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Cleveland Cavaliers

It’s not easy being the King


It must be tough being LeBron James — Donyell Marshall misses a wide open shot to win the game and you’re the one who catches all the heat. But this post isn’t about basketball, it’s about some petition he refused to sign condemning genocide in Darfur.

Cavalier Ira Newble drafted an open letter to the Chinese government condemning the genocide in Darfur which was signed by all the Cavaliers except for LBJ and Damon Jones. LeBron James said he didn’t have enough information to take a stand. (Nobody cares what Damon Jones thinks.) Imagine that, a basketball player who never went to college admitting he doesn’t have enough information and therefore declining to sign something. Seems the logical thing to do doesn’t it? If you can’t even pick out Darfur on a map, how can you sign something condemning genocide in the country? state? province? island?

What’s interesting is that the author of this column is calling James out because he has a shoe contract with Nike and Nike has a huge interest in China. What’s not mentioned is that Damon Jones actually has a shoe contract with Li-Ning, a Chinese company. But again, no one cares about Damon Jones. We’re so sick of athletes and celebrities adopting a cause-o-the-day that it’s actually refreshing that LBJ declined to jump on board. Sure, his reasons might be monetary, but that doesn’t mean he has any obligation to attach his name to something he doesn’t feel strong or know enough about.

By Vin

Vin is a Philly boy who shouldn't be invited into your house because he'll judge you on your book and music collection. He owns Dawkins, Utley, Iverson, and Lindros jerseys, which is all you really need to know about him. He can be reached at [email protected].

9 replies on “It’s not easy being the King”

LEBRON — yea;tough position
Genocide-yea or nay..Is this post a sordid joke or just an honest writer telling the World,hey not my problem;”I don’t give a s..t.either”
This will haunt LeBRON..anyone with a brain and a consciese knows that..You are not an effective apologist.

turn on a flippin newscast… — Darfur needs all the help they can get…Lebron is a moron.

whether or not Darfur needs help — it’s not LeBron’s job.  He plays basketball for a living.  I don’t give a shit what he thinks about the situation anywhere.  

We got plenty of politicians with their hands in China’s pocket and this guy calls out LeBron for not signing a petition?

right… — I really don’t care what high school educated kids think of what problems there are in the world. If Lebron sees Hotel Rwanda some day on HBO while on the road and decides he wants to go all Don Cheadle and let people live in his 4 billion sq. ft house or, (more seriously) help with his time and money, then nuts to him., If he doesn’t, so be it.  

My whole thing — as dirty as I feel about saying this…celbs can put the spotlight on issues to help pressure politians. That’s all I’m saying…

I do agree with you, I don’t care what LeBron thinks about Darfur, I just want to see this spotlighted…(and yes, I put my money where my mouth is…)beacuse our politicans won’t ever do a damn thing about it, beacuse the Darfur region doesn’t have oil we can steal.

We in the blogoshpere can only do so much.

The only thing I want to say on this situation is that Bush could have helped in this situation instead of making a mess out of Iraq, with his mismanged war. I think the troops are doing a hell of a job with what they have, which isn’t a whole lot. We could have been in Darfur making a positive diffrence in the world, but instead, Iraq is kitty litter with oil under it, so I guess that’s more important than genocide.

it’s not a joke — As an educated, intelligent person, I would want to learn all the facts about something before attaching my signature to it. I’m not saying there isn’t a genocide going on in Darfur. But you better believe I would want to know exactly whats going on before I sign something. Have you ever read 1984? How can you trust any information unless you do your research.

There was a investigative piece by some show a few years back. They sent a reporter to an environmental rally posed as an activist. She had a petition to ban dihydrogen oxide because it’s a heavily corrosive substance and causes tons of damage every year. You know what dihydrogen oxide is? H20 — water. Everything they said on the petition was true and the people who signed it looked like friggin idiots. Is genocide bad? Yes. But how do we condemn LBJ for wanting more info before signing?

Vin… — I know what your talking about. Beacuse one of my friends signed it and sent it to me…I had to laugh at it beacuse, even though my chemestry stopped after Middle School, anyone with a brain can figure out that dihydrogen oxide is water.

I agree with you on that, you should NEVER sign up for anything you don’t know about. For that I comend LeBron on, but someone in the spotlight has to stand up at this point, grassroots can only go so far.

lack of information is no excuse — There’s no excuse for LeBron not having info to make a decision. He has all the resources in the world to find out for himself what’s going on. And I’m not just talking about money – LeBron knows people who know people and he can probably talk directly with a Darfur survivor if he wanted to.

Yeah, it’s hard to sign a petition after a 30 second pitch while waiting for the subway. But that’s not the situation here.

Let’s call this like it is: LeBron and Damon Jones didn’t sign because of their endorsement ties to China.

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