LeBron James Praises 'Black Panther' as "One of the Greatest Movies"

The King of Wakanda is receiving high praises from the King of the NBA. During an interview on Tuesday, LeBron James went on for over two minutes on Marvel‘s latest blockbuster, Black Panther, calling it “one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen.” James added, “And for so many different reasons why. At this time and place right now in the society we’re in right now I think it was like perfect timing.”

The biggest thing that has made Black Panther so successful is its spotlighting of people of color in strong roles and placing importance on minority representation in film — something the movie world has been lacking as of late. The movie, which recorded the second-best sophomore weekend of all-time and has already become the third-highest grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe release domestically — behind only The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron — totaling $411.7 million USD after only 11 days.

James then elaborated by using a metaphor about some of the greatest players in the NBA. Read his full praises below:

“Timing is everything. It’s almost like when Bird and Magic came into the league, they just needed to have that at that particular time. It’s almost like when Jordan entered it. It’s almost like when somebody found out how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich: it’s like the greatest thing to happen at that point in time.

Black Panther is that because right now in society where we’re talking Black Lives Matter and equality and things of that nature and we see a community in Wakanda who basically sheltered themselves away from everybody because they felt that what they had and how they protected their own was the best way for them to survive. And then toward the end they said ‘In order for us to survive as a people we have to be one. In order for us to be as great as we can be we have to be one. And we’re going to lend our resources, we’re going to lend what we’ve done over our whole existence to everybody.

And for me, as a kid growing up, I never thought that I would see a black superhero. I love superheroes growing up, I’m going to be honest, I loved Batman. I loved Superman. I loved Spiderman and Iron Man. But I never thought I could be them. Because they were all white males, or white. So I kind of looked up more to athletes. And rappers. And people more in my neighborhood. Because they were ones of color. So to see how powerful Black Panther is and how powerful his tribe was and his people around him, it just gave you like a sense of like ‘Yes, not only can we be the president of the United States, Barak Obama, we can be a superhero in Black Panther.’ That’s so dope for me. And so dope for my kids to see that, like, right now in this point in time.”

In fitting news, Nike announces the release of the LeBron 15 “Equality” via online draw.