Miami Heat: LeBron James not wearing social justice message on jersey

Miami Heat champion and NBA great, LeBron James, is a champion for many causes of all types. He will not be wearing a message on his jersey though.

Former Miami Heat champion and all-time NBA player, LeBron James, is arguably the biggest athlete in the world. Even outside of the world of professional sports, he is probably one of the biggest stars in the world, in general.

So, with his level of fame and notoriety, anything he does is bound to be news. That goes especially when it involves championing social justice and in our current social/political climate.

With the NBA as a league recognizing the climate that we are in as a country, they decided to allow players to wear one of a finite amount of social justice messages on their jersey after the idea of being able to wear social justice messages there for the cause was tossed around.

Instead of having to clear each jersey individually, the NBA got ahead of it all by deciding to release a list of acceptable messages that could adorn the backs of jerseys. With a list of greater than 20 different phrases that includes Black Lives Matter, Say Their Names, Vote, I Can’t Breathe, the league has sort of acquiesced to the demands of the players.

Even with all of that by the league though, there is one guy that will be wearing his name on the back of his jersey, as standard and customary. That guy is just the most famous and best player in the league, LeBron James.

Former Miami Heat champ, LeBron James, isn’t wearing a social justice message on his jersey. There may be more to it than he’s telling as well.

Stating that “It was no disrespect to the list that was handed down to all the players,” and that he commends “anyone that decides to put something on the back of their jersey. It’s just something that didn’t seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal.” These statements according to a piece from NBA.com.

LeBron wasn’t done there though, as he would go on to elaborate on his stance. Here is another quote from that same piece.

"“I would have loved to have a say-so on what would have went on the back of my jersey,” James said. “I had a couple of things in mind, but I wasn’t part of that process, which is OK. … Everything that I do has a purpose, has a meaning. I don’t need to have something on the back of my jersey for people to understand my mission or know what I’m about and what I’m here to do.”"

While that is all fine, dandy, and probably 100 percent the truth, there is something else to it all. On top of the fact and as he mentioned, that he likes to and usually does have a hand in all of these processes that involve him or his brand representing something, him not having his own unique hand on it limits his commercial ability with whatever message it may have been that he looked to wear.

Whether it was transcending just the jersey by using that phrase to market/sell other products, whether that space would be used to market/sell one of his current movements, or simply keeping the NBA from being able to sort of draw the lion’s share of profit off of merchandise that he would make more desirable, there is always a business angle with LeBron.

As he stated and as you can see if you pay attention, he does a ton for the cause and likely shall continue to do so, so this isn’t a flagrant act at all on his behalf. It is interesting though to see him not participate and believe me, there’s more to it than he is saying himself.