Speaker 1: Face is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly from Bloomberg Radio. We're bringing you some of the
Speaker 1: most important and informative conversations that we had throughout the
Speaker 1: week on our daily radio show. And I gotta say,
Speaker 1: one of the best conversations, Jason, was one that you
Speaker 1: had this week. Well, I appreciate that it was one
Speaker 1: that I was looking forward to timely, to say the least.
Speaker 1: King James himself, Lebron James, his longtime friend and business
Speaker 1: partner Maverick Carter. I had talked with them in February.
Speaker 1: I caught up with them again this week, all about
Speaker 1: their company, the spring Hill Company that they are launching,
Speaker 1: but more importantly this moment and whether it will be
Speaker 1: more than that, Lebron. It seems to be a moment
Speaker 1: where we're all viewing activism in a much broader sense.
Speaker 1: And I wonder as a longtime activist, as someone who
Speaker 1: calls back in the interview that you and I had,
Speaker 1: the three of us had in February, you talked about
Speaker 1: Muhammad Ali, you know, an amazing activist in his own right. Now,
Speaker 1: activism is something that we see everywhere. Is this a moment,
Speaker 1: a special moment, in an important moment for activism in
Speaker 1: your mind. UM, I think it's a special moment in
Speaker 1: the sense that, UM, you can be heard active activism
Speaker 1: and activists have always been around. UM what people had
Speaker 1: a closed ear in a closed mind, UM, and didn't
Speaker 1: want to recognize and didn't want to hear it, didn't
Speaker 1: want to be UM, knowledgeable about what they were speaking,
Speaker 1: where they were coming from, the passion that they were
Speaker 1: speaking with. UM. Now it's it's being heard. People can
Speaker 1: be heard. Black Americans, African Americans, you know, can be heard,
Speaker 1: both men and women can be heard. UM. What they're
Speaker 1: passionate about and the calling for help and the calling
Speaker 1: for we're being We're just tired. So you know, I
Speaker 1: don't want to say activism is something that's UM. You
Speaker 1: know now everyone's doing it. Now. It's always been a
Speaker 1: down but you know, in the in the case of
Speaker 1: George Floyd, in the case of so many other innocent
Speaker 1: lives being taken away. UM, they've put up a stand
Speaker 1: and and now you know, we're being heard, and everyone
Speaker 1: is being heard. UM, not only UM. You know, from
Speaker 1: from what Muhammad Ali was saying and so many that
Speaker 1: came before him and so many after him, but even
Speaker 1: the local people, the people in the community, because those
Speaker 1: are the real ones, the people that's in the communities,
Speaker 1: that's living and walking those streets and being racialistically profiled
Speaker 1: and being judged every day that they walk in their cities.
Speaker 1: They're the ones that need to be heard, and they're
Speaker 1: being heard right now, and it's it's great to see.
Speaker 1: And so what does it feel like in in Akron?
Speaker 1: I mean, you talked about Los Angeles a little bit,
Speaker 1: but you know, you and Maverick have said often that
Speaker 1: so much of what animates you started in Akron. You
Speaker 1: guys met when you were children, and I wonder how
Speaker 1: this feels there Lebron. No, absolutely, um, we always we
Speaker 1: always recognize where home is and home base it starts there,
Speaker 1: you know, having my high primary school here and understanding
Speaker 1: the um you know the level of importance with my kids,
Speaker 1: and you know when the pandemic, when when COVID started,
Speaker 1: it was, it was it was kind of heartbreaking because
Speaker 1: I knew that my kids would have to leave the school.
Speaker 1: We had to shut down our school for a period
Speaker 1: of time. And I understand how important structure is and
Speaker 1: hands on is with my kids in my school. So
Speaker 1: you know that was very troubling times for me and
Speaker 1: troubling times for our facult team members and everyone that
Speaker 1: had to do with the I p S. Because you know,
Speaker 1: we're so used to having our kids and we and
Speaker 1: we know how important having them in the classroom and
Speaker 1: having them underneath our our wing and our and our guidance. UM.
