LeBron James was officially named the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year on Monday night at an event that was held in Brooklyn, N.Y. During the event, Jay Z took a not-so-subtle shot at Phil Jackson while introducing LeBron to the audience, and LeBron delivered a six-minute speech that featured him paying tribute to sports greats like Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown. You can watch it here:
On Monday, SI also released LeBron’s Sportsperson of the Year cover, about a week after releasing his excellent cover story, and it appears as though LeBron decided to make a strong statement with his cover. In addition to wearing a cream turtleneck and jacket, LeBron has a safety pin on his lapel. The safety pin has been worn in recent weeks by those who want to show their solidarity with groups who feel unsafe following Donald Trump’s election.
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LeBron hasn’t explained why he decided to wear the safety pin just yet. But in his SI cover story, he did talk about the activism that he plans to be involved with moving forward. "I want it to be more about what I can do to help my community, what we can do so kids feel like they’re important to the growth of America, and not like, 'These people don’t care about us,'" he said. "I’m not here to stomp on Trump. We’re here to do our part, which starts in the place we grew up, street by street, brick by brick, person by person."
LeBron will likely be asked about the safety pin at some point today. Stay tuned to see why he decided to wear it during such a prominent cover shoot.
