LeBron James is fearless on the court, taking it to anyone and everyone who stands in his way. Yesterday he did it again in the city of one of his fiercest opponents.
Only this time it wasn’t on the hardwood.
Yesterday afternoon, James and partner Maverick Carter became partners with Fenway Sports Group (FSG). That deal makes them the first Black partners with FSG and, more importantly, part owners of the Boston Red Sox.
If you know the history of Boston, its sports teams and fans, you understand how gangster this move is.
Boston sports have been intimately connected with racism for decades. Under former team owner Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox were the last MLB team to integrate, finally signing its first Black player, Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, in 1959. They had the chance to sign both Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays, but they passed for obvious reasons.
In recent years, Black MLB players have been targeted by racists at Fenway Park.
“A disrespectful fan threw a bag of peanuts at me,’’ said former Baltimore Orioles player Adam Jones in 2017. “I was called the N-word a handful of times tonight. Thanks. Pretty awesome.’’
Torii Hunter echoed Jones’ statement about racism at Fenway.
“I’ve been called the N-word in Boston 100 times, and I said something about it,” said Hunter to ESPN’s Golic and Wingo last year. “I didn‘t speak up because people would say ‘Oh, he’s just a militant, he’s lying, this didn’t happen.’ No, it happened. All the time. From little kids. And grown-ups right next to them didn’t say anything.”
It was so bad that Hunter included a mandatory no-trade clause to Boston in every contract he signed.
A lesser known, but even more shocking and disgusting, part of the Red Sox’s tainted racial history involves former clubhouse manager, Donald “Fitzy” Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick was accused of molesting young boys over four decades, finally pleading guilty to criminal charges of attempted sexual battery in 2002. In that admission, he stated that he used team items to lure young, Black clubhouse workers into secluded areas at the team’s spring training facility in Florida and abused them. A lawsuit filed by 21 men, 15 of whom are Black, against the team is pending.
But it’s not just baseball. The city itself is, unfortunately, synonymous with racism.
From the city’s public school desegregation busing issue and housing construction strategy to neighborhood segregation (according to Boston Magazine, nearly 66% of Black Bostonians live in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan), Boston maintains a contentious relationship with Black America. In sports, the city’s talk radio programming and one of the industry’s biggest media companies (which is based in the city), continue to demonstrate their racist tendencies.
Enter LeBron James and his Black Power movement.
Flexing all his Muscles
The best player in today’s NBA has flexed his financial muscles as hard as his athletic ones. He took his movement to LA three years ago with a vision in mind and has executed it almost flawlessly to date. His media company, SpringHill (named after the apartment complex where he and his mother lived in Akron, OH), secured a $100 million investment. He purchased a 10% stake in Blaze Pizza and became a minority owner of Premier League soccer club Liverpool. Earlier this month, he graced the cover of “Fast Company” for his media empire’s ascent. And most recently, he left Coke after 18 years for a new “multi-year partnership” with Pepsi as the new face of the MTN DEW RISE energy drink.
His social activist muscles have just as must density. James founded the “I Promise School” in Akron to help at-risk youth. He stood up to the cowardly bullying of the former president and ignorant cable TV hosts and refused to shut up and dribble.
Yesterday, he elevated his flex game to another level by investing in a city, and sport, with a racially tainted past. And he’s doing it in the strongest way possible- financially.
Full details of the investment haven’t been released, but James and Carter are now partners in a major sports entity. FSG owns the Red Sox, broadcaster New England Sports Network (NESN), Roush Fenway Racing, and Fenway Sports Management. In addition, according to the Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman, LeBron’s stake in Liverpool increases due to “an undisclosed amount of FSG shares.”
But overall, it expands the LeBron James footprint into Boston.
“For me and for my partner Maverick to be the first two Black men to be a part of that ownership group in the history of that franchise — I think it’s pretty damn cool,” James told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe on Wednesday. “It gives me and people that look like me hope and inspiration that they can be in a position like that as well.
In one move, LeBron James ingratiated himself into a city, and business, desperate to remove the stains of the past. FSG successfully petitioned the city to remove the Yawkey name from the adjacent street in 2018. Three years later the Red Sox hired Bianca Smith, professional baseball’s first Black woman coach, and ownership added their first Black partners. For those who understand history and sociology, you comprehend the significance and impact of this news.
And you know it won’t be the only move he makes in the city. There’s more to come from Team LeBron in one of the nation’s largest media markets, and in one of the most sports-obsessed areas in the country. An area with a history of winning.
LeBron James continues to inspire and prove that if he can do it, you can do it too.
“LeBron is the epitome of motivation and has achieved legendary status by seizing every morning,” said Fabiola Torres, PepsiCo’s CMO and SVP of Energy. “He not only continues to excel on and off the court but has dedicated his life to help others rise as well.”
And in one of the most gangster moves in all of sports, LeBron and Maverick rose for us all.
