During the Tuesday debut episode of HBO’s “The Shop,” an unscripted discussion between LeBron James and other athletes and entertainers in a barber shop, the Los Angeles Laker star said his popularity went down once he started publically speaking out on social issues and against President Donald Trump.
“I want the satisfaction. Not for myself, but for everybody else,” James said. “I was raised off of Snoop and [Tupac] and [Jay-Z] and Biggie [Smalls], and now I get an opportunity to be the inspiration around what all of these kids are looking up to? And for me to just sit back and not say s*** when a lot of my peers didn’t say s***? It didn’t feel right.”
James shared that despite his decrease in popularity, he knew he had to keep speaking up and not care about the backlash.
“At the end of the day, when I decided I was going to start speaking up and not giving a f*** about the backlash or if it affects me, my whole mindset was it’s not about me,” he stated.
James added, “My popularity went down. But at the end of the day, my truth to so many different kids and so many different people was broader than me personally.”
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