Name: How LeBron James and his NBA generation grew their voices, influenced the next ones
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How LeBron James and his NBA generation grew their voices, influenced the next ones

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By | | LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Eight years removed from a defining moment in his career, LeBron James still remembers the weight of it well.Sitting in a Detroit ballroom in March of 2012, James and his then-teammates on the Miami Heat reflected on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old who was killed upstate in Florida. The Heat were his favorite team.The men in that room thought about their sons, several of whom would be teenagers in just a few years. — the same article of clothing Martin was wearing — and James tweeted the photo with the caption: #WeWantJustice.“We knew that it was going to be uncomfortable to a lot of people,” James said this week. “But we didn’t care, because we understood how much it hit home for us and a lot of our guys having sons of their own. We could imagine if our kid was to leave home and not return.”It was a turning point for James — and the NBA.Sports and social activism have long gone hand-in-hand: Often in America’s history, the field or the court has been a more level playing field for Black Americans than in civil rights, housing, justice and government — providing platforms for voices such as Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell and Jim Brown.But in the 2012 NBA, it was ground-breaking for the game’s biggest star to make such an outward statement about a news event that sparked controversy and cries for change.“It was a timeless moment,” said Udonis Haslem, now 40 and the last player from that photo still on the Heat’s roster. “I think that moment and that picture will last forever. And I think it’s just as relevant now as it was then.”There is rarely a clean line of delineation when it comes to social movements, but many players past and present involved in the NBA’s current high tide toward social justice causes identify that picture as a powerful first step toward what they’re living now.When James sent that picture in a tweet all those years ago, he would have had a hard time imagining how he would evolve. And it would have been impossible to predict how the NBA would morph around him to become one of the most vocal leagues advocating social change in the country with“It started with guys like LeBron, and now that legacy continues,” said Malcolm Brogdon, one of the most influential younger voices in the league who was a teenager in 2012, closer in age to Trayvon Martin than to James. “That was a pretty significant and pretty powerful thing.”In another ballroom some 1,100 miles from Detroit and eight years after appearing in the picture, Haslem wore a hoodie again — casually, not intentionally — as he explained his latest off-court project to Southern California News Group.Even in the NBA bubble, Haslem has been a partner with the , a group led by activist Desmond Meade (named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World) which seeks to return voting rights to an estimated 1.5 million Floridians with felony convictions. The FRRC has worked with the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic in the past, butThat right was officially returned by a state amendment approved by a majority of Florida voters in 2018, but barriers remain: , which can be steep for a person trying to get by on the kind of job one can get with a felony conviction. MTAV has helped the FRRC collect a reported $25 million to help pay off these fees, which the FRRC is doing a part of a county-by-county bus tour.It’s a niche issue by athlete activism standards, one which Haslem acknowledges he probably would not have tackled eight years ago. But that’s where growth gets you.“It’s really weird when you get to 40 years old and realize a lot of things you’ve been taught, or a lot of things you believed your whole life, weren’t necessarily true,” he said. “We’re still around for the cause and doing things that need to be done.”The striking thing about looking at the key figures in that 2012 picture — and also from when James, Wade, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony took the stage for a call to action at the 2016 ESPYs — is how much more sophisticated and developed their strategies have become.Outside his education reform initiatives and his school in Akron, , which attempts to restore voting rights at the local level. Paul was key to the development of the NBA’s Foundation () and the Social Justice Coalition after the stoppage,Anthony and Wade also teamed up with Paul in July to create the Social Change Fund, which has some goals that overlap with MTAV. The trio wanted to bring James in as a founding member, Anthony told SCNG, but James had already begun his own off-court pursuits.“It was like, ‘OK, you’ve got that lane, and we’ve figured this out, and we’ll come together when we come together,’” he said. “But it’s all for the right reasons. We all want change, some way, somehow.”What stands out the most is the networks that these established stars have created: Paul said he has consulted Van Jones or rapper Killer Mike on political issues, and he helped organize Zoom calls during the bubble with Michelle Obama to talk about the importance of voting. James likewise consulted several people in the hours following the stoppage in August, including reportedly former president Barack Obama. In MTAV, he counts NBA players (Damian Lillard, Trae Young) as well as athletes across several different leagues (Odell Beckam Jr., Patrick Mahomes) and even entertainers (Kevin Hart).This expansive, if somewhat corporate-friendly approach has generated real results, from the FRRC’s fund to the recruitment of more than 20,000 poll workers, to pushing NBA owners to open arenas as voting sites. James has critics for how much he’s leaned into political and advocacy work, but he’s well past tentative steps on that front.