LeBron James answered questions from reporters on Wednesday night and then pivoted by asking the media a question of his own.
James wanted to know why he wasn\'t asked about a photograph that recently surfaced showing Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, at the age of 14, peering over a crowd of white students who were attempting to block six Black students from entering the doors of North Little Rock High School in 1957?
\"I got one question for you guys before you guys leave. I was thinking when I was on my way over here, I was wondering why I haven\'t gotten a question from you guys about the Jerry Jones photo,\" James said. \"But when the Kyrie [Irving] thing was going on, you guys were quick to ask us questions about that.\"
On Nov. 23, The Washington Post published a story examining Jones\' track record of failing to hire Black coaches during his tenure owning the Cowboys. Included within the story was the black-and-white photo depicting a young Jones observing the harassment of the Black students a couple of yards in front of him.
James said, \"When I watch Kyrie talk and he says, \'I know who I am, but I want to keep the same energy when we\'re talking about my people and the things that we\'ve been through,\' and that Jerry Jones photo is one of those moments that our people, Black people, have been through in America. And I feel like as a Black man, as a Black athlete, as someone with power and a platform, when we do something wrong, or something that people don\'t agree with, it\'s on every single tabloid, every single news coverage, it\'s on the bottom ticker. It\'s asked about every single day.
\"But it seems like to me that the whole Jerry Jones situation, photo -- and I know it was years and years ago and we all make mistakes, I get it -- but it seems like it\'s just been buried under, like, \'Oh, it happened. OK, we just move on.\' And I was just kind of disappointed that I haven\'t received that question from you guys.\"
Jones, when asked about the 65-year-old photograph, told reporters last week that he was merely present as a curious onlooker and did not engage in discrimination against the Black students.
\"I didn\'t know at the time the monumental event really that was going on,\" Jones said. \"I\'m sure glad that we\'re a long way from that. I am. That would remind me [to] just continue to do everything we can to not have those kinds of things happen.\"
