This article was written by Karen Crouse and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.
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There is an affecting scene in the 2020 documentary, I Promise, about the inaugural year of the public school for at-risk students in Akron, Ohio, that is funded and supported by LeBron James through his charitable organization. The students, at the start of the first school day, recite the “I Promise” pledge, but before they dive into, “I promise to go to school, to never give up no matter what, and above all else, to finish school,” the school administrator says, “I need you standing straight up and I want to hear you loud and proud.”
Imagine those kids, who stood at attention and recited those lines as if their lives depended on it, watching clips of their leader, James, in his first game as a Philadelphia 76er, making wide arcs with his arms as if he were swinging a golf club and taking imaginary basketball shots while Avery Wilson, an R&B singer and Broadway actor, performed the national anthem.
LeBron decided to practice his golf swing during the national anthem last night. I can’t wait until he retires, he’s been toxic for the entire NBA. https://t.co/wTusZifdla
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 22, 2026
What message was James telegraphing to the students at his school in Akron and to the city whose jersey he now wears, which is considered the birthplace of the United States, with his blatant disregard for the Star-Spangled Banner and the Black performer who sang it so beautifully?
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was shamelessly telegraphing his post-basketball career as an influencer in the YouTube golf space.
The cornerstones of the school pledge are discipline and dedication, just as the keystones of the national anthem are gratitude for the discipline and dedication of those who have fought for the freedoms that we continue to enjoy, including the freedom to treat the national anthem, and the singer who performed it, like a big joke.
James is the classic American success story, proof that despite its imperfections our country remains a place where one’s class, color, or creed is not one’s destiny. He rose from poverty and, through his own athletic gifts and grit, became extraordinarily rich and famous.
Some of James’s wealth comes from his financial and commercial ties in China, a country where not standing erect for the playing of the national anthem in public can have legal ramifications, including criminal detention.
Last year, James became the first NBA player to conduct an interview with People’s Daily, the official organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, but I have no illusions about him sitting for an interview with me for Sport and State (though I have emailed an official request to team media representatives).
In the People’s Daily interview, James described basketball as “a bridge that connects us, with love for the game flowing in our hearts.” It’s a lovely sentiment, but professional basketball in America has become more of a pompousness that divides us, what with the intolerance at WNBA games for fans wearing T-shirts supporting biological women in women’s sports and the disrespect shown the national anthem by James and both WNBA Finals teams.
.@SFGate — please point to where I said we received death threats.
I said I was told I should kill myself. I said death was wished upon us. I said the crowd was aggressive and rude. No death threats.
I never felt unsafe. Security did a good job. They escorted us out because the crowd was so riled by our shirts.
Also this is not a sarcastic wave. This is a woman unhinged with rage.
And here’s how I recounted the events on the day.
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) October 22, 2026
Given how James’s multi-generational wealth was built on this country’s bedrock principles of capitalism and meritocracy, it’s wild that he cannot stand at attention for two minutes in respect for those whose sacrifices and bloodshed have made possible our way of life.
Even President Trump took offense.
President Trump tees off on LeBron for practicing his golf swing during last night’s national anthem. https://t.co/lTtg1dOCdO
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 22, 2026
Then again, James is the same player who called out Daryl Morey in 2019 when Morey, then the general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted a tweet supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters that read, “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.”
Morey was referring to protests over a bill that many citizens of Hong Kong feared was an end-around by Beijing leaders to contradict rights the territory was granted when the United Kingdom returned it to Chinese control in 1997.
O say can you see, before Enes Kanter Freedom and Jennifer Sey, there was Morey, who was harassed and condescended to for exercising our free-speech rights. Leading the charge against Morey was James, who was traveling to China with the Lakers for preseason games when Morey’s tweet went viral.
James said Morey “wasn’t educated” and criticized him for putting the NBA ambassadors on the ground in China in a defensive position. Never mind that James and the NBA received bi-partisan blowback for how they handled the matter, with Beto O’Rourke, then a Democrat candidate for president, tweeting, “the only thing the NBA should be apologizing for is their blatant prioritization of profits over human rights” while the Republican senator Ted Cruz accused the NBA of “shamefully retreating.”
Seven years later, Morey and James were two ships passing in the night on the Schuylkill River; the 76ers parted ways with Morey, who had been the team’s president of basketball operations for six seasons, in May, and two months later, James, a free agent, announced he was leaving the Los Angeles Lakers to play at least one season in Philadelphia.
James has done so much to help those left behind in his hometown of Akron. Which is why it’s perplexing to see him fight for those students’ self-determination but refuse to stand at attention for the national anthem.
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