“Everyone is not going to agree with your words,” he said. “Everyone is not going to agree with your passion. Everyone is not going to always agree with why you’re doing it, things of that nature. If you’re true to it and it hits home and it hits the heart, then it shouldn’t matter.”While Brogdon counts these players as inspiration — and being in the NBA has given him a louder voice — he likely would be vocal about social change no matter which career he chose.Brogdon’s family is steeped in reform for Black people: His grandfather, John Hurst Adams, . His mother, Jann Adams, is a professor at Morehouse College, a historically Black institution in Atlanta. His very namesake is Malcolm X.When George Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis and he saw protests in his native Atlanta, Brogdon could think of nothing more important than to drive down and join their ranks. At one point during the protest, he was filmed speaking into a megaphone, urging for nonviolent protest.“My intention was never to be a face, or never to stand in the front,” he told SCNG. “But it’s in my blood to be a part of things like this, to be a part of a movement to help my community and my people.”The youngest voices of change in the NBA are some of the most compelling. Boston’s Jaylen Brown, another Atlanta native who has grown close to Brogdon over the past few months, spoke chillingly after the shooting of Jacob Blake — saying his jersey . Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell spoke out many times about the Breonna Taylor case, once wearing a bulletproof vest to a gameA common thread through this younger generation is education: Brogdon attended the University of Virginia and earned his master’s degree; Brown went to Cal-Berkeley, and is a lover of intellectual pursuits including chess; MitchellThe Heat’s hoodie picture struck him hard as a teenager, particularly because Mitchell felt the pressure of changing his appearance — specifically not wearing hooded sweatshirts — to make the people in his largely white school feel more at ease. That symbol of protest also showed Mitchell how athletes faced backlash for making statements that seemed outwardly genuine and straightforward.“And it’s really opening your eyes, my eyes everybody’s eyes to really seeing what people’s true mindsets are,” he said.While many of the younger generation’s messages about social justice echo older ones — that Black lives matter; that police brutality is wrong; that voting is important — they’ve been made in edgier and sometimes more hands-on ways. James, for example, decided not to physically join the protests in Los Angeles — “I wish I was out there as well” — during the pandemic even as he organized behind closed doors. For Brogdon and Brown, marching in Atlanta was a key piece of what motivated them.There also seemed to be a difference of opinion at a key moment in the season: When the stoppage happened, James was among those who voiced that he was willing to walk out on the season. Many in the ballroom meeting felt that abandoning the platform of the NBA bubble would turn down the volume on their social justice messages. Eventually, James came to see that side of it,It’s unclear how much James personally gets involved with some of the NBA’s profound younger voices. But the ties between generations are there: Mitchell said he speaks frequently with Wade (Wade declined to comment for this story through a representative); Brogdon, who serves on the NBPA executive committee, is close with Paul and Miami’s Andre Iguodala.Some of those older figures were undoubtedly important in convincing the NBA player ranks to register to vote: After just 20 percent of players reportedly voted in the last presidential election, the NBPA recently reported that 90 percent of its players are now registered to vote, with 15 teams at 100 percent.With his own team, Paul told SCNG, he tries to keep in the ears of young Thunder players.“I’m constantly talking to them about it, just about how at their age, it may not seem like it affects them, but it’s real,” he said. “The earlier you can get educated on these things and understand what it is, then you don’t try to wait around to make a difference.”One of the biggest reasons James hasn’t kept his usual postseason social media silence is to stump for social justice causes, including MTAV. His belief that the November election is a critical one has swayed him to be more vocal than ever before during the playoffs (which also are spilling into fall). While in the bubble, he’s voiced discouragement &nbsp;about . He’s often seemed anguished by this dual role, which has grown far beyond what he probably first imagined when he started down that path: “I got half of my brain locked in on the playoffs and the other half locked in on how I can help Black people become greater in America,” he said back in August.But through eight years, James and those who helped create a more widespread push for social change through the NBA have endured and grown. Patience and commitment itself might be the most important piece.Citing the work of John Lewis, C.T. Vivian, King and his own grandfather, Brogdon pointed out that being discouraged by individual events is “irrelevant.” It’s not a moment, he said, it’s about a series of moments — a steady approach over time.“They continued to fight, continued to push, and it’s gotten us extremely far,” he said. “And we’re not close to ending racism. We’re not close to being treated equal in this country, but we’re getting there, and we’re going to continue to make progress. Losing hope and being discouraged isn’t the way to go. You have to continue to move forward and be encouraged.”We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. 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By | | LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Eight years removed from a defining moment in his career, LeBron James still remembers the weight of it well.Sitting in a Detroit ballroom in March of 2012, James and his then-teammates on the Miami Heat reflected on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black 17-year-old who was killed upstate in Florida. The Heat were his favorite team.The men in that room thought about their sons, several of whom would be teenagers in just a few years. — the same article of clothing Martin was wearing — and James tweeted the photo with the caption:...

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Kyle Goon

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How LeBron James and his NBA generation grew their voices, influenced the next ones

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