Silver 'incredibly proud' of LeBron, Durant for speaking up on social issues

LeBron James and his NBA peers have the admiration of commissioner Adam Silver for continuing to use their considerable platform to make statements about political and social issues.

"I'm incredibly proud of our players for using the platform they have, as players in the NBA and on social media, to speak out on issues that are important to them," Silver told reporters Saturday.

He'd been asked to address James and Kevin Durant's responses to FOX News host Laura Ingraham, who attacked them in an on-air segment for deigning to "run their mouths" about President Donald Trump, and suggested they should "shut up and dribble."

James offered a response that was both pointed and good-natured, saying "we will definitely not shut up and dribble," and finishing by expressing gratitude that "I get to sit up here and talk about social injustice, equality, and why a woman on a certain network decided to tell me to shut up and dribble. So thank you, whatever her name is. I don't even know her name."

"That was definitely an ignorant comment," Durant said of Ingraham. "I do play basketball, but I am a civilian and I am a citizen of the United States, so my voice is just as loud as hers, I think - or even louder. ... I don't play basketball 24 hours a day. I live in this world, just like everybody else. I don't get what she's saying, but I know what she's trying to say."

Said Silver: "I was proud of LeBron and Kevin's response to the comments that were made about them."

He also addressed Ingraham's insinuation that James and Durant don't deserve the right to give political opinions because they don't have college degrees.

"I think it's incredibly unfair to them," Silver said. "Just because they have enormous opportunity - in the way maybe Bill Gates did, or Mark Zuckerberg - to create enormous wealth for themselves and their families, certainly doesn't mean that they don't care about an education."

"It's not lost on me, or anybody in this room, that there's a lot of racial tension in this country, and an enormous amount of social injustice," Silver added. "And I do see a role for this league in addressing those issues."