In recent years, the NBA's really embraced wokeness and woke causes. At least a huge chunk of the players have. Entertaining fans has taken a distant back seat to social justice (except when it comes to China, of course).
But it seems that the situation is a little different when you're talking about some of the teams' owners. The New York Times recently took a closer look at what those team owners have been up to lately, and, well, the Times found some things.
The New York Times is disappointed in people's choices again.
— Just One Strawman (@JustOneStrawman) August 3, 2023
They certainly are:
The Orlando Magic wrote a $50,000 check to a super PAC supporting Ron DeSantis. It's a reminder that for all of the NBA’s professions of support for progressive causes, some billionaire team owners have deployed their own power to fight those very causes. https://t.co/SZRhuaplzz
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 3, 2023
The New York Times' Sopan Deb has quite a few pearls to clutch over this:
The Magic’s donation to DeSantis, who is in his second term as governor, was not the first time an N.B.A. team had put its name on a political donation. In the 1990s, the Phoenix Suns, then owned by Jerry Colangelo, donated tens of thousands to the Republican National Committee. But the Magic’s check appears to be the first direct donation from an N.B.A. team to a group directly allied with a presidential candidate — or one, like DeSantis, who was widely expected to run.
The donation was also a reminder that for all of the N.B.A.’s professions of support for progressive causes that its players believe in, several billionaire team owners — whose interests [NBA Commissioner Adam] Silver represents — have deployed their own power to fight those very causes. Mike Bass, a league spokesman, said in a statement, “Team governors make their own decisions on the political contributions they make and we respect the right of members of the N.B.A. family to express their political views.”
...
The N.B.A. is hardly to blame when a hot-button bill fails to pass a divided Congress. But it is harder for the league to effect change when some of its team owners have made it their mission to elect people who oppose that change.
...
What the N.B.A. should and should not campaign for isn’t an easy question. But since the league loudly stood up for transgender people in one instance and abortion rights in another, its silence is noteworthy when a franchise owner, using the team name, supports a politician with opposing views.
The N.B.A. is, in the end, a business whose primary goal is to make money. If it is also genuinely interested standing up for some social issues, it will need to stand up to its owners too.
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Yes! NBA owners being allowed to hold different opinions and support causes their players don't like is unacceptable! This travesty cannot stand! It must stop, or Americans can go ahead and kiss our voting rights goodbye! Wait, what?
"Republican politicians who oppose... voting rights" https://t.co/rk6nZmfqqS pic.twitter.com/o7BzPlk6ig
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 3, 2023
Who ... who opposes voting rights? What a ridiculous claim to make.
The equivalent would be "Democratic politicians who support killing babies, banning guns, felons voting and increased crime". That's how a partisan Republican would phrase it, yes, but not anything you'd ever read in a "news" article in the Times. https://t.co/YcdDZbdmuA
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) August 3, 2023
Almost as if the New York Times isn't actually about "news" anymore. After all, they published a piece that is openly complaining about conservative/Republican NBA team owners supporting conservative/Republican politicians as a straight-news piece despite the fact that there's an obvious bias. So either the New York Times has forgotten what news actually is or has decided they're just not going to traffic in actual news anymore. In either scenario, they're asking us all not to take them seriously. Which is very easy to do, seeing as we haven't been taking them seriously for some time now.
So sports teams can only donate to Democrats? Surely you don’t actually think that
— ASGI Guy (@AsgiGuy) August 3, 2023
No, see, that's exactly what they think. Because again, these are not serious people.
How dare anyone give money to any cause not endorsed by the NY Times. pic.twitter.com/w4nZDkizCs
— Joel M. Petlin (@Joelmpetlin) August 3, 2023
Huh?
— Jim Stinson (@jimstinson) August 3, 2023
Can you guys be even more partisan? Sheeze.
— PH (@OrangeMoneys) August 3, 2023
They'll find a way. They always do.
There was a time where actual journalists maintained the appearance of impartiality.
— Jarrod Schooley (@TheBigBengal) August 3, 2023
This is a disgusting and shameful article.
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