How LeBron James advocates for labor rights + player empowerment

California just took a revolutionary step in allowing college athletes get paid for their labor by allowing them to make money from endorsements. Governor Gavin Newsom legalized a bill that allows student-athletes be paid from from the use of their names, images, and likenesses starting in 2023.

NBA superstar LeBron James helped lead the fight for paying players — even though he never went to college himself.

In fact, as the country’s most famous male athlete, James has helped spark the era of “player empowerment” in the first place.

Read more: Steph Curry says he deals with high-pressure situations by tensing all the muscles in his body and then releasing them

“The idea of athlete autonomy — of a player having more control and power over his or her own career, of not just being an employee of an owner who is not the one out running and dunking — has caught on in the public consciousness in a way it had failed to before,” Will Leitch, noted sports journalist and the founder of Deadspin, wrote for NBC News. “James’ move [to Miami] was the instigating act.”

Here are all the ways James has advocated for player and labor rights during his career: