HBO last night debuted LeBron James and Maverick Carter's "The Shop," and the show featured an "expletive-laden, free-flowing conversation with some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment." This represents the "first of James’s significant off-the-court, media projects since signing" with the Lakers. “The Shop” ran through a "gamut of topics over laughter and wine, mainly focusing on race, fatherhood and the culture wars." It offered an "unfiltered glimpse" of James' "belief that there is a double-standard among white and black athletes and how they are perceived in the media" (WASHINGTON POST, 8/29).
The first episode featured sports figures Candace Parker, Draymond Green, Odell Beckham Jr., Alvin Kamara and Michael Bennett, plus entertainers Snoop Dogg, Vince Staples and Jon Stewart. Staples: "If it’s really ‘shut up and dribble,’ then the shoes don’t sell, then the jerseys don’t sell and the games don’t keep going.” James talked about his social activism, saying he has the “opportunity to be the inspiration to what all these kids are looking up to, and for me to just sit back and not say shit when a lot of my peers didn’t say shit, it didn’t feel right.” Bennett, who is embroiled in the NFL player protest controversy, said, “You have to be able to stand up on your morals simply because you are representing people who look like you, and they're looking up to you.” James said when he "decided I was going to start speaking up," his "whole mindset was, ‘It’s not about me’" (“The Shop,” HBO, 8/28).
