LeBron James is one of the biggest NBA players to ever grace the game. Together with Michael Jordan, his impact exceeds basketball itself. He has won 4 NBA championships so far with many other impressive accolades. However, James has also had his fair share of controversies throughout his 20-year career in the NBA.
One of the biggest controversies was when his image with supermodel and Tom Brady‘s wife Gisele Bundchen went viral for all the wrong reasons. In 2008, LeBron took a huge step ahead in his career. It was around the time when he won his first-ever NBA MVP award. However, it went downhill after that in that year as many called him out for agreeing to feature on the cover of Vogue.
Why were people against LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen’s cover image in Vogue?
One of the main reasons why many seemed to call out Vogue and the two celebrities was because of how it promoted racism. Many people believed that it resembled an old poster of a King Kong image. It depicted a view of the gorilla with a white woman in its hands.
Vogue U.S April 2008, starring LeBron James and Gisele Bündchen. LeBron became the first black man to appear on the cover of Vogue U.S. Many found it racist due to its resemblance to an old poster of King Kong and captive Fay Wray. pic.twitter.com/u57qhJahEo
— barbilú (@BARBlLU) April 21, 2020
Many believed that the expression and the way the image was captured by Vogue were offensive and that LeBron should not have agreed to it. The NBA star’s appearance in the renowned magazine took a drastic turn as he was the first African American man to feature on the cover. LeBron surely would not have imagined the backlash the image would receive.
The cover came out in 2008, just a year before Gisele’s marriage to the NFL legend Tom Brady as well. The pair tied the knot the following year in California. The couple has had three children since then. However, their marriage has not gone well lately as Brady recently announced that they will be deciding to get a divorce.
The LA Lakers star has not been featured on the cover of Vogue since then after the controversy. As for Gisele, she touched great heights in her career as a model and has gone on to feature in 11 Vogue covers to date.