speaks to the difference between a demonstration (mobilizing people temporarily to publicize a problem) and a protest (organizing people for a prolonged campaign that forces racist power to change a policy). James and Ali were protesters in the truest and best sense of the word. While the campaign for equality is not yet done, James and Ali catalyzed the movement, lurching it forward like nobody else could have done.
Most consequential, beyond the basketball court and the boxing ring, and beyond the crusades they put their legacies behind, James and Ali infused integrity into their domains of influence, a priceless commodity. The New Oxford English Dictionary defines integrity as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” Sports provide entertainment to the masses. Protests catalyze change, big or small. But it is integrity that has the lasting power. Integrity provides strength. Integrity generates courage. Integrity allows the underdog to take a stand against what is wrong, and set off a seismic shift in society. We can turn no farther than to Lebron James and Mohammed Ali as Hall of Famers in the annals of integrity.
Lebron James is today’s Mohammed Ali. It’s time to put that respect on his name. He won’t hear of it, of course. (Would you expect anything else? No, so leave it up to us to anoint.) While an examination of sporting prowess and social activism, and a measure of integrity, suitably warrant this acclaim, one can argue that today’s athletes have a greater opportunity to influence the world, but since there is so much more to lose (contracts, endorsements, brand), most shy away from anything that will rock the boat. James has not demurred from the controversy. In fact, he has chosen strategically when to seize the bully pulpit.
Lebron James was certainly not the first to speak to and even protest against societal racism, but he has had more sway over the establishment than anyone since Ali, and he has adeptly used the social media tools at his disposal. In doing so, James has skillfully engineered the focus away from himself as an individual (thus easy to dismiss) and instead put the attention squarely onto the issues at hand (thus harder to ignore).
The influence of Lebron James and his activist peers (Megan Rapinoe, Breanna Stewart, and Naomi Osaka, who protest at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality), would not be possible without Mohammed Ali (and neither would Ali be possible without Jim Brown, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Jack Johnson). Today’s athlete-activists stand on the shoulders of giants. But it is a new age, with new possibilities and even greater heights to achieve.
Thank you, Mr. James, for taking Mr. Ali’s mantle.
