LeBron James has said he’s no longer a fan of the Dallas Cowboys due to the stance some of its management took over players kneeling during the national anthem.
Back in 2017, Cowboys' owner Jerry Jones made it very clear that players who kneeled during the national anthem would not be allowed to play.
James was one of many athletes who knelt during the national anthem in an attempt to draw attention to the issues of racial inequality and systematic oppression. You can see him talk about why he stopped supporting the team here:
During an Instagram Live earlier this week, James has explained that he felt he could no longer support the Dallas Cowboys over the way it handled the ‘peaceful’ gesture.
When asked if he was ‘still’ a Cowboys’ fan, he replied: “Nah, man.”
Advert
He went on: “There was just a lot of things that was going on during when guys were kneeling, and guys were having freedom of speech.
"They wanted to do it in a very peaceful manner. A lot of people in their front office and a lot of people that ran the organisation was like, ‘If you do that around here, then you will never play for this franchise again.' And I just didn’t think that was appropriate."
James added that he still roots for CeeDee Lamb, Ezekiel Elliott and Micah Parson - but that he’s now ‘all in on’ his home state team, the Cleveland Browns.
Advert
NFL quarterback, Colin Kaepernick started the movement in 2016 after he knelt during the national anthem.
And soon, other sports stars followed suit - including the Dallas Cowboys in 2017 but Jones soon made it very clear that he wasn’t happy.
Speaking at the time, he said: "I know this, we cannot... in the NFL in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag.
"We know that there is a serious debate in this country about those issues, but there is no question in my mind that the National Football League and the Dallas Cowboys are going to stand up for the flag. So we're clear.
Advert
“There is no room here if it comes between looking non-supportive of our players and of each other or creating the impression that you're disrespecting the flag, we will be non-supportive of each other. We will not disrespect the flag."
However, in 2020, he seemed to change his stance, but said he would like to implement a policy which allowed players to 'kneel together' before the National Anthem, as per NFL.
Claire Reid