Lebron James is one of the most socially conscious athletes in the world. Whether it's starting his "More Than a Vote" campaign to fight back against voter suppression, speaking out against gun violence or even opening the "I Promise" school in Akron, Ohio, James has never been shy about using his fame to help those less fortunate than himself.
Recently, Milan's striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, during a long interview (which you can find here) spoke about Lebron James and said the following:
"I like him a lot. What Lebron does is phenomenal, but I don’t like it when people with some kind of ‘status’ talk about politics. Do what you are good at. Do what you do. I play football because I’m the best at it. I don’t do politics. If I had been a politician, I would have been in politics. This is the first mistake famous people make when they feel like they have made it. For me, it is better to stay away from these topics, and do what you are good at. Otherwise, you risk not making a good impression.”
Now, Lebron James responded with the following words as he did not appreciate what Zlatan said:
"At the end of the day, I would never shut up about things that are wrong. I preach about my people and I preach about inequality, social injustice, racism, systematic voter suppression, things that go on in our community because I was part of my community at one point and seeing things that are going on. I know what's going on still because I have a group of 300-plus kids at my school that are going through the same thing and they need a voice."
"I'm their voice. I use my platform to continue to shed light on everything that may be going on not only in my community but around this country and around the world. There's no way I would ever just stick to sports because I understand this platform and how powerful my voice is. You can just ask Renee Montgomery if I would've shut up and just dribbled, seeing that beautiful black woman today be a part of a group where she's part of an ownership group with the Atlanta Dream down in Atlanta."
He went on to call out Ibrahimovic's comments that he has made about racism in the past. He said the following in a post-game interview:
"It's funny he said that, because I believe in 2018 he was the same guy who said when he was bad in Sweden, he was talking about the same things, because his last name wasn't a certain last name, he felt like there was racism going on when he was out on the pitch."
He concluded by suggesting that he isn't the person to attack on these matters. "I speak from a very educated mind. So I'm kind of the wrong guy to go at because I do my homework."