Speaker 1: So we're always paying attention to our hometown and listening
Speaker 1: to the people, listening to what's going on there. Um
Speaker 1: So that is constant every single day, no matter um.
Speaker 1: You know, me and Maverick living in Los Angeles, we
Speaker 1: we have hands on and and and our ears to
Speaker 1: what's going on in our home out of acronhol Is.
Speaker 1: With Maverick, one of the things that you did during
Speaker 1: the pandemic that was forced by the pandemic was graduated together.
Speaker 1: Tell me why that was so important and what was
Speaker 1: different about it and what it represented for spring Hill
Speaker 1: and what it says about the opportunity. Yeah, obviously, the
Speaker 1: pandemic unfortunately forced all of students back home and and
Speaker 1: and as Lebron said, unfortunately the kids the students that
Speaker 1: I a school like, I promise the school is for
Speaker 1: a lot of those kids the safest places where they
Speaker 1: get the most structure because home is tough, and and
Speaker 1: and especially for seniors, right high school seniors who didn't
Speaker 1: you know, get the chance to graduate and walk across
Speaker 1: the stage and get the diploma, which is a big
Speaker 1: moment for all of us, and and and even a
Speaker 1: person like me, it's the only graduation I've ever had,
Speaker 1: it's the only graduation Lebron has ever had. So it's
Speaker 1: very memorable, and it's an important moment and everyone's lives.
Speaker 1: So at the company, we got approached um by partners
Speaker 1: to come along and produce graduate together and do it
Speaker 1: with with Lobray and Polo Jobs Company, And it was
Speaker 1: just important that we really over delivered for those students,
Speaker 1: for those kids, it wasn't about us, It wasn't about
Speaker 1: the networks. Lebron did the fantastic job hosting. We were
Speaker 1: fortunate enough to have UH President Barack Obama deliver the
Speaker 1: commencement speech. But it wasn't about Lebron. It wasn't about Obama,
Speaker 1: wasn't about us as a company. It was about creating
Speaker 1: a special memorable moment for those students, just like we all.
Speaker 1: We got the chance to do when we actually got
Speaker 1: to experience it live. Unfortunately they didn't. They had to
Speaker 1: do in their living rooms with their families. And that's
Speaker 1: what made me very happy and proud is all the
Speaker 1: text that I received from from families and parents who
Speaker 1: said that was a special moment for my graduating senior
Speaker 1: and now they ease have something they can remember it by.
Speaker 1: And we did a T shirt. We wanted to make
Speaker 1: it as special as possible and do it in the
Speaker 1: spring Hill Away, which is bringing to life as a
Speaker 1: as a show on Network TV. We did an after
Speaker 1: party on on Uninterrupted Instagram Live channel, and we brought
Speaker 1: a product, so we wanted to really give them a
Speaker 1: full three sixty moments so they felt very memorable and
Speaker 1: something they could always remember, just as though they could
Speaker 1: do it live and in person and Lebron we moved
Speaker 1: from that to More Than a Vote that was launched
Speaker 1: officially this week. What does success look like from More
Speaker 1: Than a Vote as you look toward November? UM, I
Speaker 1: think success looks like UM educating the people that's on
Speaker 1: the grounds in these cities that we're tackling. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: we've had voter suppression for so for so long, people
Speaker 1: not understanding, UM, how they can vote, where they're where
Speaker 1: they can vote, if their vote really counts. UM. You
Speaker 1: know in the black community, you know you always here,
Speaker 1: go out and vote. But what you don't understand is
Speaker 1: who am I voting for? Where can I vote? How
Speaker 1: many people am I voting for? What does these votes mean?
