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Muhammad Ali. Martin Luther King. The Reverend Jesse Jackson.
They are big names with huge reputations in the American civil rights movement. In an interesting twist this week NBA basketballer, Lebron James, has been invited into its inner sanctum.
Rev Jackson told USA Today he wishes Martin Luther King could have met James. It is high praise.
This week, only hours before the Cleveland Cavaliers began defending its NBA title, James was fronting a packed press conference.
The line of questioning was not the upcoming game but events preceding it: the spraying of a racial slur across the gates of James's Los Angeles home.
"No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is tough," James said.
"We've got a long way to go for us as a society, and for us as African-Americans, until we feel equal in America."
At the same time the paint was being applied to the driveway gates in LA, across the country in Washington DC another racist under the cover of anonymity left a noose hanging near an exhibition on segregation at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
It was the second noose at the museum inside a week. It follows a number of nooses appearing at middle schools and college campuses across the USA recently.
Observers say hate crime in the USA is rising. They say what lay under the carpet during the Barack Obama presidency is now out in full view, unchallenged by President Donald Trump.
James praised for show of 'great calm'
Chris Lamb, from Indiana University is the editor of From Jack Johnson to LeBron James: Sports, Media and the Colour Line. He said he thought the current incidents were unremarkable.
"I don't think bigotry takes a holiday during big sports events," Professor Lamb told The Ticket.
"I wasn't surprised — given the political climate of the United States I'm not at all surprised that it happened.
"He (LeBron) responded in a way of great calm, and great consideration and I found his reference to the murder of Emmett Till in 1955 particularly poignant."
James told the media the first thing he thought of was Emmett Till's mother.
Till was a 14-year-old black American who was bashed till he was unrecognisable, then shot through the head and dumped in the river for talking to a white woman in Mississippi during the 1950s.
After his body was recovered from the bottom of the river, his mother insisted the funeral was open-casket so the world could see what had happened to her son — for no other reason than he was black.
The casket Till was originally buried in is now displayed at the NMAAHC after the body was exhumed in 2004 for positive identification after the US Department of Justice re-opened the case that originally found the murderers not guilty.
"LeBron James, to his immense credit, is taking on the politics and is not afraid to express himself on these issues … we have to confront these type of issues as uncomfortable as they might be," Professor Lamb said.
"The original sin for America is racism and its not going to go away until we confront it.
"We're seeing the rise of hate crimes in the United States since Trump was elected but I think it's important what we have right now ... is someone like LeBron James.
"He's coming after a generation of people like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan who put making money ahead of their compassion and refused to get involved in these issues.
"LeBron James has stood up ... he's done it before and he'll do it again."
James has potential to assume iconic status
Exactly 12 months ago, ahead of the 2016 NBA finals series, James was paying tribute to the recently departed Muhammad Ali.
"As a kid I gravitated towards him because he was a champion but I only knew — as a kid — what he did inside the ring," James said.
"As I got older I started to be more knowledgeable about the sport, about sport in general and about the guys who paved the way for guys like myself.
"I understood that he is the greatest of all time and he was the greatest of all time because of what he did outside of the ring."
Sporting champions come and go. Icons like Muhammad Ali live on. It is that sort of iconic status that others, like Rev Jackson, are now starting to give to James.
"He has an acute sensitivity to shining a light in dark places. He embraces that responsibility despite the risk," Rev Jackson said.
"Athletes with greatness, who show authentic manhood, assume that risk. Muhammad Ali assumed that risk — for social justice — now LeBron is too."
Topics: basketball, sport, community-and-society, race-relations, united-states
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