LeBron James: Is he cool playing until the racial injustice is addressed?

The same last words of George Floyd was uttered by Eric Garner back in 2014

Would you believe that there were some concerns about NBA players wearing “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirts during pregame warm-ups? Would you believe that some complaints and “backseat driving” were based on trivial things?

• The players need to have a clearer agenda.
• They shouldn’t break NBA rules on the dress code.

Never mind that the shirts were a direct reference to the final words Eric Garner uttered before he died in a chokehold applied by arresting police officers (The officers did not face indictment on federal charges based on a decision was made by Attorney General William Barr). Soon players such as Derrick Rose, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant started showing their support.

Back then Kobe Bryant called the disparity between the significance of black lives and the power of the police has reached “a tipping point”.

"“It’s become a thing where people standing up for their rights, they’re really questioning the justice system, they’re questioning the process of the legal system and those who have authority and whether or not they’re abusing authority, and what’s the threshold to use that force, and so forth and so on. “But that’s what our nation was founded on. We have the ability to question these things, and in a peaceful fashion. And that’s what makes us a great country.”"

Listen to how Kobe Bryant describes the potential power of African American athletes throughout history, the responsibility to keep pushing for change and LeBron’s mindset.

Most will think that if the players took the option of sitting out and sacrificing high salaries will be going too far. Well, those people have no clue how the NBA’s Players Union was started in the first place.