Jason Whitlock wrote:

Many are unaware that Nike, and not the NBA, controls basketball. One could make a fair argument that the NBA is nothing more than the in-house marketing department of Nike.

Both Nike and the NBA kowtow to China, which explains their silence on the horrific human rights abuses inside China and the suppression of Hong Kong freedom fighters by China’s communist government. More important, Nike and the NBA’s China agenda helps explain why Nike pitchmen LeBron James and Colin Kaepernick enthusiastically smear the United States as inherently racist and evil. From Joseph Stalin to Fidel Castro to our own time, the communists’ favorite propaganda tactic has been to paint the West, and the U.S. in particular, as racist.

The militant social justice messaging of James and Kaepernick serves the interests of not only the Chinese Communist Party and globalist corporations like Nike, but also our political Left. Kaepernick’s National Anthem defiance in 2016 gave the Left an opportunity to politicize football, America’s new national pastime, and force it into the kind of “progressive” posturing already commonplace in the NBA and Hollywood.

Arrogance, lack of foresight, and the advice of an inner circle that included former Clinton administration press secretary Joe Lockhart as the NFL’s vice president of communications, explain commissioner Roger Goodell’s laissez-faire approach to Kaepernick’s protest. Underestimating the determination of the Left and the power of social media to intimidate corporate America, Goodell and the NFL’s TV partners wrongly thought that the Kaepernick controversy would fade over time.

Instead, four years after Kaepernick first knelt, the Leftist mob has forced the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and the National Basketball Association to take their own knees and pay homage to the dishonest Black Lives Matter narrative on police brutality. The NFL plans to paint social justice messages across its end zones this season and to allow players to wear helmet decals with the names of alleged police victims. The San Francisco 49ers fly a BLM flag next to an American flag at Levi’s Stadium. MLB opened its COVID-shortened season with “BLM” carved into pitcher’s mounds, and the Boston Red Sox put up a 254-foot BLM billboard outside Fenway Park. NHL players are now regularly kneeling during the National Anthem. The NBA’s basketball bubble at Disney World is a virtual shrine to BLM: “Black Lives Matter” is painted on the court, players wear social justice messages on the back of their jerseys, and it’s major news when a player stands during the National Anthem.

The entire American sports world—a culture that traditionally celebrates victors, meritocracy, colorblindness, and patriotism—has suddenly immersed itself in black victimization and left-wing radicalism. This immersion threatens to do permanent damage to American culture as a whole. It has certainly undermined national pride. A country that no longer believes in its founding ideals cannot prosper and survive

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He’s right. And that fact is very sad.

The human rights violations in China don’t mean anything to the sports world here.
Sad.

Go woke....

NBA Braces For Record 40% Drop In Revenue In 2020-2021 Season

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nba-braces-record-40-drop-revenue-2020-2021-season

Amid crashing NBA viewership now that basketball has become a venue for "in your face" (whether you asked for it or not) political activism, it will not come as a surprise that NBA revenues are also slumping and according to financial numbers shared with teams and obtained by ESPN, NBA's revenues dropped 10% to $8.3 billion for the 2019-20 season.

Among the biggest reasons for the revenue loss were an $800 million loss in gate receipts and a $400 million loss in sponsorships and merchandise, and in a "surprise" twist, the NBA's losses also included $200 million "net negative impact" from the loss of a partnership with China following Daryl Morey tweet promoting Hong Kong freedom a year ago.

This explains why some of the NBA's most vocal domestic social justice warriors are also so bizarrely mute when it comes to China's trampling of basic human rights: all players have a vested financial interest and incentive to keep their mouths shut when it comes to any China criticism. Which may also explain why said SJWs are so much more vocal when it comes to bashing injustices in their own country as a diversion for their hypocrisy.

But if the 2019-2020 disaster was bad, 2020-2021 is shaping up to be nothing short of horrific: as the NBA and National Basketball Players Association discuss start dates and financial amendments to the collective bargaining agreement, ESPN writes that "the potential for a grim financial landscape without fans in the 2020-21 season looms over the league.

This would have devastating financial consequences for the league and certainly NBA players: if the 2020-21 season advances without fans and accompanying gate-night receipts, the league expects a projected 40% loss in overall revenue, or approximately $4 billion.

This will also have rather dire consequences for the NBA's all too generous compensation packages: according to the report, talks about the salary cap and luxury tax levels for next season remain at the core of discussions between the NBA and the NBPA. Had the league and players' union followed the normal formula to determine this season's salary cap - linking it to overall league revenue - sources told ESPN that it would have fallen to around $90 million - down from about $109 million in 2019-20.

Dropping to that level would have put almost every team into severe luxury tax territory, and it would have left very little available money for this off season's free agents.
The sudden hit to NBA players' bank accounts is not expected to last: the league anticipates a revenue rebound in 2021-22 (at the earliest). That, however, is contingent on a vaccine/cure for covid. Oh, and China not being angered by NBA players criticizing Beijing again of course.