Speaker 1: What do they stand for? UM? So the education side, UM,
Speaker 1: is what we're most proud about. That is success for
Speaker 1: us where we're actually getting UM, these communities out to vote,
Speaker 1: but they are even more educated on who they're voting for,
Speaker 1: how they can vote, where they can vote. UM. They
Speaker 1: have that power. UM. There's some there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people that believe that they can't vote because they've had
Speaker 1: previous convictions with the law or or or they've been
Speaker 1: to jail and they've been told that they cannot vote,
Speaker 1: that their vote UM does not get submitted to things
Speaker 1: of that nature, which is untrue. UM. And a lot
Speaker 1: of states that we're tackling, so to educate and to
Speaker 1: make aware of the people that's on the ground, that
Speaker 1: has a lot to do with the future of our country. UM.
Speaker 1: That is one of the success that we can have.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what happens in November. And Maverick, I
Speaker 1: do wonder you know to speak to this moment where
Speaker 1: where we are, given that you were positioned to do
Speaker 1: this via spring Hill. What are the conversations that are
Speaker 1: incoming to you, whether it's from studios, whether it's from
Speaker 1: CEOs of companies, or your calls getting returned more or
Speaker 1: there is there more interest in what you're doing, given
Speaker 1: that the world does seem to be moving in this moment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and and you keep calling it a moment. Hopefully it's
Speaker 1: not just a moment, right, I don't want to call
Speaker 1: it a moment. This is this is what's needed. This
Speaker 1: is actually more like what this country should be and
Speaker 1: what this world should be. So it's it's it's not
Speaker 1: a moment. I don't it doesn't. It doesn't feel at
Speaker 1: all like a moment to me. As I said, I've
Speaker 1: been blacked my whole life, right, so, and and and
Speaker 1: and pushing to empower people and specifically black people my
Speaker 1: whole life. And you know, our company, as I said,
Speaker 1: if you look at what we made long before this time,
Speaker 1: we made self Made on Netflix, right, we made Shut
Speaker 1: Up and Dribble on Showtime. So we've always been about
Speaker 1: empowering people who feel like us and come from the
Speaker 1: communities that we come from and want to believe in
Speaker 1: our mission. And we've the content we've created. Who we've
Speaker 1: created that content with has always been about that. And
Speaker 1: I think for us as a company, people already understood
Speaker 1: and felt and new and could feel the essence of
Speaker 1: what we're doing. It's obviously a bit magnified now. So
Speaker 1: the conversations that are internally with with all of us
Speaker 1: and the people who work at our company are pretty
Speaker 1: much the same. We're getting some external calls that hey,
Speaker 1: if you guys have ideas that want to help us, sure,
Speaker 1: And me personally, I am getting a lot of calls
Speaker 1: from people other you know, um CEO s. I happen
Speaker 1: to serve on the board of Latin Nations, so I'm
Speaker 1: spending a lot of time with them. And I've learned
Speaker 1: a lot from my Rapino actually, who's the CEO of
Speaker 1: Live Nation, about being deliberate and and he actually is
Speaker 1: the one who taught me like to change things like this,
Speaker 1: going back to what happened with companies and me too,
Speaker 1: and changing how women are treated. What position to get
Speaker 1: in the company, you have to be delivered. I think
Speaker 1: that's what companies have to do. They have to say, hey,
Speaker 1: set put a date on it, and put it them
Speaker 1: out that a year from now we need five black
Speaker 1: people at the top of the company. You have to
Speaker 1: be that deliberate and I've learned that from Micael, and
Speaker 1: I've also got a lot of calls on you know, what,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? What do you think? What do
Speaker 1: you think we should be doing? So I'm taking those
Speaker 1: all in the stride and explaining to people, as I
Speaker 1: just said to you, and hey, this don't treat this
Speaker 1: as a moment. This isn't a moment. This is what
Speaker 1: you should have been doing all along, and this is
Speaker 1: what everyone needs to be doing going forward anyway, And
Speaker 1: still Lebron to that point, what can you do given
Speaker 1: your stature, to ensure that this isn't fleeting? What are
Speaker 1: the things that we need to be and thinking about
Speaker 1: what can you do to really take this forward? In
Speaker 1: many ways? What are you thinking about? Well, for me,
Speaker 1: my mission doesn't change. Um, I've been doing this since
Speaker 1: day one, you know, and Marverages touched on a lot
Speaker 1: about our brand and our company and what we've been doing.
