Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones responded to comments made by Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James after the four-time NBA MVP called out the media for not asking him about a photo of Jones looking over a crowd of white students trying to block Black students from going to school at Arkansas’ North Little Rock High in 1957.
James noted that he got questions from the media about Kyrie Irving after Irving was suspended for posting a link to an antisemitic documentary on social media.
Jones, who had said he was just a bystander in the 1957 crowd, was asked about James’ comments Friday on 105.3 The Fan.
“First of all, you have to hear me say how much I think of LeBron,” Jones told the radio station. “I don’t know of anybody that I respect more, I don’t know of anybody that’s taken every opportunity he’s had and maximized it. Not only (has he been) a great ambassador for sport, he has taken sports, he has taken his venues, and used those platforms – I want to be sure that you know where I’m coming from. It made buttons pop off my vest, so to speak, when he would talk about how much of a Cowboy fan he was.”
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James, who was a lifelong Cowboys fan, recently said he no longer supports the team after the way it handled players around the NFL kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality in the United States.
But Jones continued his praise of James despite that stance.
“He would’ve made a great tight end. That doesn’t change. There’s nothing about any of that that changes,” Jones said.
“Certainly, he has influence, and just because of all of the above. His accomplishments, how he’s utilized his sport and how he’s utilized his platform. How we have done it. He has enhanced basketball, he’s made a lot of people a lot of money. I hope I have too.”
