Woke NBA groveling for China

Seems strange to criticize a sports league for not taking a stand when one of the most persistent sports stories of the last five years is the sacrifice made by a progressive sports star.

 

And we've long since established the craven nature of most US corporations (and consumers) in the face of Chinese authoritarianism, have we not?

 

Again: The NBA wanting to do business in China is pretty straightforward. The governors of flyover states want to send ag to China. So do lifelong Republican farmers. The fuck they care, China’s human rights abuses.

What sets the NBA apart here is its previous m political advocacy stateside - juxtaposed to Switzerland posture here - and the ridiculous “we apologize, we love China” nonsense from two of the sport’s biggest stars. What the hell is James Harden doing? On whose behalf is doing it? Harden can barely be roused to give a shit about anything beyond getting his own shot. Why’s he taking a stand for China?

The NBA’s initial response was a complete and total grovel. Immediate appeasement. Now, Hugh-mindedness about the complexity of world relations? Come on.

 

SpaceJam II, We Got Your Balls, now to be set in China

 

He’s not a company though, so it doesn’t seem
strange at all.

Beyond that, he was getting comped by Nike.

Beyond that, he doesn’t want to play football so badly that he’ll play in any other league.

I feel for Kaep in the sense that, at some point, his initial narrative was expounded upon by the media and the president. He was made a hero in some circles, demonized in others, and he made weird, regrettable mistakes with pig socks and Castro thoughts that shed light on how little he knew about navigating his activism.

But I don’t feel too much for him. He makes millions as a celebrity in self-imposed exile. There’s very little policy shape to his protest because to give shape to it invites criticism that, given his flops on Cuba, Kaep can’t answer. Millions to be the world’s vaguest revolutionary isn’t a bad gig.

 

We'll have to repatriate Red Panda, then.

Behind the scenes with NBA mainstay Red Panda

 

OK, companies.

But it can't possibly come as a shock to you or Clay Travis or Bari Weiss or any conservative anywhere that the founding principles of American freedom went out the window with regards to China and money-making decades ago.

Again, capitalism makes cowards of us all.

So you're going to call out the NBA for a decision Coca Cola made 45 Chinese bottling plants ago?

Cool. Gotcha, I guess.

 

If it wasn't for your few thousand posts, I'd totally agree with this.

 

Worth noting: The NBA held its most recent All-Star Weekend in Charlotte after the state rescinded HB2 and passed another, less-heralded law that essentially had the same effects. Lip service then, lip service now.

 

He'd been protesting for two years before he got the Nike deal, right?

 

I'm not sure what's worse: woke NBA bending the knee to China for hundreds of millions of consumer dollars or Clay Travis doing his alt-right, anti-woke shtick for a few million.