I disagreed with LeBron James being selected as the flag bearer for the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics for reasons that bothered me beyond James’ history of kneeling during the national anthem in support of George Floyd and other hardened criminals who lost their lives resisting arrest.
It bothered me because I knew it was inevitable that someone would end up comparing James to Muhammad Ali, who famously lit the Olympic torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
Off the court, James is a total fraud. That could never be more evident.
Sure enough, my old friend Dan Le Batard rose to the occasion and made a ridiculous comparison: On his popular podcast, the former ESPN and Miami Herald journalist called James “a modern-day Muhammad Ali.”
This is more of a sad statement about “today” than it is a praise of James. King James is no Muhammad Ali. Let me explain after a little background.
Ten years ago, as editor in chief of ESPN’s The Undefeated, I planned to explore LeBron James’ pursuit of a legend comparable to Muhammad Ali.
I speculated that after LeBron’s four years and two championships in Miami, James and Nike had shifted their goals. They were no longer positioning James as the heir to the Air Jordan throne. To sell sneakers at the level of Michael Jordan, LeBron needed a new historical narrative.
He pivoted to Muhammad Ali, who was considered “the greatest” despite losing five times inside the boxing ring, but whose courage and presence outside the ring made his losses to Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Leon Spinks, Larry Holmes and Trevor Berbick meaningless.
If LeBron can bolster his image as an activist, it could erase the stench of his failure to leave Cleveland in 2010 and his subsequent disastrous loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2011 NBA Finals. James’ “decision” to take his talents to South Beach was highly publicized and televised, but his disgraceful performance against Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks seriously damaged James’ brand. It became impossible for the Chosen One to compete with Jordan as a competitor, performer, or sneaker salesman.
Instead of accepting his plight, James and Nike chose to take on an even bigger mountain: Muhammad Ali.
The shift began in 2011, when James and Nike began planning to build the I Promise School in Akron for underprivileged kids from unstable home environments. James’ foundation provided a small amount of funding for the school, but James received most of the credit for founding it.
In early 2012, James and Nike announced the second phase of LeBron’s rebranding. James had been active as an activist, leading his Miami Heat teammates in wearing hoodies in support of Trayvon Martin, the black Florida teenager who was shot and killed after slamming George Zimmerman’s head into the ground.
By 2017, James had gone full-on social justice warrior. He claimed that vandals had spray-painted the N-word on the back gate of his $20 million mansion in Brentwood, California. He offered no evidence; his servants had removed the graffiti before police investigated and James returned to California to see it for himself. James used the alleged incident to compare himself to the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955.
James’ servants erased what appeared to be graffiti within hours. Emmett Till’s mother lost her teenage son. I have a hard time understanding the analogy.
It’s equally hard to believe that in 2024, anyone will think that LeBron James is a modern-day Muhammad Ali.
Not true: Off the court, James is a total cheater. Never has that been more obvious.
James is a great basketball player. One of the top five or six players of all time. I rank him below Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. I never saw Bill Russell play, but I wouldn’t deny the possibility that he was better than James.
In terms of his importance as an athlete and off the field, James isn’t in the same world as Ali, Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, Bill Bradley, Jack Kemp or Joe Louis.
James is the polar opposite of Ali. As an activist, James never faced resistance. He was never forced to defend his straightforward political views to journalistic opponents. Ali engaged and confronted opponents on college campuses, in television interviews, and even in his relationship with Howard Cosell.
James is fending off the resistance: He and Klutch Sports represent and fund the media figures who defend James at every turn.
Ali was associated with the religious sect “Nation of Islam” and was counseled by Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad. James has no apparent religious beliefs or affiliations. He is counseled by a group of agents and handlers.
Ali competed in a sport that was the ultimate test of manliness. James popularized flopping in a sport that was stripped of manliness. Ali risked imprisonment for refusing military service because of his religious beliefs. James risked nothing.
James was a fake brand, a man following the orders of a global clothing company. Ali was the real deal, a man who believed his actions could truly inspire and empower black America.
When Ali lit the Olympic flame in Atlanta in 1996, it symbolized the end of Ali’s feud with America: a negotiated peace settlement between the adversaries.
LeBron James carrying the flag for the US team at this year’s Olympics symbolized that traitors rule in a country ruled by traitors.
