‘Blackballed’ Revisits LeBron James’ Stance On Donald Sterling: “There’s No Room For That In This Game”

Transcript

00:00I'm Melissa with Sports Illustrated and we're here with Jill Painter-Lopez.

00:06Now Jill, I know you've been keeping up with the show Black Bulb on the Quibi app.

00:11Obviously LeBron James was extremely outspoken during that time involving all of the drama

00:16surrounding Donald Sterling.

00:18What came out of that?

00:19Well, Melissa, it's a good look back at, you know, Donald Sterling setting off this chain

00:25of events after his racist comments on tapes were released.

00:29It was the, you know, untold hidden secret for decades about Donald Sterling being a

00:35racist owner of the Clippers.

00:37But when those tapes came out, when we could actually hear him, you know, it was a very

00:42important time in the NBA.

00:44What happens from here?

00:45And LeBron James was the first to sort of pick up the baton with that.

00:49And after a Miami Heat playoff game, he was then with the Heat, he said in an interview,

00:54there is no place for this in our game.

00:56And so that was huge to be the first player to do that.

00:59And then of course the Clippers followed suit, taking off their jerseys and throwing them

01:04all the court against that before a game against the Golden State Warriors.

01:08And then everything happened after that with, of course, Adam Silver banning Donald Sterling

01:13from the NBA.

01:14But we're five episodes in and it's just been a fascinating look at some of the behind the

01:18scenes things.

01:19And LeBron, of course, being instrumental in sort of leading the NBA into what they

01:24were going to do after those racist comments were released.

01:27Absolutely.

01:28LeBron's really been a trailblazer and really outspoken on social and political issues.