In a recent interview with ESPN, New York Knicks President Phil Jackson referred to LeBron James and his business partner Maverick Carter as a "posse," which has left the NBA star questioning Jackson's use of the word, saying it had racial undertones, according to the Associated Press.
Carter said he feels that Jackson used "posse" because both Carter and James are young black men, and James echoed similar sentiments.
“We see the success that we have, but then there is always someone that lets you know how far we still have to go as African Americans,” James said. “I don’t believe that Phil Jackson would have used that term if he was doing business with someone else and working with another team or if he was working with anybody in sports that was owning a team that wasn’t African American and had a group of guys around them that didn’t agree with what they did. I don’t think he would have called them a posse. But it just shows how far we have to go. But it won’t stop us from doing what we need to do as a group.”
Jackson made the comments while discussing James' decision to leave the Miami Heat.
“When LeBron was playing with the Heat, they went to Cleveland and he wanted to spend the night,” Jackson told ESPN. “They don’t do overnights. Teams just don’t. So now Spoelstra has to text Riley and say, ‘What do I do in this situation?’ And Pat, who has iron-fist rules, answers, ‘You are on the plane, you are with this team.’ You can’t hold up the whole team because you and your mom and your posse want to spend an extra night in Cleveland.”
I have to agree with James; I don't exactly see Jackson referring to a group of white players as a "posse," either.