The Los Angeles Clippers protested racist bile allegedly spewed by franchise owner Donald Sterling by wearing their warmup shirts inside-out before Sunday's NBA playoff game against the Golden State Warriors.
Now the star-studded Miami Heat -- led by none other than LeBron James -- have done the same, expressing solidarity with Clippers players by wearing their own warmups inside-out before Monday night's playoff game against the Charlotte Bobcats.
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Some sideline pundits called for Clippers players to boycott their playoff games in response to comments allegedly made by Sterling and captured on an audio clip released Friday. But play they did, and their inside-out warm-ups, which hid the Clippers logo, seemed to send a message: "We're playing for ourselves and each other, not the man who owns this team."
Here's James wearing his inside-out warm-up shirt before Monday night's game.
The photo below shows more players after they'd dumped their outer warm-up layers at mid-court to reveal the inside-out shirts, just like the Clippers did before Sunday's game in Oakland, Calif.
The NBA will hold a press conference on Tuesday to address its investigation into the comments purportedly made by Sterling, even though Sterling's attitudes toward minorities have been known by close followers of the NBA for years. Meanwhile, Clippers sponsors are dropping like flies as brands look to disassociate themselves from Sterling's comments.
If you're scoring at home, this isn't the first time the James and the Heat have used clothing to make a statement about racial issues. In March 2012, the team posed for the below photograph in hoodies to protest the killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin.