LeBron James quells boycott talk, backs Adam Silver
Heat forward LeBron James has been outspoken against Clippers owner Donald Sterling. / Steve Mitchell, USA TODAY SportsMIAMI - Miami Heat star LeBron James, as expected, softened comments made by former teammate Roger Mason, suggesting James was prepared to lead a boycott if Donald Sterling still owned the Los Angeles Clippers at the start of the 2014-15 season.
'We as players see what (NBA Commissioner) Adam Silver's doing,' James said before Game 5, the first time James met with reporters since Mason made his comments on Jim Rome's Showtime show. 'He's moving forward, and if he continues, which we believe Adam Silver will do, to move aggressively on the situation, then as players we have nothing to worry about.'
Mason told Rome on Tuesday, 'If it's not handled by â?¦ the start of next season, I don't see how we're playing basketball. I was just in the locker room with LeBron. At the end of the day, you know we have leaders, we have player reps, we've got executive committee members. â?¦ Leaders of the teams, they're all saying the same thing: 'If this man is still in place, we ain't playing.' '
But he backtracked Wednesday with a series of tweets.
Mason is the National Basketball Players Association's first vice-president and has an active role in helping the NBPA find its next executive director. James said he didn't talk to Mason - he said he has his phone turned off for the playoffs - but said he has no problem with Mason.
Silver banned Sterling for life, fined him $2.5 million and said he will urge other owners to force a sale of the Clippers and do everything in his power to ensure that.
James has been outspoken on Sterling and has repeated that he does not want Sterling or anyone from the Sterling family to own the Clippers. As James continues to feel more comfortable with his standing in the league â?? as arguably the best player, he has become the face of the NBA â?? he has no problem addressing these issues and has been quite eloquent in doing so.
This is true, too: James has a prominent voice, and when he speaks, the NBA hears him.
'It's my personal responsibility,' James said. 'No one told me to speak on it. It's who I am. It's what I believe in. I believe this issue is too big not to say something (and) not to stand up for so like I said before and will continue to say is what his words and what he believes in is never going to have a place in our sport or any sport.'
It bothers James that the league is dealing with this issue during the playoffs.
'It sucks for all of us - for the whole league throughout this great playoffs and you have to focus on something that has nothing to do with the guys out there playing, coaching and reffing and so on and so on,' James said. 'I have no idea if Donald Sterling ever put on a basketball uniform in his life.'
James acknowledged a boycott was a topic but only in a very general sense. 'As a team, we never discussed it,' James said.
James also said the parameters in which a boycott might be considered were not discussed.
'There's a more in-depth, longer conversation that needs to discussed,' he said. 'You just can't sit in here and ask all 15 guys, 'Hey, we're going to sit out for the season,' and everybody's going to be OK with it. ... We'll see what happens in the near future.
'But I'll continue to say I believe in Adam Silver. I believe in our league and the direction they're going in. We don't need to worry about anything else. We don't need to worry about a boycott or anything of that nature. I believe they're going to do what's right for our league.'
Though the NBA has said it is moving ahead with plans to terminate Sterling's ownership expeditiously, this a complicated and unprecedented issue facing the league. A legal battle could draw out the process longer than the league or players wants, and James acknowledged that on Sunday.
'At the end of the day, this is going to be a long litigation when it comes to that,' James said Sunday. 'This guy who's owned the team since the '80s is not going to just give the team up in a day. So we understand it's going to be long, but we want what's right.'
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