An NBA beat writer for ESPN says he’s not sure what he can contribute to sports coverage by going political, but then found his “inner liberal” and did exactly that, by admitting that President Trump "terrifies him" because he could “end life on the planet.” Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who covers the Golden State Warriors for ESPN, made his remarks on a podcast interview with Isaac Chotiner of Slate.
A self-described liberal from the Bay Area who votes Democrat, Strauss first said, “I’m not sure what I’d be contributing if I talked a lot about it.” He said going political “seems like a mission creep that would be backfiring.”
Then full mission creep set in: “Athletes will speak out on these (issues) and there will be an impact and there is an import to it.” “Do I think I have a duty to talk about (politics)?" Strauss asked. “I don’t know if it’s part of the job to express my view,” he continued. “The lines have become so blurred on that, and I feel very divided.”
Strauss clearly didn’t feel all that divided because he quickly overcame his ambivalence and succumbed to the political:
I find this administration terrifying. I think that the person running the country is, I mean, he is a reality TV game show host basically who has the ability to end life on the planet. That is a suboptimal situation.
Strauss insinuated that no president, dictator or terrorist ever previously had the ability to wreak a holocaust upon the world before President Trump was inaugurated.
Chotiner drew Strauss into the political discussion by mentioning how Bryan Curtis, writing in The Ringer, claimed the era of “just stick to sports is over.” Chotiner asked Strauss if he gets the sense that his reporting job will take on a different mandate.
“I’m also at a loss to know how to use whatever megaphone I have to do anything about that by the power of my argument,” Strauss said after figuratively using a bullhorn to trash Trump. “I’ve gotta say I’m also sensitive to the other side of it, too. There is something legitimate about the customer saying ‘this isn’t what I want from you.’ I understand both sides of the argument...I get that when another fan says ‘just stick to sports.’ It’s almost like you’re a vending machine and they asked for a candy bar and you gave them a sardine.”
Strauss tried to justify his bias by claiming ESPN had survey data that showed “85 percent of basketball fans are black” and the average NBA fan votes Democrat. That’s hard to believe in a sports-obsessed nation crossing political and racial lines, and in which 13 percent of the populace is African-American.
It’s more popular to be critical of Trump, like Warriors’ Coach Steve Kerr and Detroit Pistons’ Coach Stan Van Gundy, Strauss said. “It leaves more leeway to express anti-Trump sentiments. The media and NBA fan either likes that or is okay with it.”
Not so fast. Voting with their media choices, millions of American consumers are disagreeing with Strauss, Curtis and other sports media who make the mistake of believing that sports fans are eating up their sardines.
