AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has said athletes such as Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James should stop sticking their noses into politics.
The four-time NBA champion, James, who described Ibrahimovic as a phenomenal basketball player, was one of the NBA’s biggest voices against racial injustice and police brutality in the United States.
James, a regular critic of former US President Donald Trump, also helped form a group that last year aimed at freeing voters in predominantly black communities.
‘I like him a lot (James). He’s phenomenal, but I do not like it when people with a status talk about politics. Do what you do well, ”Ibrahimovic told Uef and Discovery + in Sweden.
‘I play football because I play the best football, I’m not a politician. If I were a politician, I would do politics.
“This is the first mistake celebrities make when they become famous: for me it is better to avoid certain topics and do what is right, otherwise you run the risk of doing something wrong.”
James’ years of activism on racial justice issues and his criticism of Trump forced white Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham in 2018 to tell him and fellow NBA player Kevin Durant to ‘stop and dribble’.
The remark of Ibrahimovic, whose two-year stint with LA Galaxy overlaps with James’ time in Los Angeles, has been criticized by US sprinter Michael Johnson.
“Good Ibra, based on your position @KingJames is very good at basketball and should not express his opinion on politics,” Johnson tweeted.
‘You’re really good at football, so you should not express your opinion on LeBron using his platform to the fullest. Or your opinion on anything outside of football! ”
James’ entry into the arena for social justice has been cautious and measured over the past decade: a 2012 tweet declaring #WeAreTrayvonMartin; the SHIRT I CANNOT ACCEPT before wearing a match in 2014; the opening of a public school in his hometown of Akron.
But the four-time NBA Most Valuable Player winner has taken his activism to new heights since Trump began fighting with prominent black American athletes to score political points.
With the sports world stalled due to the coronavirus pandemic and amid nationwide unrest over the killings of police officers at George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, James teamed up with a group of prominent athletes and entertainers to More Than a Vote, a 501 (c) (4) non-profit organization that aims to inform, protect and eliminate African American voters.
“We never told anyone who to vote for or who not,” he said. ‘We never said anything about some candidates. We just wanted people to use their opportunity to vote and create change.