We don’t care too much about professional sports here at Revolver. It’s not that sports are bad. They’re an entertaining diversion and, at their best, can reflect the best of the human spirit. Many famous athletes are great Americans and great role models. But caring too much about sports has also left millions of Americans emotionally hostage to the temper tantrums of childish millionaires.

Still, professional sports provide a useful mirror of American society. And right now, the American sports hero is in sharp decline. Nobody represents that decay better than LeBron James. On Wednesday night, James and the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers voted in favor of ending the NBA season immediately, in the middle of the playoffs, in response to Kenosha police shooting wanted criminal Jacob Blake while he resisted arrest. That might seem a strange reason for a sports labor stoppage, but not to James. When other players voted in favor of continuing to do their jobs, James walked out of the meeting with his teammates.

If there’s a small bright side to the grim events of 2020, it is this: There is absolutely no chance of James contending with Michael Jordan for the title of greatest NBA player. Jordan was a fanatical competitor with a drive to be the absolute best. Michael Jordan wouldn’t have stopped the NBA playoffs for the outbreak of a world war. But for James, who has faltered in the playoffs countless times by now, the chance to end the season with a ceasefire rather than defeat likely felt like a mercy.

For James, bringing the NBA almost to its knees was the climax to years of activism. James badly wants to be seen as some kind of serious thought leader in American life. It even seems to be working on some people. The chief obstacle to LeBron James becoming a modern day Malcolm X appears to be his own behavior and rhetoric, which is routinely embarrassing. Just last week, observers finally caught on to James’s habit of reading the first page of various famous books:

When James isn’t pretending to read, he is often going on hysterical tirades on Twitter, pretending to be a member of a downtrodden proletariat and not one of the highest-paid athletes in human history.

A tweet from Wednesday night illustrated James’s rhetorical prowess:

James’s tweets are unhinged, but his statements while not using a cell phone are downright demented. Commenting on the Jacob Blake shooting, James suggested that American police casually murder black people for fun.

“Maybe he just left the house saying that, ‘Today is going to be the end for one of these black people,'” James said.

Outkick.com writer Jason Whitlock, who is far more politically courageous than James could ever hope to be, summed up James’s behavior well in a recent article:

James is the Al Sharpton of sports, an agent of chaos working closely with politicians who use racial division to rally voter support. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and black ministers can no longer deliver black voters to polling booths. The task has now been handed to James, Colin Kaepernick and black athletes. It’s their job to inflame the emotions of black people and get us to vote for Joe Biden like our lives depended on it. [OutKick]

The Sharpton comparison is a strong one. Just like countless other race-baiting hucksters, James clearly isn’t guided by a serious sense of justice, but by a much stronger desire for power, influence, and wealth. The sham nature of James’s activism was revealed last fall, during his response to the NBA’s China controversy. When Houston Rockets executive Daryl Morey dared to show solidarity with demonstrators in Hong Kong, James had this to say:

“Yes, we all do have freedom of speech. But at times, there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself. I don’t want to get into a feud with Daryl Morey, but I believe he wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke.

“So many people could have been harmed — not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually. Just be careful about what we tweet, what we say and what we do. Yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that, too.” [Daily Wire]

Fortunately, as embarrassing as James is, and as pathetic as America’s professional sports leagues have looked over the past three months, there are still inspiring athletes in the United States.

On Monday, retired NFL legend Herschel Walker spoke at the RNC. Instead of hysterically pushing blood libel against American police, Walker spoke about his 37-year friendship with President Trump and the absurdity of claims that Trump is a hateful racist.

“Just because someone loves and respects the flag, our National Anthem, and our country doesn’t mean they don’t care about social justice. I care about all of those things, and so does Donald Trump,” said Walker. “He shows how much he cares about social justice and the black community through his actions. And his actions speak louder than any stickers or slogans on a jersey.”

Walker’s comments were actually brave because, unlike James’s, they involved real personal cost. As Walker said Monday night, he’s lost friends for supporting Trump. James loses nothing with his poseur activism that is praised by every celebrity, every major media outlet, and every corporation.

This isn’t simply about praising Walker for being closer to Donald Trump’s politics. In all of his public statements, Walker has show far more class, respect, and general coherence than “King James” ever has. Instead of waffling about the “negative” aspects of free speech, here is what Walker said about China last fall.

And instead of defaming police as racist killers, Walker has treated them like human beings:

As heartwarming as this is, Walker is also a retired NFL player, not a current one. Something has gone seriously wrong if LeBron James is the face of American sports, and Herschel Walker is just a secondary RNC guest. For decades, conservatives have smugly assumed that professional sports is an inherently conservative place, even as the leagues gradually submitted more and more to woke politics. Now, athletes want to abuse their popularity with the American people to extract political concessions in return for performance. If athletes want to defund the police, maybe it’s time for America to defund athletes.

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