The NBA Realizes Racism Is Bad for Business
When teams allow player protests, it’s because they sense the players are on the lucrative side of history.
An arena for social justice.
Photographer: Kim Klement/Getty ImagesThe National Basketball Association players who briefly staged a work stoppage in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake have decided to play their games after all. The threat to the truncated baseball season is also over. And herein lies a tale about sports and the limits of protest.
The courts where the NBA is staging its contests have “Black Lives Matter” emblazoned on them. Critics complain, on the other hand, that although players and team officials are permitted and even encouraged to speak up about racial injustice at home, the league won’t allow them to criticize the government of China, a country from which the NBA earns billions in revenue. Assume that the charge is true. It’s not hypocrisy. It’s just business. It’s also evidence that when it comes to political protests in professional sports, the players get the publicity but the owners are in charge.