Speaker 1: But you know, even since I you know, came out,
Speaker 1: you know, from from high school to the NBA. You know,
Speaker 1: instead of going with a company, I decided to hire
Speaker 1: my friends. I decided to have hire my friends. Um
Speaker 1: that I believe we can all grow together. We can,
Speaker 1: we can we can have shortcomings, we can have bumps
Speaker 1: in the row, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: and we stick with one another and we're true to
Speaker 1: each other, and we can build this together. So I've
Speaker 1: been doing this since day one, So my mission has
Speaker 1: not changed at all. Continue to educate myself because the
Speaker 1: more educated I am than the people around me will
Speaker 1: get educated as well, and continue to pass that down
Speaker 1: to the youth. I mean, the youth is our future.
Speaker 1: I mean we look at the class of this year,
Speaker 1: the high school graduation, and there's nothing that they will
Speaker 1: not be ready for after having a year like this,
Speaker 1: you know. So for me to have the knowledge that
Speaker 1: I have in the blueprints that I have to be
Speaker 1: able to continue to pass it down to the generation
Speaker 1: below me, to the generation that's with me, and continue
Speaker 1: to understand how important UM, these times if every day
Speaker 1: is it's not being a leader. It's not when it's
Speaker 1: not about when you decide to do it. It's every
Speaker 1: single day. If you want to be a leader, you
Speaker 1: call yourself a leader has to be every single day
Speaker 1: that you wake up and you jump out of your
Speaker 1: bed and people are gonna follow you then, and people
Speaker 1: are gonna understand you and understand that you're not perfect,
Speaker 1: but they know you are true to them. So you know,
Speaker 1: my mission has always been that and it will it
Speaker 1: will not change. I will continue to point out things
Speaker 1: that I know is wrong, um if I see it, um,
Speaker 1: not only socially but also with cameras in my face.
Speaker 1: And I will also continue to lead by example as
Speaker 1: a model citizen, as a black man growing up UM
Speaker 1: in America. So my mission stays the same, Lebron, I
Speaker 1: do wonder. I think back to and and Eric Gardner
Speaker 1: and the T shirt UH that you wore. And the
Speaker 1: NBA has consistently stood behind you and its players in
Speaker 1: terms of protests. Other leagues have not done that, most
Speaker 1: notably the NFL. Now the NFL has changed its tune.
Speaker 1: What do you make of that? UM? I do know
Speaker 1: one thing I can speak from is what I'm a
Speaker 1: part of. And I'm a part of the league with
Speaker 1: a great commissioner and Adam Silver and he's always listened
Speaker 1: to the voice of his players. UM, and I've always
Speaker 1: respected him with that for that. UM, he's given us
Speaker 1: an opportunity to when we feel something that's very wrong
Speaker 1: with society, that's very wrong with what's going on in
Speaker 1: our communities, that we could speak upon that and use
Speaker 1: the NBA shield to back us. And UM, I have
Speaker 1: nothing but respect for Adam Silver. Um. As far as
Speaker 1: the NFL, I'm not in those locker rooms. I'm not
Speaker 1: with those guys, but I do understand UM that an apology.
Speaker 1: I have not heard true official apology to Colin Kaepernick
Speaker 1: on what he was going through and what he was
Speaker 1: trying to tell the NFL and tell the world about
Speaker 1: while he was kneeling when he was doing that as
Speaker 1: a San Francisco forty niner. UM. So I just see
Speaker 1: that to be still be wrong. UM. And now they
Speaker 1: are listening some, but I still think, UM, we have
Speaker 1: not heard that official apology to a man who basically
Speaker 1: sacrificed everything for the better at his world. So UM,
Speaker 1: I can say that about about that. And Maverick, I
Speaker 1: wonder about the Kaepernick issue from from your perspective knowing
Speaker 1: the business world, the endorsement world, the economic element of this,
Speaker 1: How does that change going forward? Given that, I think
Speaker 1: it's fair to say Colin Kaepernick was vindicated in a
Speaker 1: lot of senses. Yeah, well, I think you know. The
Speaker 1: fact of the matter is, Um, Colin Kaepernick did what
Speaker 1: was on his heart. He did what he felt was right.
