NBA

Wokeness, sucking up to communist China and partisan politics come with a price, and the NBA is about to pay the piper. 

This season, the Philadelphia 76ers training camp isn't just being used as a time to prepare for the 2022-23 NBA season; it’s also serving as a time to indoctrinate players in progressive ideologies.

No, no, ya can’t selectively be a social justice warrior, says former ESPN anchor Bob Ley. Appearing on Michelle Beadle’s What Did I Miss? podcast, he slammed people crying crocodile tears over the Saudi Arabian LIV golf league while looking the other away on China’s horrific human rights abuses. 

ESPN reported a blockbuster story Thursday revealing how the NBA’s troubling entanglements with communist China have serious implications for U.S. interests. 

Sports can only serve as an escape from society if a person is white, race-baiting sports blogger Carron Phillips wrote in response to the horrific Buffalo shooting. The Deadspin writer practically convicted white people everywhere of the shooting that left 10 black dead. 

Unvaccinated and politically incorrect, Brooklyn Nets basketball star Kyrie Irving is on the verge of losing his lucrative Nike contract. ESPN reported that Nike is unlikely to extend Irving’s signature shoe deal beyond the 2022-23 season due to “uncertainties surrounding his NBA future.” Also, the Nets are non-committal on giving the seven-time all-star a long-term contract. 

Fearing that devout Christian Mark Jackson may be considered for a head coaching job in the NBA, the LGBT cancel mob is poisoning the waters against him. Jackson played in the league from 1987 to 2004 and ranks No. 4 all-time in assists. Since retirement he has coached and broadcast NBA games for ESPN, ABC and the YES Network. 

It’s not just the woke culture surrounding professional sports that turns people off. It’s the decadent rap culture, too. The NBA and its broadcast partners have lowered their standards so far that unless you’re a fan of loud, ugly rap music, you cannot be a true basketball fan, says New York Post columnist Phil Mushnick. 

Former NBA superstar Jerry West and his Los Angeles Lakers friends are slam dunking on HBO for its “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” drama depiction of the Hall of Famer. They say HBO committed a flagrant foul by making it up in its portrayal of West as a drunken, out-of-control rage-aholic. 

Former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom didn’t get the worshipful, Colin Kaepernick treatment in Thursday’s long New York Times profile by Sopan Deb, “Now Engaged in a Full-Court Press for Activism.” But the flattering headline is belied by the hostile 2,500-word profile that followed. Not even Freedom’s Muslim faith saved him from criticism.

The “kingdom” is crumbling. LeBron “King” James is playing for a losing team in Los Angeles, and his pattern when that happens is to jump ship. He says he would like to play with Steph Curry and Golden State, but with the King gaining more and more detractors, the feeling is not reciprocal. 

Golden State Warriors head basketball coach and gun control fanatic Steve Kerr came out firing after Sunday’s early morning Sacramento shooting incident. He and President Joe Biden both called for gun control laws that have been on the books since the 20th century.  

LeBron James is out with a sprained ankle, and on Sunday Kareem Abdul-Jabbar gave him a heavy dose of emotional pain. Abdul-Jabbar criticized the Lakers forward for hypocrisy and said he isn’t trustworthy. 

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday told The New York Times his league is not soft on China and denied accusations that it is blackballing critic and former player Enes Kanter Freedom. Given the league’s actions on both regards, his claims rank low on the credibility meter.