Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James drives against the Portland Trail Blazers during the first half of an NBA basketball first round playoff game Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
The NBA superstar has been active in his community and politically outspoken for years. Showtime’s three-part docuseries “Shut Up and Dribble” is a direct response to Ingraham’s bizarre and disrespectful notion that basketball players should set aside their political views to deliver uncomplicated entertainment.
The result, executive produced by James, considers but does not limit itself to racial tensions, nor is it only about the contemporary league, tracing activism in basketball back to Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Isaiah Thomas. (Russell’s activism during the Boston busing crisis in covered in the current season of the Luminary podcast “Fiasco.”) “Shut Up and Dribble” also depicts the league’s evolution into an organization truly dominated by the players — something proven again by the current protests.
