Originally published 2021-03-03.
In late February 2021, Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimović said in an interview released in Sweden that famous athletes like LeBron James should stick to their sport and stay out of politics. James answered a few days later, on 26 February, with a firm no: he said he would keep speaking about racism, equality and voter suppression, and pointed out that Ibrahimović himself had once complained about racism in Swedish football.
The exchange lasted only a few days, but it touched a debate that runs through modern sport: should star athletes use their fame to speak about social issues, or does that distract from the game? Here is what each man said, the background that made James's reply sting, and what happened afterwards.
What Ibrahimović said about LeBron James
Ibrahimović, then 39 and playing for AC Milan, praised James as a basketball player but argued that celebrities make a mistake when they move into political topics. His message was summed up in one line, reported by the BBC: "Do what you're good at." He said he played football because he was the best at it, that he was not a politician, and that stars who reach a certain status should avoid certain subjects because it does not look good.
He did not name a specific statement by James. The context was clear, though: James had been among the most outspoken athletes in the US during 2020, backing the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd and campaigning to increase voter turnout.
How LeBron James responded
Asked about the comments after a Lakers game, James rejected the idea completely. His most quoted sentence was: "I will never shut up about things that are wrong." He went on to list the issues he talks about, including equality, social injustice, racism and what he called systematic voter suppression, and said he would never just stick to sports because he understood how much his platform and voice could do.
He then turned the argument back on Ibrahimović. James said he had done his homework and recalled that the Swede had once spoken out about racism he felt he faced in Sweden because his surname did not sound traditionally Swedish. In James's view, that made Ibrahimović the wrong person to tell others to stay quiet.
Ibrahimović's own words on racism in Sweden
James was referring to remarks Ibrahimović made in 2018, when he was criticised in the Swedish media. Ibrahimović suggested that the treatment had something to do with his background, telling reporters: "I don't say there is racism, but I say there is undercover racism."
That background is often described incorrectly. Ibrahimović was not born in Bosnia and Herzegovina. He was born in Malmö, Sweden, in October 1981, to a Bosniak father from Bosnia and a Croat mother, and grew up in the Rosengård district, a largely immigrant neighbourhood of the city. He chose to play for Sweden and became the national team's record goalscorer, with 62 goals.
So the clash had an awkward twist. The player telling an American star to stay out of social issues had himself raised one of the most sensitive social issues in his own country, and many commentators were quick to point that out.
LeBron James and athlete activism
James's reply did not come out of nowhere. He has spoken on public issues for most of his career. In 2012, he and his Miami Heat teammates posed in hoodies after the killing of Trayvon Martin. In 2014 he warmed up in a shirt reading "I can't breathe" after the death of Eric Garner. In 2018, after a Fox News host told him to "shut up and dribble," he turned the phrase into the title of a documentary series.
In 2018 he also opened the I Promise School in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, a public school for at-risk children run with the local school district. In 2020 he co-founded More Than a Vote, a group of Black athletes and artists that worked to register voters and turned NBA arenas into polling places for the US election.
Athletes taking stands is not new. Muhammad Ali refused the Vietnam draft, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised gloved fists at the 1968 Olympics, and in 2016 NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem. Each time, some fans argued that sport should stay neutral, while others saw the protest as a legitimate use of a public platform.
Taking the knee and the wider debate in football
The row came at a moment when football itself was rethinking its own gestures. After the 2020 protests, Premier League players knelt before matches as an anti-racism statement. In February 2021, Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha became the first Premier League player to say he would stop, explaining that he found the gesture degrading and felt it had stopped achieving anything. He made clear he still opposed racism and wanted real action, such as tackling abuse of players online.
Other sports left it to individual players, and over 2021 more teams and athletes chose to stand. That shift showed that disagreement was not simply between athletes who speak and athletes who stay silent; many who cared deeply about racism disagreed about which actions actually help.
What happened next, and myths to avoid
The two stars did not settle the argument in public. Ibrahimović returned to the Swedish national team in March 2021 and retired from professional football in June 2023. James kept speaking on social and political issues and went on to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer in February 2023.
A few common misreadings of the episode are worth correcting:
- "Ibrahimović is Bosnian-born." He was born and raised in Malmö, Sweden.
- "Athletes have no right to speak on politics." In democracies athletes have the same freedom of speech as anyone else; leagues and sponsors can set their own rules, but there is no general ban.
- "Speaking out always hurts an athlete's career." Experiences vary widely. Kaepernick did not play in the NFL again after 2016, while James remained one of the most marketable athletes in the world.
The more useful question for fans is not whether an athlete should talk, but whether what they say is accurate and fair. That standard applies equally to a footballer telling others to stay quiet and to a basketball player who refuses to.
Sources: BBC: LeBron James hits back at Zlatan Ibrahimović; Wikipedia: Zlatan Ibrahimović; Wikipedia: LeBron James.
COMMENTS