The NBA Keeps Getting More And More Woke

On the night of May 29th the Miami Heat hosted the Boston Celtics for game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. In the aftermath of the horrific Uvalde school massacre, the announcer for the game began the night by urging fans to contact their congressperson and advocate for gun control reform. Following his statement, there was a moment of silence in memory of the victims. Talk about politicizing a terrible tragedy.

To be clear, I don’t think we can do enough to keep the memory of this tragedy alive in our hearts and minds, working together to ensure that this never happens again in our country. As for holding a moment of silence, this is right and appropriate. Then the game can be played.

Most of us get on with life as usual far too quickly, forgetting about the monstrous evil involved in the coldblooded slaughter of elementary school children and teachers. But to advocate for a specific political position at the beginning of a basketball game? Is that the way to do it? Is that the place of sports?

In light of the left-leaning messaging from some of the major sports leagues, with the NFL and the NBA at the top of the list, it’s important to remember why sports are so popular in our society.

They offer a place for escape – a place for fun, rivalry, and competition. They provide a space for people from all generations and backgrounds to watch professionals play the games many of them played when they were kids. In fact, when high emotions and the growing presence of gambling are set to the side, sports, for the most part, allow fans to be kids again. 

We can hiss at the visiting team and cheer for the home team. We can celebrate the last-minute heroics and bewail the missed opportunities. Simply stated, we get caught up in sports because they are sports – not politics. Sports events are not the place for relaying the latest bad news. Sports are our escape.

Somehow, the NBA has failed to grasp that adequately, adding its voice to the BLM protests in 2020 to the point that social messaging appeared on the very basketball courts where the players played. (In October 2020, the NBA announced it would be removing this messaging, with Commissioner Adam Silver stating, “‘this was an extraordinary moment in time when we began these discussions with the players and what we all lived through this summer.’”)

The players were also allowed to vary their uniform appearance, adding their own messages to every single play of every single game. Watching an NBA game meant hearing a social justice sermon, and if you dared to stand for the national anthem, you were an outcast and an outlier.

The announcers even added their moralizing comments when the opportunity presented itself. After all, everyone must be woke.

Unfortunately, the NBA’s wokeness extends in one direction only, celebrating the “coming out” of a marginal player named Jason Collins (this was big news!) and announcing in June 2016: “In celebration of LGBT Pride Month, we’re excited to announce a new collaboration between the NBA, GLSEN [the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network], and Teespring. Beginning on June 7, fans can purchase an exclusive line of Teespring NBA Pride T-shirts featuring the logos of all 30 NBA teams, with all proceeds benefiting GLSEN.”

Enjoy the game, get some merchandise, and help underwrite LGBTQ+ activism in our schools. That’s the spirit of the NBA, even to the point of bullying and intimidating those with differing viewpoints.

That’s what happened when the NBA announced that it was relocating the 2017 All Star game from Charlotte to New Orleans, all because the state of North Carolina reinstituted its bathroom laws (meaning, you had to use the bathroom corresponding to your biological sex). The entire state must be punished!

This prompted me to write an article titled, “The NBA Is the National Bullying Association.”

Then, in 2019, when NBA team owner Daryl Morey had the temerity to post criticism of China’s treatment of Hong Kong protesters, the league virtually threw him under the bus. This is because the NBA is in bed with China, bringing in multiplied hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. By all means, do not bite (or criticize) the hand that so generously feeds you.

It’s no wonder that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), in response to the same gun control announcement referenced at the beginning of this article, tweeted, “The @NBA doesn’t like to talk about the billions they make from a China that enslaves Uyghur Muslims and harvests their organs. But they have no problem politicizing a horrific tragedy in America.”

That’s one reason why so many fans have decided to turn off the TV when it comes to watching the NBA. As Bobby Burack pointed out on Outkick, “since 2019, NBA broadcasts on ABC, ESPN, TNT are down

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases