‘Diversity is what makes this country so great’: LeBron James rejects Trump’s immigration ban

We all have a voice,” said LeBron James, accepting the NAACP’s Jackie Robinson Award on Feb. 1, center court at the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Quicken Loans Arena.
Wearing an NBA-branded Black History Month T-shirt, James, 32, recognized the sacrifices made by Robinson as well as pioneering black athletes Muhammad Ali and Jim Brown.
“I’ve got a long way to go to have the kind of impact these great leaders have been able to have,” James tells THR. “I hope to continue building on the legacy they started.”
In November, James donated $2.5 million to underwrite a Smithsonian National Museum of African American History exhibit on Ali. Founded in 2004, his LeBron James Family foundation has guaranteed college educations to thousands in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, where he lives with wife Savannah and their three children.
“Diversity is what makes this country so great,” says James, who was raised by a single mother in an Akron housing project. “We should all continue to speak up and fight for ideas that bring people together regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, religious beliefs or any other differences.”
As protests continue to rage over President Trump’s ban on immigrants and refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries, James has calibrated his message to encourage peaceful dissent through free speech.
“I am not in favor of this policy or any policy that divides and excludes people,” he says. “I stand with the many, many Americans who believe this does not represent what the United States is all about. And we should continue to speak out about it.”