In recent years, Lebron James has become a man of different interests. Now, there are Lakers rumors that he is looking to get involved in politics on some level – which could even mean he is eyeing the highest office in the land.
Recent Los Angeles Lakers rumors have involved the team on the court. However, there was a recent rumor that involved LeBron James and his off the court ventures.
When Lebron James announced that he was taking his talents to Venice Beach to play for the Los Angeles Lakers in early July, it marked a monumental shift for the NBA and the purple and gold. Immediately, some started to speculate that the move was just as much, if not more about basketball as it was about his newfound off-the-court interests.
In the last few years, the self-proclaimed King has gotten involved in quite a few things outside of basketball. He has made some cameo appearances on the silver screen, which will soon include the much-hyped sequel to the original Space Jam movie in 1996 that featured, among others, Michael Jordan.
Like tons of aspiring actors and writers from Middle America, Lebron has apparently made the move to Hollywood in order to seek out greater opportunities in showbiz.
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He has also become something of a political activist in recent years, speaking out on issues of equal justice, police brutality and other things that affect the African American community. He publically endorsed Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 presidential election. He has even criticized current POTUS Donald Trump for, in his mind, looking to divide our country along racial and partisan lines.
Now that LeBron, at age 33 going on 34, is nearing the twilight of his NBA career, some are wondering what he’ll do in his next life. In fact, a former NBA player is now speculating that LeBron will look to take his talents to the White House.
Rashad McCants, a star on North Carolina’s NCAA championship team in 2005 who had a moderately successful four year NBA career afterward, told Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on the Scoop B Radio podcast that the three-time NBA champ is thinking of running for president.
"LeBron is the President already! He has the same training and temperament that Obama has, they’re best friends. Obama’s training LeBron right now! I mean, why do you think LeBron is going out with all this stuff, he’s running for President! He’s gonna run against Kanye. I mean if I’m LeBron James, I already know that if I beat the Warriors, I can run for President. If he doesn’t beat the Warriors, he’s gotta run and hide for a few years. So this is the pressure he’s under, but I feel that if he can beat the Warriors, he can be President and he won’t have to play basketball ever again. He can just arrest all the Warrior players. I think that’s what he’s going for. He’s going to beat the Warriors and then have them all arrested after he’s President."
Obviously, at least a little bit of this sounds like hyperbole, but there’s no denying that LeBron has the name and brand recognition to do whatever he wants and affect huge change if he wants to once he retires from the NBA.
Kanye West himself first announced at the 2015 MTV Video Music Awards that he wanted to run for president in 2020. That didn’t exactly happen, but in early September he announced that he is seriously thinking of running in the 2024 presidential election. West is infamous for being a loose cannon, but his friend and fellow musician John Legend confirmed that West is serious about this.
West drew ire from some African Americans and progressives for comments he made in support of president Trump, while Lebron James infamously called the real estate mogul a “bum”.
I feel it’s not my place to inject my own political views on the FanSided network, but if all this ever comes to fruition and West and James run against each other, it seems to have the makings of a presidential election cycle that could be every bit as epic and hotly contested as any playoff series Lebron has ever played in.