MTo start a career as an American politician, an needs two things above all: a high profile and a lot of money. Certainly also helpful: a good dose of narcissism and endless energy for months of election campaigns. So it’s not just reality TV characters like Donald Trump who come to the levers of power. The catapult can also promote lateral entrants from professional sport to politics. The most notable example: Bill Bradley, a gifted basketball player who left the New York Knicks and the NBA behind at the age of 34 and immediately became a senator in Washington. In 2000, he ran for president in the Democratic Party primary.
LeBron James, America’s most successful ball artist at the moment, seems like an ideal successor because he has been more concerned than any other American athlete since Bradley with the social upheavals he was confronted with from childhood. So intense that the Reuters news agency portrayed him, the 16-time all-star, as a “potent political force” while he set out on the quarantine island of Walt Disney World to win his fourth championship with his third NBA club win.
James most recently won the final series against the Miami Heat with the Los Angeles Lakers and was once again named the most valuable player of the event. Previously, he had put pressure on the league behind the scenes with other NBA players of dark skin. His goal: open solidarity for all those who fight for social justice, including the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
The development into a political activist who reached an audience of more than 73 million people on the Instagram Internet platform came about gradually. As a father of two sons and a daughter, for example, he dealt with the educational deficits of poor children in his hometown of Akron. The reaction: with the help of his own foundation, he made several million dollars available for a primary school, which used the money for intensive support measures.
The establishment took notice. After James repeatedly denounced the police brutality against African Americans (“I know from experience what racial discrimination is. What is going on here is not okay. We fear for our lives”), signaled Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, an adviser to the President, interested in a dialogue. James ignored the advances. He has other plans to help ensure that the current government is voted out.
His most recent initiative is directed against discrimination against ethnic minorities. In regions with a large proportion of African Americans, for example, it is difficult to vote. There are extremely long queues in front of the polling stations, which are absent in mostly white areas. So in June James set up a website that helps voters register and participate in everyday democratic life. He says: “Change doesn’t come about if you just stand on the sidelines and watch.”
The commitment of the exceptional athlete, whose private fortune is estimated at just under a billion dollars, compels even political opponents to respect. In contrast to other celebrities, the basketball player has credibility. And he is disciplined. However, there are also sports fans, especially in the right-wing camp, who hold him and his political stance partly responsible for the fact that the NBA posted lower ratings after returning from the Corona break. The criticism, however, is nowhere: The entire American sport has recorded a massive minus. Even the most apolitical athletes of all have fewer spectators than ever: the horses on the country’s great horse racing tracks.
.