Speaker 1: He took all the right steps. People always obviously look
Speaker 1: over that he met with the military. Uh. I think
Speaker 1: it was a marine or maybe even a navcal that
Speaker 1: told him sitting was the wrong thing to do. That
Speaker 1: he should knew. That's where he actually got the idea.
Speaker 1: He took the right steps. But I think as black people,
Speaker 1: you know, we've been ringing this alarm for a long time,
Speaker 1: and and and and the rest of the country. Who
Speaker 1: are you know, I happen to believe most people are good,
Speaker 1: So who are not even racist have just been hitting
Speaker 1: snooze on it because it's just the system has been
Speaker 1: set up in a way that even if you're not racist, right,
Speaker 1: that you still perpetuate a system that oppresses black people.
Speaker 1: And and and I keep telling people biased and racist
Speaker 1: get the same results. So if I worked at Bloomberg
Speaker 1: and I you just gravitated as a human to the
Speaker 1: people who went to the same school as you, drink
Speaker 1: the same beer as you, go to the same place
Speaker 1: to hang out as you. So therefore you don't have
Speaker 1: to be racist to still be in a system that
Speaker 1: oppresses black people. And I think, you know, we've been
Speaker 1: saying this a long time, that this is this is
Speaker 1: what this is. It's in the fabric of America, it's
Speaker 1: in the DNA was actually designed that way. And unless
Speaker 1: we actually stop and really make hard turns and changes
Speaker 1: to reverse the social, political, and economic systems, then it's
Speaker 1: still gonna go on. And many people go, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not racist. I go, you're not, but you still have
Speaker 1: benefited from a system and perpetuated system that oppresses black people.
Speaker 1: So I think Colin definitely champion that in a big way.
Speaker 1: But this has been going on for hundreds of years,
Speaker 1: and black people have been saying this for hundreds of years. Lebron,
Speaker 1: I do want to ask you about something that we
Speaker 1: have talked about before that it has continued to be
Speaker 1: an issue, and that is China. Obviously, a little less
Speaker 1: than a year ago, you made some comments that people
Speaker 1: disagreed with. You've gotten some criticism lately from activist Joshua
Speaker 1: Wong about your comments are lack thereof related to China?
Speaker 1: What have you learned from that whole incident? I think
Speaker 1: you know for me personally, like I told you before, Jason, Um,
Speaker 1: you know when you speak about things that I'm knowledgeable
Speaker 1: about that I'm educated on um. And at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, right right is right, and wrong it's wrong,
Speaker 1: and UM, I want the better I want the betterment
Speaker 1: of people, no matter skin color, no matter race, no
Speaker 1: matter anything. So you know I'm in a position of that,
Speaker 1: you know. So UM. You know that's what you always
Speaker 1: learn from from anything that you do in life. You
Speaker 1: is always uh, you know, learning mechanisms is always you know,
Speaker 1: people are gonna agree with you, some people are gonna
Speaker 1: disagree with you, um, but you can't allow that to
Speaker 1: stop your journey and um, and that's what it's all
Speaker 1: about for me. So when you think about what happens
Speaker 1: next from an NBA perspective, Lebron, Uh, assuming that everything
Speaker 1: stays the same, you gotta be playing basketball pretty soon,
Speaker 1: which feels like good news for for a lot of folks,
Speaker 1: and I would imagine especially you. Given the position the
Speaker 1: Lakers were in going into all this, Kyrie Irving has said,
Speaker 1: and I believe you have disagreed that maybe you should
Speaker 1: think about not playing. What do you think? Well for
Speaker 1: me personally, UM, you know, I love the game of basketball,
Speaker 1: UM and UM, and I want to continue to play. UM.
