The NBA’s bubble league in Orlando will have a few goals. From a basketball perspective, 22 teams will head to Disney to try and determine a champion for the 2019-20 campaign, which has been on pause since March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But following the nationwide unrest in the aftermath of George Floyd death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, the league — following some lobbying by a handful of players — will use this as a chance to highlight the worldwide efforts to protest police brutality and systemic racism.
One way this will happen is that NBA players will get their pick of a number of words and phrases that they can wear across the backs of their uniforms in place of their last name. A collection of players have already picked out which phrases they’ll wear, but on Saturday afternoon, we learned that LeBron James will go the more conventional route and put his last name across his back.
LeBron James says he will wear his name, “James,” on the back of his jersey in NBA restart.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 11, 2020
As James explained, while he is in support of the initiative — which is by no means mandatory for players who participate in the bubble — none of the messages from which he could choose resonated with him.
LeBron 1/2: “I actually didn’t go with a name on the back of my jersey. It’s no disrespect to the list that was handed out to all the players. I commend anyone that decides to put something on the back of their jersey…
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) July 11, 2020
LeBron 2/2: … “It’s just something that didn’t seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal. I would have loved to have a say so on what would have went on the back of my jersey. I had a couple things in mind but I wasn’t part of that process and that’s OK.”
— Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) July 11, 2020
James alludes to this, but the various phrases that players can wear were agreed upon following conversations between players and the league. There’s no word on which words or phrases James would have wanted to have in lieu of his name, should he have opted to go in that direction.