The Old School Lunch

[For a guy who has the word “Chosen 1″ tattooed across his back…]

An American, an American athlete refuses to acknowledge genocide in a foreign nation…refuses to lend his name in bringing awareness to said genocide…refuses to do so largely because he’s concerned how much he’ll get in trouble from the folks who sponsor him who have a great deal of business in a nation linked to the genocide? Is anyone surprised?

I am not one who believes that we should be more sympathetic to celebrities and athletes when it comes to what they do or don’t do for charitable causes, political issues and such. I think people are still a little scarred by the Michael Jordan “because Republicans buy Nikes too” incident and the consequent privilege backlash of “well, why does HE have to say everything, why don’t you ask Larry Bird/John Stockton?” and as such, we’re a little hesitant to really call out the big names, particularly the young players like Lebron, Tiger, Dwayne, Pujols and Jeter.

But even if you’re so self-absorbed that you don’t know that genocides still happen today, you gotta realize that your popularity “on the court/field” does not end there. It’s part of the deal with teams, with sponsors that you are who are you when you’re doing your daily business and talking (or not talking) about your politics in the real world. When you pull a Lebron and don’t put your name behind shunning China for their involvement in Darfur, you are in essence saying “well, i’m just here to play ball. I don’t think about other stuff (but wait, I have to talk to Nike first to see if it’s OK with them that I sign this)” which is an ironic supplement to that ridiculous and offensive team USA basketball salute that the national team (I think Lebron came up with the idea) has been doing recently (instead of sitting there on the podium, they literally do the army/navy/whatever salute) which I know is supposed to be proud of the troops but in reality smacks of “we’re proud of what our troops are doing/our foreign policy.”

The point is, we give too much slack for (and consequently talk down to) someone like Lebron with comments like these:

1) LeBron James is a basketball player, not a policy-maker. He’s 22 years old, still a kid. 2) Signing a piece of paper that says “I will not be a witness” saves how many lives?

So…since he doesn’t work in Congress he has absolutely no role to play in changing things? I’d say that when you’ve surpassed Michael Jordan on the national name/brand recognized rankings for advertisements, you can do just a little bit of word-spreading.

So…he’s 22, “still a kid” which means he’s unable to think about world issues and the implications his contracts have with Nike and the implications Nike’s role in China has with China’s “uhh, we’re really neutral!” role in Darfur? That’s too much for the old noggin? Detroit’s defense is too much to handle right now, you say? I’d hardly say this guy is a kid, either. People can say “oh come on, remember he didn’t even go to college” but that’s a pretty big slight to folks who didn’t go to college and perhaps didn’t graduate high school but still know and care about Darfur. You don’t need the full 4 years at the local state school to know about this. And lastly, this is a man with a child and another on the way. If he’s a kid, then i’d look into some foster parents because kids can’t tell if the formula’s too hot.

So…signing a paper is worthless? Well, that’s just stupid because it doesn’t consider how big of a name Lebron is. Ira Newble, god bless him, isn’t a big name in the real world. Damon Jones, thankfully, is hardly a household fixture. Lebron James, on the other hand, is the biggest name in the whole GD sport, a sport which is quickly becoming more international than baseball, the NHL, golf and the NFL and you’re telling me that his name is going to be worthless? It’s worthless on an autograph for some kid at the Staples Center, it’s not worthless on what the rest of his team signed.

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But i’m not going to sit here and bash the poor “soon to be richest athlete in the world” “kid” without saying that despite being another athlete/celeb caught up in the athlete/celeb game of “I just play ball. Don’t bother me.” he can use this incident and do enormous good here. He has that voice, especially in the playoffs, to bring attention to it, to admit his lack of awareness and to tell the skeptics about it. How big of a message would it be if Lebron stood up right in the middle of the Eastern conference finals and devote a large part of his media interviews to Darfur? Can you imagine how much attention he could bring if he said that from now on, instead of reading to kids, teaching kids to play ball in some completely athlete oriented charitable, safe, cop-out sort of way…that this was his issue? If he was the chosen one, at least in the NBA world for that issue, that’d be huge.