Was LeBron James’ Criticism Of Celtics Fans Warranted?

As you know by now, LeBron James is my favorite basketball player ever and my second favorite athlete of all time behind only Barry  Bonds.

James is the greatest basketball player ever. It’s not only his greatness on the court, but his charitable work off the court that impresses me. James has put nine figures into education and healthcare within his community of Northeast Ohio.

James is also ready, willing, and able to speak up on social issues. Something that the man he is most often compared to, Michael Jordan, never did.

But, I will criticize “The King” when necessary. And that time has come. James recently said on his show, “The Shop”, that Boston Celtics fans are racist.

Boston has had a well-earned reputation of being a racist city. Many athletes of color have said as much. And I do believe that was the case for decades. But times can and do change.

James has been coming to Boston for two decades and has never uttered those feelings before. If he had faced racist comments in the past, I’m sure we would have heard about them from James.

What has transpired is people not understanding what the words racist or racism mean. Instead, conflating fans yelling out or wearing “F.U. LeBron” or “F.U. Draymond” shirts as racist. Those chants and garb are certainly tasteless and classless, but not racist.

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Why did James pick now, three months before entering his 20th year in the league, to utter these comments?

Perhaps it was the setting of his show “The Shop”, where ideas, takes, and language is free-flowing. Or, perhaps it was a way to sidle up to Kyrie Irving. It’s no secret that James and the Lakers want to acquire Irving from the Brooklyn Nets to reunite James and Irving, five years after their three-year run together in Cleveland ended unceremoniously.

Irving, who played in Boston for two seasons, said last year, as a member of the Brooklyn Nets, that Boston is a racist city. James, who is smart and calculating, may have looked at this as an opportunity to extend an olive branch to Irving to facilitate the potential trade of his former teammate to the Lakers.

To throw around the word racist in the wrong context dilutes what the word truly means.

LeBron is better than that.

John Sapochetti is co-host of the Pick & Roll NBA Podcast with JET & SAP, which is heard here on Full Press Coverage.

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@JohnSap25