Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James made headlines this week when he questioned why reporters weren’t asking him about a 1957 photo of Jerry Jones that recently leaked.
Last week, a photo from 1957 leaked which shows Jones and several white students seemingly trying to block several black students from entering the North Little Rock High School in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
James has received his fair share of questions over the recent Kyrie Irving controversies. James’ former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate was suspended by the Brooklyn Nets for promoting an antisemitic film on his social media page.
Here’s what James told reporters on Wednesday, in part:
“But it seems like to me that the whole Jerry Jones situation, photo — and I know it was years and years ago and we all make mistakes, I get it — but it seems like it’s just been buried under, like, ‘Oh, it happened. OK, we just move on.’ And I was just kind of disappointed that I haven’t received that question from you guys.”
The Dallas Cowboys owner had a surprising response to the comments James made towards the reporters. One would think someone with an ego as big as Jones’ would fire back. This is the guy who fired a two-time Super Bowl champion and Hall of Fame head coach in Jimmy Johnson, after all.
but the 80-year-old only had nice things to say about the future Hall of Famer.
Here’s how Jones responded to James’ comments during an interview on 105.3 The FAN (h/t Scooby Axson of USA Today):
“First of all, you have to hear me say how much I think of LeBron. I don’t know of anybody that I respect more, I don’t know of anybody that’s taken every opportunity he’s had and maximized it. Not only (has he been) a great ambassador for sport, he has taken sports, he has taken his venues, and used those platforms – I want to be sure that you know where I’m coming from. It made buttons pop off my vest, so to speak, when he would talk about how much of a Cowboy fan he was.”
Jones told The Washington Post that he simply wasn’t participating in trying to block the black students out of the school, rather he said he was simply there for curiosity.
Jones’ Cowboys are 8-3 heading into this weekend’s slate of games. They’ll try to move to 9-3 on the year when they host the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday. As for James and the struggling Lakers, they’ll try to get back on track tonight when they visit the Milwaukee Bucks.
