The NBA has gone all-in on being politically active.
Many fans have been completely turned off by the league’s new direction.
And a Hall of Fame coach quit watching the NBA after the league did one thing.
Hall of Fame NBA coach Phil Jackson angered liberals when he mentioned the league’s pandering political messages turned him off.
It reached a crescendo when the league had “woke” messages on the floor and on players’ jerseys in the Bubble playoffs during COVID 2020.
Jackson said, “They went into the lockout year, and they did something that was kind of wonky. They did a bubble down in Orlando, and all the teams that could qualify went down there, and stayed down there…And they had things on their backs like ‘Justice.’ I made a little funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down’…So my grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names. So I couldn’t watch that.”
A lot of people tuned out when that happened, including the 11-time NBA champion; Jackson won six titles with the Chicago Bulls, and five with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Jackson added, “They even had slogans on the floor, on the baseline…It was catering. It was trying to cater to an audience, or trying to bring a certain audience into play. And they didn’t know it was turning other people off. People want to see sports as non-political…We’ve had a lot of different type of players that have gone on to be—Bill Bradley was a senator, a number of baseball players have been representatives and senators… But their politics stay out of the game. It doesn’t need to be there.”
Former NBA player and current ESPN analyst Jalen Rose took exception to Jackson’s reasonable comments.
Rose said, “You can’t make this up…The same Phil Jackson that won championships with some of the greatest Black athletes in the history of the game. Michael Jordan. Scottie Pippen. Shaquille O’Neal. Kobe Bryant. Made millions on their backs. And off their sweat equity.”
Rose assumes that all black people agree with the protesting.
He doesn’t know every player’s politics.
In the 1990s, Michael Jordan allegedly said he didn’t get political because “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”
Sports bring people together, which is why the Left want to make them divisive.
He continued, “You’re sitting there watching the game with your grandkids, and ya’ll think it’s funny when justice passes the ball to equal opportunity? … When somebody shows you who they are, believe them.”
My thoughts on Phil Jackson’s comments. https://t.co/Hgq5gPNJg4 pic.twitter.com/Vp3eH9uukH
— Jalen Rose (@JalenRose) April 23, 2023
Rose is the embodiment of what Jackson was talking about.
This isn’t the first time he’s spouted off about politics.
He said Mount Rushmore should be destroyed and called for the police officers that “murdered” Breonna Taylor to be arrested in the middle of an ESPN broadcast.
Jalen Rose yelling “it would be a great day TO ARREST THE COP THAT KILLED Breonna Taylor” before ESPN cuts to a commercial break during halftime pic.twitter.com/i0Pnmak2xO
— colby (@colbydroscher) September 24, 2020
Rose is proving Jackson’s point quite clearly.