The Cowboys have more than their fair share of A-list fans. “America’s Team” has always drawn some of the highest-profile actors, singers, politicians, and other sports’ athletes to their little corner of the celebrity spotlight.
But now they’ve apparently lost one of their most famous followers.
NBA superstar LeBron James says he’s ditched the Cowboys, and he pointedly blames off-the-field stances taken by the front office during recent controversies.
Speaking in an Instagram Live video Thursday night, the four-time MVP explained his allegiance shift.
“Naw, man, I had to chill out on the Cowboys,” he explained as he announced a special version of his show The Shop: Uninterrupted that will serve as an alternate stream during Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football broadcast. “There’s just a lot of things that were going on when guys were kneeling, and guys were having freedom of speech and wanting to do it in a very peaceful manner. And a lot of people in their front office and a lot of people that ran the organization were like, ‘If you do that around here, then you’ll never play for this franchise again.’ I just didn’t think that was appropriate.”
But Thursday’s comments are not the first time James has voiced his disagreement with Cowboys ownership over this same issue. In 2018, while never mentioning Jerry Jones by name, he railed against “old white men owning teams,” saying, “they got that slave mentality” when it came to threatening to pu players for kneeling during the national anthem as a form of protest dating as far back as 2016.
“We cannot in any way give the implication that we tolerate disrespecting the flag,” Jones said at the time.
Social injustice became a football topic once again in the summer of 2020 in the wake of nationwide riots following the murder of George Floyd. Players including Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott spoke out about using their platform as a driver of change; Jones then stated his desire to handle any peaceful protest “with grace.”
But it seems that by then, James had already made up his mind to jump ship on the Cowboys and find a new team to root for.
The former Cleveland Cavalier and Akron native says he’s “all-in on the Browns” now but admits he still admires several Cowboys players.
James called out “our boy Zeke” in a nod to Elliott (an Ohio State alum), Trevon Diggs, and Micah Parsons, calling him “a dog.”
“I love CeeDee Lamb,” James also gushed.
The 6-foot-9-inch Lakers forward had himself been thought by some to be contemplating a side gig as an NFL wide receiver. James, once Ohio’s top high school football prospect, reportedly keeps a framed contract from Jones and the Cowboys in his office and has said that Dallas actually tried to sign him during the NBA lockout of 2011.
James’s TNF in The Shop will debut Nov. 17 during that night’s Titans-Packers matchup.
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