LeBron James will not wear Black Lives Matter message on back of jersey, will instead wear traditional James – MassLive.com

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James has opted not to wear one of the league-approved messages on the back of his jersey as the NBA resumes its season in the Disney World bubble.

Players reportedly will be allowed to change the name on the back of their jersey to direct attention to the Black Lives Matter movement -- a concession the league made to the NBA players association to assuage concerns that the leagues restart from the coronavirus shutdown would distract from the movement against racial inequality that has swept the nation since the death of George Floyd in May. The league and players association agreed on several messages.

James, however, told reporters via Zoom he will not participate in that particular aspect of protests.

It was no disrespect to the list that was handed out to all the players, James said, per ESPN. I commend anyone that decides to put something on the back of their jersey. Its just something that didnt really seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal.

I would have loved to have a say-so on what would have went on the back of my jersey. I had a couple things in mind, but I wasnt part of that process, which is OK. Im absolutely OK with that. ... I dont need to have something on the back of my jersey for people to understand my mission or know what Im about and what Im here to do.

James added that he never felt pressure not to play to keep attention on the protests.

"It never crossed my mind that we did not need to play this beautiful game of basketball that brings so many people together, that brings happiness, that brings joy," James said. "I'm happy to have a platform where not only people will gain joy by the way I play the game, by the way our team plays the game, but for also for what I'm able to do off the court, as well.

Being able to use my platform, use the NBAs platform, to continue to talk about whats going on. Because I will not stop until I see real change for us in Black America, for African Americans, for people of color. And I also believe I can do both, though.

Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown, who participated in protests in his hometown of Atlanta following Floyds death, said he initially had concerns that NBA games would take attention away from the protests.

Eventually, he said, he decided the attention could be a good thing for the movement.

I think everybody wants to watch basketball and the NBA, and we have voices of influence in our communities and we have obligations to our communities, not just obligations to our organizations, Brown said. The more the NBA understands that, the better everybody will feel about it, especially players. So I feel that us going down there and making sure nobody gets distracted is part of the initial correspondence. We have to go down there and make sure that people dont forget about GerogeFloyd or Breonna Taylor or Philando Castile or Ahmaud Arbery or Trayvon Martin, which is in the Orlando area. And the list goes on, and the countless other people who were not caught on video who experienced something similar. The bottom line is theres improvements that need to be made, and the NBA has a great voice and a lot of resources and a lot of influence and we are appreciative they are helping in aiding in a lot of the things we care about. So thats really important.