Earlier this week, NBA legend LeBron James expressed disappointment that reporters hadn’t asked him about the 1957 photo of Jerry Jones at a school that Black students were trying to enter.
On Friday, Jones was asked about Lebron’s comments during a Friday appearance on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas.
“Well, first of all, you have to hear me say how much I think of LeBron,” Jones said, via Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t know of anybody I respect any more. I don’t know of anybody that has taken every opportunity he’s had and maximized it. He not only is an absolute great ambassador for sport. He has taken sports, he’s taken his venues and used those platforms. I want to be sure that you know where I’m coming from. It made buttons pop off my vest, so to speak, when he would talk about how much of a Cowboy fan he was. He would have made a great tight end. And that doesn’t change. There’s nothing about any of that that changes. And I did hear what he had to say.”
Jones was asked if he had thoughts about LeBron’s remarks.
“I’ve just given them to you,” Jones said. “Excuse me. I’ve just given them to you there. Certainly, he has influence just because of all of the above: his accomplishments, how he’s utilized his sport, how he’s utilized his platform, how we have done it. He has enhanced basketball. He’s made a lot of people a lot of money. I hope I have, too.”
LeBron didn’t actually express criticism of Jones for his presence in the photo. Lebron simply wanted to express disappointment that reporters hadn’t asked him about it. That said, chances are that LeBron wouldn’t have said he was fine with Jones’s presence in a crowd that was, regardless of curiosity or any other claimed intent, intimidating the students from entering the school.