Op-Ed: LeBron and Kareem Will Always Share a Common Passion for Social Justice

By: Zachary Draves

Now that LeBron James is the official all-time leading scorer in NBA history after surpassing Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s nearly forty year long record on Tuesday, it marked the official passing of the torch from the game’s most dominant player of his era to the most dominant player of the present day.

(Courtesy: Kyle Grillot/The New York Times)

Both men have contributed immensely to the international growth and popularity of the game with their distinct styles, personalities, and cultural relevance. But they also share one considerable trait that makes them stand above most and that is their lifelong quest for social justice. 

Kareem has always been a standard bearer for athlete activism since his days at UCLA when he was then known as Lew Alcindor. It was during his impeccable run with the Bruins in which they won three consecutive national championships (1967-1969) as part of one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports, that he underwent a complete transformation. His social consciousness was shaped by the circumstances of being a black man in the 1960s at the height of the civil rights movement. 

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His first public expression of activism was taking part in the historic Ali Summit in 1967 where he joined Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, and Bill Russell in one of the greatest displays of racial and social solidarity. At the time, Ali was under indictment for refusing to be inducted in the United States Armed Forces at the height of the Vietnam War. Each showed their genuine support of Ali and his plight before the world and a united front amongst black athletes was established in the most revolutionary way imaginable. 

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From there Kareem never relented. He joined students on a march on campus after the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, boycotted the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, and dove head first into books such as The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley, which would later inspire him to convert to Islam and change his name.

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Fast forward to the present day and he is still active with his work as an ambassador, columnist, and filmmaker. From supporting Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling protest against police violence and racial injustice to the NBA player’s boycott in the bubble in Orlando after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kareem has his finger on the pulse on the 21st century athlete activist which includes LeBron James. 

LeBron has effectively carried the baton passed onto him by Kareem in the social activism realm. His coming out episode came in 2012, after the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. At the time, LeBron was with the Miami Heat and this tragedy hit home for him in more ways than one. Not only because it occurred in the same state he was playing in, but because he saw himself and his two sons in Trayvon. 

LeBron joined Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, and the rest of the Heat in a collective stance. They donned hoodies in solidarity with Trayvon and his family and unleashed the beginning of a new wave of activism in sports. 

(Courtesy: LeBron James/Twitter)

His voice and actions fit perfectly within the context of the then emerging Black Lives Matter movement. In 2014, he wrote an “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt in solidarity with Eric Garner who was killed by the NYPD while under a chokehold. At the 2016 ESPYs, LeBron along with Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul engaged in the Ali Summit of their day, but before the live eyes of millions. They each spoke to the importance of athletes getting involved in activism after the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile as well as the killings of five Dallas police officers. 

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In 2018, LeBron opened his I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio which helped provide much needed educational opportunities and social services. After the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Amaud Arbery in 2020, he helped spearhead civic engagement initiatives such as More Than a Vote to get people registered to vote in that year’s election. 

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In 2021, More Than a Vote played a role in passing Senate Bill 2 in California, which removes police officers who committed serious offenses while also preventing them from getting jobs in other departments. 

It is obvious that Kareem and LeBron have a special bond beyond the basketball court. Both have met the moment and risen to the occasion when it counted most. Each of whom are products of their generations with differing circumstances but with overlapping sensibilities. 

The challenges that Kareem’s era faced (segregation, Jim Crow, COINTELPRO, etc.) were not the same as LeBron’s, but the pursuit of a more perfect union still remains and is being executed well by both men. 

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So when we get into these never ending debates about who’s the GOAT or even who’s the greater change agent, we are wasting our time because context differs. But we should be able to agree that greatness and tradition comes in many forms whether by changing the game or society.