LeBron James on NFL Owners: 'They Got That Slave Mentality'

“In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality," James said on HBO's 'The Shop.'

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On Friday night's episode of HBO's The ShopLeBron James had a conversation with Maverick Carter, Todd Gurley, and Ice Cube. During said conversation, James blasted the NFL and the people who own teams in the league. 

"In the NFL they got a bunch of old white men owning teams and they got that slave mentality," James said, per the Washington Post. "And it’s like, 'This is my team. You do what the f*ck I tell y’all to do. Or we get rid of y’all.'" 

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James added: I’m so appreciative in our league of our commissioner [...] He doesn’t mind us having ... a real feeling and to be able to express that. It doesn’t even matter if Adam [Silver] agrees with what we are saying, he at least wants to hear us out. As long as we are doing it in a very educational, non-violent way, then he’s absolutely okay with it.”

The Lakers player has been critical of the NFL and supportive of Colin Kaepernick in the past. Back in 2017, James spoke with ESPN, saying: "I don’t represent the NFL. I don’t know their rules and regulations. But I do know Kap is getting a wrong doing. I do know that. Just watching, he’s an NFL player. He’s an NFL player and you see all these other quarterbacks out there and players out there that get all these second and third chances that are nowhere near as talented as him. It just feels like he’s been blackballed out of the NFL. So I definitely do not respect that."

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