The Bucks’ decision prompted the NBA to postpone the remaining two playoff games on Wednesday and another three Thursdays. Players in other professional sports leagues, including the WNBA, MLB and MLS and professional tennis, followed suit.
NBA players met Thursday and voted according to the playoffs again ESPN.
ESPN analyst Maria Taylor called the Bucks protest “revolutionary”, and longtime sportsman Bob Costas said he had never seen in his career a sport comparable to that.
Asked by reporters Thursday about the protests, Trump responded that “NBA ratings were very poor.”
“Unfortunately, they have become like a political organization, and that is not a good thing, for sports as the country,” he added.
White House top officials were also dismissive, calling the protests “stupid” – rich athletes showing how happy they are to take a night off work without consequence.
“NBA players are very happy that they have the financial position to take a night off from their work,” Jared Kushner, Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, told CNBC. “With the NBA there’s a lot of activism and I think they put out a lot of slogans, but I think we need to turn that from slogans and signals to actual action that will solve the problem.”
However, these answers ignore the cultural significance of sport – something of which the president, himself, is well aware.
Before Trump was in the Oval Office, he counted pro athletes like NFL quarterback Tom Brady and coaches like Bobby Knight among his famous friends. As president, he has tried to use his connections with the sports world to his advantage by, for example, putting pressure on NFL owners in the knee-jerk controversy, or fighting with NASCAR, the NFL or the NBA to illustrate his own political goals. Most recently, he shared his support for college athletes who want to play sports but can’t because of the coronavirus.
For Trump, again, sporting events are a major symbol of the normality he and his administration are desperate to convey during the course of the pandemic. The players’ strikes this week are not related to concerns about the virus, but threaten the president’s goal of getting American sports back on the courts and fields – and his attempt to quell the racial rights protests. t the country have continued to play.
Doug Heye, a veteran Republican communications strategist, warned that the administration came into public spasms with athletes as full leagues.
‘I don’t think you want to be in a tit for tat with [Los Angeles Lakers star] “LeBron James is like any other NBA coach,” he said. “That does not help with the Black community, where he is trying to call some segments of voters, and I think it is a direction that does not benefit him.”
James, a three-time NBA champion and four-time league MVP, has been increasingly vocal about social issues in recent years, writing “RIP Trayvon Martin” on his sneaker in 2012, and a “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt to. in warmups for a contest in 2014 and launch a school for at-risk children in his hometown of Akron, Ohio, in 2018.
Earlier this summer, James and a group of athletes and entertainers launched More Than a Vote, an organization that aims to register Black voters. The initiative this week announced a multi-million dollar collaborative project with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to recruit young people to volunteer as poll workers in Black communities in swing states. More than one vote also works to convert empty professional sports venues into polling stations.
“Change does not happen with just talking !! It happens with action and must happen NOW! James tweeted Thursday. “[I]t is on the US to make a difference. All together. That’s why your voice is @morethanavote. ”
“He’s on the list, I would say, of the top five probably most famous, famous, popular athletes in the world,” said Jemele Hill, a former ESPN analyst now contributing to The Atlantic, on ‘ and “Morning Drive” podcast Thursday. “And he uses that leverage when it comes to talking and doing things about injustice and racism and systemic oppression.”
Hill, who called Trump a white supremacist while working for ESPN, said she was surprised at how outspoken James had become, recalling a time when the former Cleveland Cavalier was asked about genocide and sought an apolitical response. to give.
That used to be the norm in pro-sports. A few stars of black athletes had used their platforms to wade into political trouble, with notable exceptions, such as Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who raised their fists at the national anthem at the medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. city, and Muhammad Ali, removed for refusing to serve in the Vietnam War. NBA legend Michael Jordan famously refused to venture into the 1990 Senate game between racist sitting Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt, a Black Democrat, on the grounds that “Republicans also buy sneakers.”
The consequences for verdict are now less severe than they once were, although former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has not been able to get a job in the league since the 2016-17 season, when he began what has become a trend of athletes’ national anthem .
Trump made politics hot out of that move, declaring at one 2017 rally that when a player knelt down, NFL owners “should get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out. He’s fired. He’s fired. “
But as Hill pointed out, “You can not fire LeBron James. He will not cut. There is no consequence that he will necessarily face. … So no matter how vocal he becomes, there is nothing you can do about him. “
The Trump campaign has instead sought to counter the growing activism of athletes with a handful of defenders from the pro-sports world. Three Black former NFL players have spoken at this week’s Republican National Convention to guarantee Trump, who won just 8 percent of Black voters in 2016. On Monday, former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL denied return to Herschel Walker accuses Trump of being racist and cast his policies so much more effectively than what the NBA has done.
“Just because someone loves and respects the flag, our national anthem and our country does not mean that they do not care about social justice. I love all of those things, and so does Donald Trump, “said Walker, a longtime friend of the president.” He shows how much he cares about social justice and the Black community through his actions. And his actions speak louder than all the stickers like slogans on a sweater. ”
On Thursday night, the campaign sent a video dedicated to American athletes, with videos of championship teams visiting the White House and a clip from Trump saying, “We need to get our sports back.”
Convention speakers ignored the latest high-profile shooting of an African-American man by a white police officer. The president and his supporters have pointed to violent clashes between protesters and police in Kenosha as a threat to suburban voters.
“The more chaos and anarchy and violence prevails, the better it is for whom the clear choice is for who is best at public safety and law and order,” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox & Friends. “
However, Kushner told POLITICO in an interview that he planned to contact James at some point on Thursday. However, the White House did not respond to a request for comment.
