Imagine it's 2005 and Lebron says something unflammatory like "McVeigh had the right idea" or something. It would be in the sports news for one evening. Every

Imagine it's 2005 and Lebron says something unflammatory like "McVeigh had the right idea" or something. It would be in the sports news for one evening. Everyone would be like "ok weirdo". Some sports commentator would dredge it up in 2008 as a punchline to a joke and that would be it. The same thing in 2020 and someone would write a manifesto about how he's Literally Hitler(TM). There would be 50-50 odds a major outlet would publish that manifesto. The league would bench him for a substantial time. ESPN would distance themselves. He'd lose promotion deals. It would seriously negatively impact his career despite having exactly zero bearing on his ability to play basketball, the thing he's paid to do. Edit: Better, non-hypothetical examples: Mel Gibson had to drunkenly spout hateful things about people who are important in his industry to get kicked out of it. These days you don't even have to offend people relevant to you to get that kind of treatment. Look at the flak that 2000s rappers caught for song lyrics that objectified women and glorified street violence. Now imagine what that kind of backlash would look like today. Probably much bigger.