LeBron James on Friday offered a scathing take on NFL team owners on the latest episode of his HBO show The Shop, saying the league is run by “old white men” with a “slave mentality.”
James was chatting with his business partner Maverick Carter, Los Angeles Rams star Todd Gurley and actor/rapper Ice Cube about NFL player protests over social injustice.
Gurley said it was a “touchy subject,” but James criticized NFL owners for wanting to “control” players.
He went on to praise NBA commissioner Adam Silver for his support of players who use their platform to speak out on social issues.
“In the NFL, they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality,” James said. “And it’s like: ‘This is my team. You do what the fuck I tell y’all to do or we get rid of y’all.’”
Silver, in contrast, “doesn’t mind us having ... a real feeling and be able to express that,” James said. “It doesn’t even matter if Adam agrees with what we are saying, he at least wants to hear us out. And as long as we are doing it in a very educational, non-violent way, then he’s absolutely OK with it.”
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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