Sterling Brown and George Hill of the Milwaukee Bucks read a statement to the media about the team’s August 26 walkout over the shooting of Jacob Blake. Photo: Jesse D.
Emblematic of this seismic shift and the idea of athletes embracing political activism is the rise of More Than A Vote, the voter-rights organization started by LeBron James.
Then George Floyd was killed. His horrifying death on May 25 at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, soon watched by millions on their cellphones, catalyzed a historic movement in the U.S. whose effects will likely reverberate for generations. It also gave More Than A Vote — and LeBron James, its leader and public figurehead — a clear and direct purpose.
Suddenly, LeBron — who had hardly been a political wallflower: he had campaigned for Hillary Clinton, had worked with Newsom to push the Fair Pay to Play Act , had famously called Trump a “bum” and been told to “shut up and dribble” by Laura Ingraham — had his movement. Demissie began immediately deploying the athletes. Former quarterback Michael Vick, who served 21 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to felony charges over running a dog-fighting ring, made a series of videos chronicling his journey to restore his voting rights as a way to show others how to do so. Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty fought a battle to make Busch Stadium an early voting site. Lillard and Beckham starred in an animated video about making a voting game-plan.
It is an open question how much crossing of the politics-and-sports-streams the average sports fan will have the stomach for in the years to come. While arguments that sports ratings have fallen because of increased political activism have mostly come from right-wing activists of the “shut up and dribble” vein, it does seem likely that, if the world starts to return closer to “normal” in the months to come, there will be a desire among many fans to return to sports escapism.
morethanavote williamfleitch KingJames Would support more professional sports if there was more of this.
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