Soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic reiterated his message that sports and politics should remain separate. And he’s right.
“I said that we are not politicians. Politics divides people,” Ibrahimovic said of his spat with NBA star LeBron James, adding, “If I wanted to be a politician, I would do politics. We should only do what we’re good at. Sports and politics are two different categories. If you are intelligent, you understand.”
Ibrahimovic was right when he first called out LeBron’s lack of political knowledge. LeBron, who has previously defended China’s authoritarian crackdown on Hong Kong, responded by insisting that he “does his homework,” speaks from a “very educated mind,” and will “never shut up about things that’s wrong.”
Just over a month after that, LeBron angrily took to Twitter to denounce the police officer that saved a woman from being stabbed to death by Ma’Khia Bryant. He deleted that tweet and gave a nonapology, but it was clear that Ibrahimovic was right: LeBron is not a politician, or even someone reasonably well informed, and he should quit pretending to be one.
And Ibrahimovic is right when he talks about the unifying power of sports. “Football, in my world, unites people. Big difference,” he said in an interview, “because I have had the chance to meet and get to know people that I would never have known if I did not play football. I have met people from all four corners of the world. We unite people.”
LeBron, who gets mad whenever police officers defend themselves or others or when someone dares to question the integrity of the Chinese regime that he is financially invested in supporting, is a divider.
LeBron uses his platform to divide people based on race and partisan politics. Sports, at their best, can unite people across racial, religious, political, and even national lines. But LeBron is not interested in that, and neither are many of the other outspoken American athletes who consider themselves to be political experts.
Maybe if more athletes took a similar view to that of Ibrahimovic and used their platforms for unity, they could find more common ground with fans when they do decide to enter the political sphere. But, instead, outrage merchants such as LeBron dominate the conversation with their obnoxiously uninformed outbursts. And then, they wonder why half of the country opposes them so strongly.