Speaker 1: I believe that sports UM in general, UM has done
Speaker 1: so many great things for for communities, UM, for households,
Speaker 1: bringing people together. UM. And more importantly, UM, like you
Speaker 1: said earlier, with our our commissioner and our league, has
Speaker 1: always allowed us to express the values and things that's
Speaker 1: going on in our lives. So UM, you know, for
Speaker 1: us to be at it together as a league once
Speaker 1: again along was going on right now, it gives us
Speaker 1: another opportunity to continue to talk about, UM, what's going on,
Speaker 1: to social injustice, the police brutality, UM, you know, black
Speaker 1: lives matter, and continue to hit home on things that's
Speaker 1: going on that matters a lot as well. UM. But
Speaker 1: but sports has always been something that kind of gavlanized
Speaker 1: and brought people together and and and you know, just
Speaker 1: make people feel you know, very uplifted. And I know
Speaker 1: in my community right now, we just unfortunately a beautiful
Speaker 1: eighteen year old girl by the name of the Kia
Speaker 1: Crawford was just gunned down, UM and and Akron, Ohio
Speaker 1: last week, a week after graduating high school. UM. You know,
Speaker 1: so you know, just to get people's minds UM. Not
Speaker 1: saying forget about certain situations, but to just have a
Speaker 1: breath of fresh air, to have a breath of a
Speaker 1: sense of love. UM. What what sports can bring. And
Speaker 1: I know what I do on the basketball court can
Speaker 1: bring a lot of happiness to a lot of households,
Speaker 1: including my own, and including my community and my kids.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking forward to the season getting restarted, getting
Speaker 1: back in the Laker uniform. UM, and continue to to
Speaker 1: to push the envelope not only on the court but
Speaker 1: off the court, because like I've been telling a lot
Speaker 1: of my colleagues, a lot of my friends, I won't
Speaker 1: stop until I see change, and I mean real change
Speaker 1: for us as a community, as a Black community, both
Speaker 1: on and off the floor. So my mission stays the same.
Speaker 1: I do wonder for both of you and and taking
Speaker 1: your point, which is a good one, Maverick, that this
Speaker 1: is more than a moment, and I think we all
Speaker 1: hope that it will be more than a moment, and
Speaker 1: maybe it's an inflection point we hope that to be
Speaker 1: the case. There is a gravity, there's a weight to this,
Speaker 1: and I wonder, and maybe Maverick, I'll start with you,
Speaker 1: do you feel that way? Do you feel like there's
Speaker 1: pressure to to do something to ensure that this isn't
Speaker 1: just a moment. I feel that people are finally paying
Speaker 1: attention and focusing on it, right, And and people who
Speaker 1: again who are definitely not racist, are now even focused
Speaker 1: on it, right because the four people go, well, I'm
Speaker 1: not racist, I'm it's fine, everything's fine. And I think,
Speaker 1: you know, part of it was, you know, in some
Speaker 1: ways it's funny because when you know, you see a
Speaker 1: black man like Lebron or a black man like Obama
Speaker 1: who who achieved the ultimate levels of success in this
Speaker 1: in America allows people to say, well, look, America is fine.
Speaker 1: We have a black president. We have a black man
Speaker 1: who started off in the projects of accurate and reached
Speaker 1: the heights of the world and and and just about
Speaker 1: concret the world. But that's not true, right, That's and
Speaker 1: I think that's what we have. We finally have people
Speaker 1: paying attention that, no, this isn't just about people flying
Speaker 1: Confederate flags and disliking or being hateful towards anyone who
Speaker 1: is not of their race. This is actually about a system.
Speaker 1: It's actually systematic. It's not about just it's not simple.
