Race, politics and social justice are the over-arching themes in the NBA bubble press room at Disney World in Orlando, day-in and day-out. The ongoing playoff games are practically a mere side show for Black Lives Matter, marginalizing police departments, fighting systemic racism and voter suppression. Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers proved that again Tuesday while holding court in the press room, where he denounced President Donald Trump and Republican speakers at the GOP's national convention.
Rivers, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and other social justice warriors can count on compliant left-stream media to carry their messages from the bubble to the outside world. Listening to the rhetoric coming out of the NBA's press room, a person could easily think they're at a Democrat media event. Or hearing the same drivel coming from CNN, MSNBC or The Huffington Post. There's no discernible difference.
Donovan Dooley of the Deadspin sports blog is one of those media lemmings who's all too willing to promote the NBA's social justice message -- and Democrats' talking points. He writes that the African American Coach Rivers "didn’t mince words when he called out President Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and the police for their roles in continuing a system of oppression that has murdered black people for centuries."
“All you hear is Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear,” Rivers continued. “We’re the ones getting killed. We’re the ones getting shot. We’re the ones that we’re denied to live in certain communities. We’ve been hung. We’ve been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear.”
Dooley interjected that LeBron James "eloquently articulated" the previous night that it's African Americans who live in fear, writing on Deadspin that:
"Black Americans are the ones that are living in real fear.
"Black Americans are the ones that never get to relax.
"Black Americans are the ones being killed strictly because of the color of their skin."
Rivers said it doesn't require black skin to be outraged at the video of Jacob Blake's killing in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and raged, "How dare the Republicans talk about fear. We’re the ones that need to be scared. ..." Police training must change and police unions must be taken down, Rivers demanded.
It's a continuing a system of oppression that has murdered black people for centuries, Dooley said.
Fewer and fewer people are following the NBA's hard Left bubble agenda. Television viewership of the NBA is down 45 percent from what it used to be, and who can blame the fed-up fans for writing off the NBA politicos?
The cries of racist America now appear to be arbitrary, if not suspect, though. The NBA yawned after Montrezl Harrell, a black player, called white player Luka Doncic "a bitch ass white boy" during a recent game. The NBA has not punished Harrell. Coaches and players in the bubble are not denouncing this racist incident en masse. TNT's Shaquille O'Neal dismissed it as trash talking.
The media reaction to Harrell's racist remark is called selective outrage, and it doesn't fit the Black Lives Matter narrative that Rivers promoted in his press conference, so it's been conveniently brushed aside. What is important in the bubble this week is to condemn police officers, deliver Democrat talking points and refute Republican National Convention speakers.
