Hating Donald Trump trades like currency among the left.
The more people loudly rail against Trump and Republicans, the more oxygen the mainstream media give them.
Now one sports team got a huge award for being thoroughly anti-Trump.
Each year since 1954, Sports Illustrated bestows the award of “Sportsperson of the Year” to someone influential in athletics.
Previous winners include Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, and Tom Brady.
But this year Sports Illustrated is doing something rare; they’re giving the award to an entire team, the Golden State Warriors.
This is only the third time an entire team won the award; the previous times were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that pulled off one of the biggest upsets in sports, and the 1999 U.S. Women’s soccer team that won gold.
The Warriors captured their third championship in four years, but that isn’t the real reason why they won the award.
Sports Illustrated picked the Warriors because they’re the “wokest” team in sports.
The magazine wrote the following about their announcement, “The current boom, too, has coincided with the increasing intersection of sports and the hard questions of politics, race and identity, among others, that have so divided the country.”
And there it is.
The magazine continued, “The Warriors—forcefully but civilly—embraced the unique platform afforded them.”
It’s no longer enough to be excellent at sports.
Now athletes and teams must use their “unique platform” to the media’s liking.
Sports Illustrated also said, “No, [the Warriors] did not change the world and its attendant conflicts and ills, but they did not ignore them either.”
Even head coach Steve Kerr routinely spews his brand of progressive politics.
He rails against Trump and openly pushes for gun control.
So the head coach and the players make it a habit to take shots at Trump whenever possible.
The team also refused to attend the White House two years in a row.
Thanks to the mainstream media, sports is no longer pure entertainment.
Sports are inching toward Hollywood in the sense that the performers are used as symbols for the Democratic Party.
Everybody knows the mainstream news media skews left, but the sports media is just as biased.
A recent survey showed that only 3.9% of sportswriters voted for Donald Trump.
That leftist attitude in sports coverage trickles down into the narratives that get built.
The Warriors winning “Sportsperson of the Year” is just the latest example.
Another data point is LeBron James.
He’s one of only two athletes to win the award twice.
In 2016, he claimed the award after bringing a championship to his home state of Ohio, but he also became very political.
James campaigned hard for Hillary Clinton and shared the stage with her at an event in Ohio.
His involvement in the campaign arguably had an adverse effect, as Hillary’s lead in Ohio not too long after the endorsement.
But what James lost in politicking, he won in media adulation.
Sports reporters heap praise on LeBron for his political platitudes and his hard-hitting criticisms of Trump, such as calling him a “bum.”
LeBron even wore a hat endorsingBeto O’Rourke in the run-up to his loss to incumbent Ted Cruz.
James took his talents to Hollywood to play for the Los Angeles Lakers and grow his brand.
But the left has a plan for LeBron and the Warriors, and basketball has little to do with it.