Speaker 1: The Confederate flag is just a symbol that stood for
Speaker 1: something right. But but go past the people are like,
Speaker 1: well if I don't, I don't have a Confederate flag
Speaker 1: at my house, I'm not I get along with everybody.
Speaker 1: That's true, but you still participate in this system that
Speaker 1: needs change, and I think we finally have people paying
Speaker 1: attention to that. Lebron. The final question to you is
Speaker 1: is similar to that I watched an episode of The
Speaker 1: Shop where you talked about the pressure you felt the
Speaker 1: weight of a city when you were growing up as
Speaker 1: a teenager. You're on the cover of Sports Illustrated as
Speaker 1: a junior in high school. That felt like pressure. I know,
Speaker 1: especially for a kid. What does the pressure feel like now? Um,
Speaker 1: it's it's the same. It's the same, but it's my
Speaker 1: responsibility and I'm okay having um that pressure of my
Speaker 1: community and other black communities across America. UM that that
Speaker 1: look up to me and look to me for inspiration
Speaker 1: or for guidance or for which way are we're going Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it's just my responsibility. And I
Speaker 1: completely under saying that, and I represent that with the
Speaker 1: utmost respect. And uh you know, so every day, like
Speaker 1: I said, I leave my home or um you know,
Speaker 1: I wake up out of my bed. I understand that
Speaker 1: it's not just about me. You know, I'm representing so
Speaker 1: many people. UM. You know obviously my family, my wife,
Speaker 1: my three kids, UM and everyone that's um you know,
Speaker 1: part of my family and friends and my type group,
Speaker 1: but also um, you know, the communities that do not
Speaker 1: have a voice, the individuals that do not have a
Speaker 1: voice that's going through a lot of their shortcomings and
Speaker 1: a lot of the adverse moments that I went through
Speaker 1: as a kid as well. So for me to be
Speaker 1: able to um lighten and and righten you know a
Speaker 1: lot of people to what's going on in these communities,
Speaker 1: UM and let their voices be heard is something that
Speaker 1: I walk with every day and the responsibility that I
Speaker 1: walk with. UM. So you know, you can look at
Speaker 1: it this pressure, um you know, but you know pressure
Speaker 1: bus bus pipes and a lot of people's mindset. But
Speaker 1: in mind you know, pressure creates diamonds and that's what
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about here, Lebron James, Maverick Carter,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Really enjoyed catching up with you.
Speaker 1: Thank And that's Lebron James, Star of course of the
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Lakers, and maybe more importantly for this conversation,
Speaker 1: chairman of the spring Hill Company, his business partner, the
Speaker 1: CEO of that company, Maverick Carter. They've known each other
Speaker 1: since they were kids. Carol. This is a special relationship
Speaker 1: and where they are in the culture, where they are
Speaker 1: right now is incredibly, incredibly important. And what I think
Speaker 1: is really fascinating, Jason, considering the backdrop of the last
Speaker 1: month that we've been talking about diversity and racism in America,
Speaker 1: I feel like this is a company for where we
Speaker 1: need to be today. They kind of set the model well,
Speaker 1: and what you just heard, it's just scratching the surface.
Speaker 1: For the full interview, download the podcast. Just go to
Speaker 1: our podcast feed you can get the whole thing. And
Speaker 1: let me tell you, it was wide ranging. We talked
Speaker 1: a lot about the issues of the day. We talked
Speaker 1: a little bit about basketball, but also to your point, Carol,
Speaker 1: where we go from here, And I have to say
Speaker 1: it's a bit of a bracing conversation at times, because
Speaker 1: Maverick Carter especially talks about racism, talks about what he
Speaker 1: has experienced, but also what it means to ultimately enable
Speaker 1: this system that we've all been being a part of,
Speaker 1: and hopefully what we can do about it. I'm just
Speaker 1: gonna say it's a must read, it's a must listen,
Speaker 1: and it's a must watch because you can check out
Speaker 1: your TV special and your conversation with both of them
Speaker 1: on Blueboard TV. This is bo