LeBron James fired back at Zlatan Ibrahimovic following the AC Milan star's criticism of his political activism as the basketball icon insisted he was the 'wrong guy' to go at.
The LA Lakers star has been a prominent voice against police brutality and racism in recent years - and earlier this week, Ibrahimovic urged him to 'do what he's good at' instead.
Asked about LeBron's political activity, the 39-year-old told UEFA and Discovery+ in Sweden: "Do what you're good at. Do the category that you do.
"I play football because I'm the best at playing football, I'm no politician. If I'd been a politician, I would be doing politics.
"This is the first mistake famous people do when they become famous and come into a certain status. For me it is better to avoid certain topics and do what you're best at doing, because otherwise it doesn't look good."
It's not the first time LeBron has been levelled with such criticism: the four-time NBA champion was infamously told to 'shut up and dribble' by Fox News host Laura Ingraham after comments as former US president Donald Trump.
And the 36-year-old hit back at former Manchester United striker Ibrahimovic by explaining why he takes a stand.
"At the end of the day, I will never shut up about things that are wrong," he said in response to Ibrahimovic's comments. "I preach about my people and I preach about equality, social justice, racism, voter suppression, things that go on in our community because I was a part of my community at one point and saw the things that were going on, and I know what's still going on because I have a group of 300-plus kids at my school that are going through the same thing and they need a voice.
"I'm their voice and I use my platform to continue to shed light on everything that might be going on, not only in my community but in this country and around the world.
"There's no way I would ever just stick to sports, because I understand this platform and how powerful my voice is. He can just ask Renee Montgomery if I would have shut up and just dribbled, just seeing that beautiful Black woman today be part of a group - she's part of the ownership group with the Atlanta Dream."
LeBron also highlighted how Ibrahimovic called out 'undercover racism' back in 2018 amid criticism from the Swedish press.
"It's funny he'd say that because I believe in 2018 he was the same guy who said, when he was back in Sweden, talking about the same things, because his last name wasn't a certain last name, that he felt like it was racism going on when he was out on the pitch," said James.
"Right? He did say that, right? I thought he said that. I speak from a very educated mind. I'm kinda the wrong guy to actually go at, because I do my homework."
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