Yahoo Finance Chris Paul loved LeBron James' emotional interview about the Breonna Taylor decision: 'That's real'
LeBron James gave an impassioned interview about the controversial grand jury decision to not directly charge any officers for Breonna Taylor’s death on Thursday night after leading the Lakers past the Nuggets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.
Chris Paul, after seeing James’ comments for the first time on ESPN on Friday morning, loved James’ emotion from the court.
“That’s real,” Paul said. “I say this all the time, as soon as that clock goes to zero, we’re back to being exactly who we are. You don’t wear that jersey when you go drive home. You don’t wear that jersey to the grocery store. When we go back home and visit our families and guys go back to where they grew up, you don’t walk around with your uniform on. You walk around just as a Black man or a Black woman.
“Like I keep saying, I commend our players in all the leagues, especially the NBA and the WNBA, but all the leagues that continue to stand up against all that’s going on.”
Chris Paul’s emotional conversations with his kids
James, minutes after leading the Lakers to a 114-108 win over the Nuggets, became emotional while talking about Taylor.
A Louisville grand jury announced on Wednesday that they would not charge any of the officers involved in Taylor’s death directly, which sparked widespread backlash and protests. Taylor was killed in March after police attempted to serve a no-knock warrant in the middle of the night at her apartment.
“I’ve got a daughter of mine at home, and a wife and my mom,” James said, in part. “So many predominant Black women in my life, to think about if they weren’t here the next day, or if they were gunned down, it would be something I would never be able to forgive myself or forgive who did it.”
Paul was also asked on ESPN how he explains what is going on in the country to his young children. The 35-year-old started choking up when talking about a conversation he had with his daughter after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis police custody earlier this year.
Though it wasn’t a fun conversation, Paul knows how important it was to have — and keep having — with his children.
“When I showed her and I explained to her what’s going on [with George Floyd], she cried. She cried, because she has, like she said, a brown brother. She has a Black brother,” Paul said.
“As a parent, yes you are a protector, but me and my wife have decided in our house that we want our kids to be aware, we want to talk to them and communicate with them as much as possible because the things that are going on have been happening for a long time, but they’re just so polarized now.
“I’m going to continue to have talks with my kids, because you can’t just walk down the street and drive wherever you want to like you think you should be able to.”
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