Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

With the recent controversy of the NBA bending over backwards to appease the Chinese government, I was reminded of the number one problem plaguing the world of sports. I have always felt that both sports and politics were subjects that were the opposites of each other. I have always thought that the subject of sports was more of an escape from everyday life, while politics was a stark reminder of it. Yet there are certain organizations that have tried to combine the two. It is amazing how ESPN had to lose millions of subscribers before they could figure out that their viewers didn’t want to hear their commentators go on anti-Trump rants.

Then there was Colin Kaepernick who decided to get on a political high-horse by kneeling during the National Anthem and angering millions of fans in the process. The NFL could have nipped the whole fiasco in the bud early on, either by telling Kaepernick to make political statements on his own time or by making sure that he didn’t get the attention that he craved. Instead the NFL decided to show how woke they were by giving Kaepernick endless attention, which cost them dearly when it came to ratings and ticket sales.

Then you have the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, which seems to be led by an American hating feminist, who complains about how the women in this same sport aren’t paid the same as the men. Apparently, nobody has the guts to tell her that if her team pulled in the same amount of revenue as those in the male division, the women would actually pull in more money because they actually get a higher percentage of the revenue than the men do. Of course, when you are an American hating feminist that thinks everybody is out to cheat female workers out of money, you aren’t going acknowledge the reality of things such as basic economics or even basic math.

Then there is the NBA, who started politicizing sports long before the woman’s soccer league or the NFL even thought about it. Back in 2017 the NBA decided that North Carolina was unworthy of hosting the All-Star game when they passed a law that required people to use restrooms based on the genders that they had at birth. Basically, the NBA’s commissioner decided that he could no longer operate in a state that cared more about the safety of women in public restrooms than they did about the feelings of transgendered people. Being a longtime basketball fan, I was downright disgusted by the NBA’s self-righteous bullying of a state with no regard to whether their officials were actually following the will of their residents. Now, I find it down right comical that this same righteous origination is now bowing to the will of one of the most tyrannical governments on the planet.

When Daryl Morey, the general manager for the Houston Rockets tweeted support for the protestors in Hong Kong, China threw a hissy fit by cancelling preseason games that were to take place in their country, along with the suspension of their sponsors on the mainland. The NBA decided to bend over backwards to appease their Chinese overlords, excuse me I mean partners by forcing the Rocket’s general manager to delete his tweet and apologize. On top of that they also ejected pro-Hong Kong protestors from several games just to keep the Chinese government happy. Then you had idiots, such as Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors who actually compared the tyranny of the Chinese government to Americans being allowed to own AR-15’s. Yes, he actually made that idiotic comparison. Of course, that wasn’t nearly as idiotic as Lebron James actually having the nerve to lecture Morey about how he shouldn’t have made that tweet without considering how it would affect people financially and spiritually. Yes, this man actually said “spiritually.” This is the same Lebron James that once said that he had never heard Donald Trump’s locker room talk about women allowing him to grab their crouches being part of any locker room that he had ever been in. Yeah, right Lebron. I remember hearing worse language in the locker rooms that I had been in while attending middle school. So, I am pretty sure that you have heard one of your million-dollar teammates brag at least once about his conquests. The only way I would find his claim even remotely plausible is if Lebron spent his entire life showering with the Amish.

Personally, I have about the same regard for the political belief of an NBA player or coach as I do an actor or a singer, which isn’t much. I think they would be shocked to find out that most people don’t really put much value on their political insights. I just find it amusing that these people who think they are so edgy when they bash Donald Trump or the NRA, don’t seem nearly as gutsy when it comes to one of the most tyrannical regimes in the world.

What the NBA doesn’t seem to understand is that their support comes from people who enjoy the very sport that their organization represents. They don’t care about their opinions on politics or world events. As in any other sport, people care about whether their team can go all the way. If anything, these people find the mixture of sports and politics to be off-putting. So, I will advise the NBA that if they don’t want to end up like their friends in the NFL, then they should seriously avoid politics in all shapes and forms. That would mean not bullying states that just happened to have laws that don’t agree with their sensibilities. That would mean not censoring their employees for criticizing totalitarian governments, even if it does mean losing business in the countries those regimes rule over. They need to remember that it’s actually the American people and not the Chinese government that butters their bread. That would also mean embracing American values such as free speech and not throwing people out of their arenas for holding up pro-Hong Kong signs. Before anybody gives me this nonsense about how the NBA is a private organization that doesn’t have to acknowledge free speech, remember that their precious arenas were paid for by the tax payers in the cities that they reside. If they don’t want to be inconvenienced by those pesky bylaws that come with tax payer funding, then they need to learn to pay for their own arenas. If they want to be thought of as an American pastime, then they need to act like Americans.