The media was in the spotlight this Wednesday after LeBron James called them out for not asking him about the controversial Jerry Jones photo that recently went viral.
After graciously answering questions about his impressive all-around performance against the Portland Trail Blazers (31 points, eight assists, and seven rebounds), the NBA star turned things around on the reporters with a question of his own.
Why, LeBron wanted to know, no one had questioned him about a recently surfaced photograph showing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, as a teenager, peering over a crowd of white students who were trying to block six Black students from entering the doors of North Little Rock High School in 1957?
“I got one question for you guys before you guys leave. I was thinking when I was on my way over here, I was wondering why I haven’t gotten a question from you guys about the Jerry Jones photo,” LeBron asked.
“But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.”
Earlier last month, after the Brooklyn Nets announced a suspension for Kyrie Irving (LeBron’s former teammate) after he shared a link to a documentary featuring antisemitic tropes on social media, LeBron was asked why he thought very few players around the league commented on Kyrie’s post and subsequent comments.
“Me personally, I don’t condone any hate of any kind. To any race. To Jewish communities, to Black communities, to Asian communities. You guys know where I stand,” James answered at the time.
“I believe what Kyrie did cause some harm to a lot of people. And he has since, over the last — I think it was today or yesterday — he apologized. But he caused some harm, and I think it’s unfortunate.”
Jerry Jones came under fire after The Washington Post published a story examining his track record of failing to hire Black coaches while owning the Dallas Cowboys.
The Washington Post included, within the article, a black and white photo depicting a young Jerry witnessing the harassment of Black students a few meters away from him. This event is said to have occurred a few weeks before the Little Rock Nine integrated Little Rock Central High School less than five miles away in what turned out to be a significant moment of the civil rights movement.
When questioned about the 65-year-old photograph, Jerry Jones said he was “curious” about the situation and didn’t know that he or anyone anticipated or had a background of knowing…what was involved.
“I didn’t know at the time the monumental event really that was going on,” Jones said.
“I’m sure glad that we’re a long way from that. I am. That would remind me [to] just continue to do everything we can to not have those kinds of things happen.”
Wow, so Cowboys owner Jerry Jones was one of the bullies trying to stop his Black classmates from desegregating Central High in Little Rock in 1957. https://t.co/IZm9DuTUhM pic.twitter.com/G4o7H2G9qp
— Joshua Clark Davis (@JoshClarkDavis) November 23, 2022
Addressing reporters during his postgame interview Wednesday, LeBron James said:
“When I watch Kyrie talk, and he says, ‘I know who I am, but I want to keep the same energy when we’re talking about my people and the things that we’ve been through,’ and that Jerry Jones photo is one of those moments that our people, Black people, have been through in America.”
“And I feel like as a Black man, as a Black athlete, as someone with power and a platform, when we do something wrong, or something that people don’t agree with, it’s on every single tabloid, every single news coverage, it’s on the bottom ticker. It’s asked about every single day,” LeBron continued.
“But it seems like to me that the whole Jerry Jones situation, photo — and I know it was years and years ago, and we all make mistakes, I get it — but it seems like it’s just been buried under, like, ‘Oh, it happened. OK, we just move on.’ And I was just kind of disappointed that I haven’t received that question from you guys.”
For the longest time, LeBron identified as a Cowboys fan but said in October he had stopped rooting for the Cowboys because of the team’s stance on kneeling during the national anthem.
“I had to sit out on the Cowboys, man,” LeBron said when asked if he was still a Cowboys fan.
“There was just a lot of things that was going on during when guys were kneeling, and guys were having freedom of speech,” he continued.
“They wanted to do it in a very peaceful manner. A lot of people in their front office and a lot of people that ran the organization was like, ‘If you do that around here, then you will never play for this franchise again.’ And I just didn’t think that was appropriate.”
In 2017, Jerry Jones, when most NFL players started kneeling during the national anthem in solidarity for the then San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest against police brutality, said he wouldn’t “tolerate” any of his players “disrespecting the flag.”
