LeBron: If I Were Brittney Griner, I’d Question Going Back to the U.S.

CLAY: Buck, one of the consistently dumbest athletes in America when it comes to sharing his political opinions — and there’s a long list, let’s be honest — is LeBron James. LeBron James has been in the news a little bit associated with this Brittney Griner story because for those of you out there who don’t know, Brittney Griner, WNBA player, was arrested, as we have talked about on this show, for drug possession charges in Russia.

She is still there begging for Joe Biden to get her out. I believe the latest is that Bill Richardson, former New Mexico governor, is now in kind of geopolitical hostage negotiator-at-large is kind of the job that he seems to have now, is now traveling over to Russia potentially to try to get her out on behalf of the Biden administration. Well, one of the WNBA coaches said — and I think this is true — if it were LeBron James who had been arrested, he would already be out in Russia.

BUCK: Why do you think? Curious about this. Why do you think that’s true?

CLAY: I think the political pressure would have been way more intense to get LeBron out, and I think that Joe Biden would have had to do whatever it takes to get LeBron out. You think he’d still be there?

BUCK: I don’t think Joe Biden could get… With what’s going on with Russia right now, I don’t think he could get anybody out of Russia. That’s my take.

CLAY: I think the political pressure would have been so much that he would have to do whatever it takes to get LeBron out. But LeBron was asked about this on his own television show. Not live. Remember, LeBron has, I think, probably the dumbest statement of all time when he defended China in the wake of a former general manager in the NBA saying that Hong Kong deserved freedom and LeBron James said the First Amendment was a bad thing.

I mean, he basically bowed down to Chairman Mao and to the leader right now certainly of China, Chairman Xi, and said, “Hey, I’ll do whatever you want, Blessed Leader there!” Well, now he says — I think we’ve got a short segment here from LeBron. This is an HBO show that he does called The Shop where he sits around in a barbershop and opines on all different sorts of issues. Says he doesn’t even want to know if he’d want to come back to America if he had been arrested in Russia.

Here’s LeBron, political thought leader extraordinaire.

CLAY: “Do I even want to go back to America?” So, I guess LeBron would either stay in Russia, maybe Siberia would be nice for LeBron and his family to relocate to, or he would go to another country. But what does he expect? She violated Russian law. She’s pled guilty to it. Why is it America’s fault that she’s in a Russian prison?

BUCK: Clay, this is why so many people get very agitated with ultra-famous, ultra-rich professional athletes, actors. The lack of gratitude for the country that they live in that has created the possibility for them to be so wealthy —

CLAY: A billionaire.

BUCK: A billionaire.

CLAY: LeBron is a billionaire just because he’s good at sports.

BUCK: Yes. And has created that and protects their wealth, you know, the police officers that protect their residence and their day-to-day lives, the truck drivers who make sure there’s food in the store for them, the mail couriers. I mean, you look at all these people that it functions so well in America. This is actually… I know we talk about the problems here. This place and anybody…

I’ve spent months and months of my life in different places in the true Third World that were really full of despair and poverty, and anybody who sees what it’s like in other parts of the world I think they have an even greater appreciation for how amazing this country is. And that’s just to be an American. That’s just table steak to even be… It’s amazing to even be here. There’s a reason why people are coming here — you know, legally, illegally — in the huge numbers they do.

LeBron James says something; I know it’s flippant and he’s trying to make some kind of a point about how he’s so disappointed in America for not being able to get Brittney Griner out of Russia at this point. But it goes into a larger context of statements that really do feel like from LeBron and from other athletes, celebrities, celebrities in general, they just don’t appreciate this place. I mean, you get the sense that a lot of really rich celebrities are spoiled brats. They do not love this country.

They’ve been given so much by this country. I think that’s one of the reasons why people, why the Pat Tillman decision to go serve in the Army Rangers, for example, and leave, what was it, $3 million contract behind to serve his country after 9/11, you know, in the NFL. Obviously unfortunately was, you know, terrible situation unfolded in Afghanistan with Pat. But point here being, we like to see that people actually appreciate the country that has made them so rich and influential.

CLAY: LeBron’s a billionaire. This is emblematic of why I’ve argued — and, Buck, you’ve seen it; most people have not. If every single American at 18 years old had to go live in a Peace Corps-like environment, in a Third World country for one year, you had to go to a poor country in Africa or a poor country the Asia or a poor country in Latin America and you had to do some form of service for one year.

I think that almost every single American who did that, when they came back to the United States, would understand and appreciate anew how phenomenally fortunate we all are to live here. And that’s why I believe Republicans have an incredible opportunity in 2022 and in 2024 because everyone who comes to America that wasn’t born here is coming here for one reason: Because America’s awesome.

Buck, you and I were talking about the degree to which even super rich people in other countries, they want to buy American properties — New York City, Miami, L.A. — huge estates because they trust that unlike in their country, they are going to be able to have title to that property, and it isn’t going to be taken away from them just because the guy who gets elected president next in their country doesn’t like them. We are the envy of the world.