{"id":480590,"date":"2026-02-17T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480590\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T11:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T11:43:10","slug":"why-lebron-james-ignores-genocide-and-stands-with-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480590\/","title":{"rendered":"Why LeBron James Ignores Genocide and Stands With Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activism<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n February 17, 2026<\/p>\n

The basketball great once said he wanted to be like Muhammad Ali. He can\u2019t do that and shrug off Israeli war crimes.<\/p>\n

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Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James speaks at a press conference before the NBA All-Star Game in Inglewood, California, on February 15, 2026.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Twenty-two years ago, I wrote this about a preternaturally mature 19-year-old hoops phenom named LeBron James and his aspirations off the court:<\/p>\n

James has said he has two goals in his life. One is to be \u201ca global icon like Muhammad Ali,\u201d and the other is to be the richest athlete in the history of the world. And while these may be two great goals, they don\u2019t exactly go great together. That\u2019s because people like Muhammad Ali didn\u2019t become global icons because they were rich, but because they were willing to sacrifice everything\u2014including sponsorship deals\u2014to stand up for what they believed in.<\/p>\n

In the last two decades, we have seen how James\u2019s desires have conflicted. During the early days of Black Lives Matter movement, he was outspoken in his support for racial justice. In 2012, he posed with his Miami Heat teammates in hoodies<\/a> to protest the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and after the police killing of Eric Garner in 2014, he wore a T-shirt that said \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d<\/a> during warm-ups alongside Cleveland Cavaliers teammate Kyrie Irving.<\/p>\n

Yet over the last several years, as his fortune has exploded into the 10-figure category, James\u2019s silence has been noticeable. Neither ICE\u2019s killings nor the Trump regime\u2019s relentless racism has moved him to speak forcefully. One perfect encapsulation of this untenable balancing act was in 2022 when he filed a trademark for the phrase \u201cshut up and dribble.\u201d When Fox News\u2019s Laura Ingraham first bleated this at James in 2018,<\/a> his supporters were enraged, and it became a rallying cry against the racism that Black athletes have long faced. Now one of James\u2019s corporations says it will put it on items such as <\/a>\u201cdownloadable virtual goods, namely, computer programs featuring footwear, clothing, headwear, eyewear, bags, sports bags, backpacks, sports equipment, art, toys and accessories for use online and in online virtual worlds.\u201d The phrase will go from protest cry to branding exercise.<\/p>\n

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This week, the effort to balance the spirit of Muhammad Ali with his life as a 41-year-old billionaire tipped away from Ali. Actually, it didn\u2019t just tip. It crashed to the ground. During NBA All-Star weekend, James was asked for his thoughts on Israeli All-Star Deni Avdija of the Portland Trailblazers. He took the opportunity to speak about Israel more broadly<\/a>, saying, \u201cIf I have fans over there, then I hope you\u2019ve been following my career. I hope I inspire people over there to be better in life. Hopefully someday I can make it over there. I\u2019ve heard nothing but great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

James always speaks with great intentionality, and no one should think this was an off-the-cuff comment. It was a statement of support during the second year of a genocide in Gaza alongside the accelerating annexation of the West Bank. Israel has launched a project of ethnic cleansing, and James wanted the world to know that he was unbothered by it. Not only that\u2014he seemed to want to follow in the footsteps of his good friend Draymond Green<\/a> and take a propaganda trip to do public relations for the Israeli state.<\/p>\n

If James\u2019s defenders say that he doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s been happening and we shouldn\u2019t expect more from \u201cjust an athlete,\u201d they are being as ignorant as Ingraham. James knows what\u2019s been going on in Gaza, and it\u2019s ludicrous to think that he\u2019s heard \u201cnothing but great things\u201d about Israel. He certainly hasn\u2019t heard great things from his old Cavaliers running buddy Kyrie Irving, who has not been shy about showing his solidarity with the Palestinian people<\/a>. He hasn\u2019t heard great things from current and former NBA players like former teammate Dwight Howard or Tariq Abdul-Wahad or Etan Thomas and more who have spoken out against genocide and for a free Palestine. Hell, during this past weekend\u2019s All-Star Game<\/a>, Irving wore a PRESS shirt in solidarity with the journalists in Gaza killed by the Israeli army and Spike Lee wore the colors of the Palestinian flag courtside.<\/p>\n

James knows what\u2019s going on. Instead of fulfilling his teenage goal of being a hero to the downtrodden, he has chosen to turn his back on war crimes, permitting his fans to do the same. Perhaps he fears what a backlash will do to that other youthful dream of unfathomable wealth. Or maybe he just doesn\u2019t care.<\/p>\n

In contrast to James, Ali visited Palestinian refugee camps and went to Free Palestine demonstrations in the 1970s and \u201980<\/a>s until he was physically unable to do so. When asked why he would visit a refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, he said he had a responsibility to be there since \u201cthe United States is the stronghold of Zionism and imperialism.\u201d Ali knew this would entail sacrifice, and he did it anyway because he both consciously and instinctively sided with the oppressed. And that\u2019s why you can go to any outdoor market on earth today and find a knockoff Ali T-shirt for sale. That\u2019s why he remains adored.<\/p>\n

James came to a fork in the road and spit on the path laid by Ali before taking the path most traveled. One wonders what 19-year-old LeBron would think about his current self\u2019s making this choice: the choice to reject Ali\u2019s legacy and become just another billionaire stepping over Palestinian bodies to praise the Israeli state.<\/p>\n

Dave Zirin<\/a><\/p>\n

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Dave Zirin is the sports editor at\u00a0The Nation. He is the author of 11 books on the politics of sports. He is also the coproducer and writer of the new documentary Behind the Shield: The Power and Politics of the NFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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