In addition to being the best basketball player ever, LeBron James is the most powerful voice in sports. The all-time great spent our summer of racial reckoning advocating for justice and ensuring we would never forget Breonna Taylor’s name. He built a school in his hometown to help send underprivileged kids to college, and started a voting rights group at a time when marginalized voters are being attacked across the country.
And now, he’s going to be a minority owner of the Boston Red Sox, the last baseball team to integrate. This is a transcendental moment in Boston sports history.
I don’t intend to rehash Boston’s troubled history with race. We’ve had our issues here, like many other cities. But the reputation sticks to us, whether it’s Torii Hunter saying he put Boston on his no-trade list, or Michael Che throwing a cheap barb on Saturday Night Live. Just four years ago, Adam Jones said he was called the N-word at Fenway Park, while CC Sabathia says this is the only place he’s ever been called that odious slur.
James joining the Red Sox brass sends a different message. It shows this is a progressive-minded organization, despite its repugnant racial past.
This is not James’ first deal with Fenway Sports Group, the Red Sox’s parent company. He originally partnered with FSG back in 2011, signing an exclusive global marketing contract with Fenway Sports Management, and holding a minority stake in Liverpool. But obviously, this ups the ante. James and Maverick Carter, his longtime friend and business partner, will be the first Black partners in FSG. (Unrelated to James, FSG also received a $750 million infusion from a private-equity firm this week.)
Joining the Red Sox’s ownership group is the next step in James’ off-court business empire. There’s a production company and HBO series; Blaze Pizza franchises and stakes in Beats Electronics.
Oh, and there’s also that $1 billion lifetime deal with Nike. With career earnings projected to pass $1 billion, James may soon become one of the rarest figures on Earth: a Black billionaire.
There are only 15 Black billionaires in the world. It is a shameful commentary on our immense wealth and opportunity gap.
Professional sports is one industry that’s dominated by people of color, as long as your eyes don’t wander to the coaches box or owners suite. There are gross racial disparities in North American sports, with largely Black and Brown players surrounded by white coaches, managers and owners. In the NFL, 74 percent of players are of color, while only 13 percent of coaches are Black or Brown. The numbers are similar in the NBA and MLB. Baseball has been dealing with the decline of Black participation for years.
The situation is even worse in front offices, and baseball in particular. MLB’s analytics revolution has swept in a tidal wave of Ivy League grads, and today, 43 percent of top baseball operations decision-makers hold Ivy League diplomas — up from 3 percent in 2001. Coincidently, the number of former players running front offices has fallen from 37 percent to 20 percent over that same period.
“The majority of people that I've hired, if I'm being honest, have similar backgrounds as me and look a lot like me,” Theo Epstein, one of baseball’s young Ivy League pioneers, said last summer.
James has been vocal about his desire to purchase a professional sports team, even saying as much when he was asked about the Red Sox deal. Currently, Michael Jordan is the only Black principal owner in our major sports leagues.
“My goal is to own an NBA franchise,” James told reporters Tuesday, per USA Today. “It’ll be sooner than later.”
Since James is signed through the 2022-23 season, and has publicly stated his desire to play with his 16-year-old son Bronny, it will probably be a while before he makes the transition to full-time executive. But he got his first sports ownership taste with Liverpool, and now, he’ll be making a stop at Fenway Park.
This is a much better legacy to leave than passing over Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson. That’s for sure.