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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones responds to Lakers star LeBron James’ comments

Jones only had praise for James.

On Wednesday, LeBron James, unprompted, brought up the recently uncovered 1957 photo of Jerry Jones. Two days later, the Cowboys owner responded to the Los Angeles Lakers star’s comments.

Jones only had praise for James during his weekly radio appearance Friday on 105.3 The Fan [KRLD-FM].

“Well, first of all, you have to hear me say how much I think of LeBron. 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 the sport, he has taken sports, he’s taken his venues and used those platforms,” Jones said. “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 changes. And I did hear what he had to say.”

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Jones was then asked for general thoughts on James’ comments.

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“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,” Jones said. “He’s made a lot of people a lot of money. I hope I have, too.”

After a Lakers game earlier this week, James said he was “disappointed” that media members hadn’t questioned him about the photo, which shows a teenage Jones on the steps of his Arkansas high school while six Black students were denied entry.

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James, who identified as a fan of the Cowboys until recent years, questioned the level of scrutiny being applied to Jones’ photo compared to the recent controversy surrounding former teammate Kyrie Irving.

“When I watched Kyrie talk, and he says, ‘I know who I am, but I want to keep the same energy when we’re talking about my people and the things they’ve been through,’ and that Jerry Jones photo is one of those moments that our people, Black people, have been through in America,” James said. “And I feel like as a Black man, as a Black athlete, someone with power and with a platform, when we do something wrong or something that people don’t agree with, it’s on every single tabloid, every single news coverage. It’s on the bottom ticker. It’s asked about every single day.

“But it seems like to me that the whole Jerry Jones situation, the photo, and I know it was years and years ago, and we all make mistakes, I get it. It seems like it’s just been buried under, like, ‘Oh, it happened. OK. We just move on.’ And I was just kind of disappointed that I haven’t received that question from you guys.”

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On Thursday, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was asked about Jones’ photo and James’ comments.

“Obviously, we can be more empathetic and give grace to one another,” Prescott said. “I don’t know if I’ve fully processed it all the way, honestly ... I think whether LeBron is talking about the picture, I think that’s on Jerry to address, right? And since it was 65 years ago …

“I mean, look at the man’s resume since then, right?"

One of Jones’ former players, Michael Irvin, also gave his thoughts on the photo recently.

“All I can do is tell you what I know about Jerry. And I hear people say a lot of things, but I go by what I know. I know the man, to be a righteous man and a very good man,” Irvin said. “Am I going to take some picture that was 65 years old? ... I’m looking at the picture, Jerry’s sitting in the back. It was in Arkansas back ‘56, ‘57, whenever that was. Everybody in the South was a certain way back in those days. That’s just what it was. Everybody in the South was some way. I don’t see Jerry at the front of that line.”

Jones has said his presence that day more than 65 years ago was driven by curiosity, not prejudice or animosity toward the students who were trying to enroll.

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