This week’s Sports Illustrated features the announcement that LeBron James has been named the magazine’s Sportsperson of the Year for 2016. As you might expect, SI ace Lee Jenkins’ stellar feature on the reigning NBA champion, NBA Finals MVP and first player in NBA history to tally 27,000 points, 7,000 rebounds and 7,000 assists got the cover:

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Sports Illustrated named LeBron James its 2016 Sportsperson of the Year. (Image via Sports Illustrated) More

If we’re being honest, the first thing I noticed in the shot was that turtleneck, which stands an estimated three apples high and covers nearly as much skin as the latter-days headbands LeBron wore before abandoning them in March of 2015. But other folks — like Tomás Ríos of Vocativ — found their eyes drawn to something else:

Computer, scan for ally credentials and enhance. pic.twitter.com/Z95etCT5K4 — TOMÁS RÍOS (@TheTomasRios) December 12, 2016





We don’t know for sure why James wore the safety pin on his lapel. It’s perhaps worth noting, though, that James’ seemingly ever-increasing willingness to weigh in on issues of social import in the United States played a major role in Sports Illustrated deciding to name him Sportsperson of the Year for the second time, and that this particular accessory has a very specific social and cultural connotation these days. From Brian Knowlton of Agence France-Presse:

In the days since [Donald] Trump’s election, people have begun placing a single pin on their shirts to convey a message of support — of safety, and protection — to minorities, women, immigrants and others who may feel threatened by the strident rhetoric that carried the Republican billionaire to the White House.

The safety pin social media movement gained prominence in Britain on Twitter as a sign of solidarity with immigrant and minority populations facing a reported surge in hate crimes after the Brexit vote in June, with its strong anti-immigrant undertones.

Since the U.S. election, the phenomenon has started catching on across the Atlantic, with celebrities including actress Debra Messing as well as ordinary people posting images of their safety pins on social media.

On the Sunday after the election, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith showed up to his postgame press conference wearing a small silver safety pin on his shirt. He later acknowledged that he intended the pin as a statement of solidarity, though he stopped short of any bombastic rhetoric, according to Dave Skretta of The Associated Press:

“It’s funny,” Smith said Wednesday, “I didn’t even think it got noticed at the time.” […]

“I’ll tell you what it wasn’t: It wasn’t anything political. Nothing to do with the presidential election. For me, just everything to do with tolerance, understanding,” Smith explained before heading out to practice.

“Something I found out about at my kids’ school where they were teaching about diversity and tolerance, and I don’t know why. Just felt like it was pertinent at the time.”

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James, you’ll recall, publicly endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. He also stumped for Clinton in Ohio, citing her interest in rebuilding America’s public school system, making college affordable for all, and addressing violence that disproportionately befalls the African-American community — priorities that all fall in line with the priorities of his LeBron James Family Foundation, which will provide four-year scholarships to the University of Akron for qualifying students in the foundation’s “I Promise” program.

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