I stopped trying to maintain a separate sports blog some
time ago. Keeping a weekly blog on
other topics was enough, I thought. But
over the last several weeks, I find myself drifting into the topic again,
especially that sports has found itself at the intersection of politics and
economics.
I’m talking about the N.B.A.
Last week, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, a
favorite N.B.A. team in China tweeted out a fairly innocuous message, “Fight
for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”
In an earlier era, had someone transmitted that message
about the Hungarians in 1956, the Czechs in 1968, or any country of the former
Eastern Bloc in 1989, the country would have closed ranks around him and
similar messages would have cropped up all over.
But this is globalist, multicultural, progressive America
2019, and the social justice warriors have taught us that America is an evil an
oppressive force in the world, or so Steve Kerr, Stephan Curry and Gregg
Popovich tell us.
Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morley, quickly deleted his tweet,
and offered an apology for having offending the Xi regime worth of any
statement ever given by a hostage, “I did not intent my tweet to cause any
offense to Rockets fans and friends of mine in China. I was merely voicing one
thought, based on one interpretation, of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity since that
tweet to hear and consider other perspectives.”
Daryl, it’s not complicated. It’s not complicated at all.
Our eyes have been opened.
They have been opened to the hypocrisy of all of you, that wore “Hands
Up, Don’t Shoot” t-shirts protesting an incident in which those words were
never uttered, and you blathered on about free speech in support of Colin
Kaepernick. But now, as Chinese police
quell the breath of freedom in Hong Kong with truncheons and tear gas, suddenly
you are mute and apologetic.
Kerr is perhaps the worst of the woke N.B.A., lashing out at
Trump, muttering about AR-15s, and mumbling about human rights abuses in the
U.S., while his Chinese puppeteers put people in re-education camps and beat
and jail protesters. None of that
happens here.
The N.B.A.’s partner in this, Nike (famously ditching the
Betsy Ross sneakers last summer) rushed to remove Houston Rockets gear from
Chinese stores because they were “offensive” to the Chinese authorities. The N.B.A. then complied and ordered their
players to refrain from press conferences.
The face of the N.B.A., LeBron James claimed that the GM of
the Rockets was “misinformed” on China.
I’ll bet the Chinese might even have a spot open for Daryl Morey in one
of their re-education camps. Did LeBron
think Xi was kidding when he said that any attempt to divide China would result
in “crushed bodies and shattered bones?”
I note with irony that Jamestown, the first colony in what
would become the U.S., the colonists endured incredible risks, hardship and
starvation to gain their liberty. In
the new James world of the LeBron type, liberty is deeply subordinated to
personal profit.
I fixed my Nike golf shirt this summer by having a Betsy
Ross flag sewn over the swoosh emblem. I
will not watch another N.B.A. on T.V. or attend one in person, even if the
tickets are free.
And I have a simple message for dolts like Lebron, Kerr,
Curry and Popovich. The most important
thing you need to know about team sports is which team you play for.
You’ve chosen.
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