LeBron James said something dumb on his TV show the other day.

You can read the full quote here or watch the show and get context; the gist of what made the comment spread is LeBron’s analogizing the NFL and NBA to slavery.

Look, LeBron is arguably the biggest thing in American sports. He gets interviewed and asked questions every damn day; anything he says can become a headline not because it’s profound, it’s because it was said by LeBron. His every word is possible talking-head and social media content fodder.

At the same time, LeBron has gone out of the way to inform the public that he’s more than an athlete. He has his own TV shows where he talks about what’s on his mind. He speaks out — via social media and controlled interviews/shows, but still —when he has an opinion. He wants to be looked at as a social activist, I suppose.

Which means that he, like anyone else who chooses to be out there “speaking out,” gets called in his dumb statements.