Season ticket holders for the NBA's Spurs and Warriors are getting more than just winning basketball for their money. They're getting advocacy for progressive politics whether they want it or not. New York Daily News sports columnist Carron J. Phillips applauds Golden State Coach Steve Kerr and San Antonio Coach Greg Popovich, whom many progressives want to run as a presidential ticket in three years, for becoming the NBA's leading voices for equality and change.
"In a time in which sports, politics and social issues are intertwined, the NBA's two loudest voices aren't players at all, they're coaches," Phillips writes. This week the dynamic duo eased up on their criticism of President Donald Trump to call for gun control and to justify the need for white guilt.
Popovich said it would be inappropriate to talk about basketball after a gunman murdered 26 people at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas Sunday. Kerr gave his condolences to the people involved, then did a fast-break right to gun control:
To solve it, I think we almost have to look at it like a public health issue. Too often, we get caught up in political rhetoric, Second amendment rights, NRA stuff. We have to look at this as it having nothing to do with partisanship, political parties. It's got to be a public safety issue, a public health issue.
Kerr said there should be sensible alternatives to taking away people's Second Amendment rights, then attacked the nation's leading proponent of the right to bear arms:
But our government has to lead the way and they can't just cave into the NRA just because they want to make money. They have to put people's safety and health over the interest of the gun lobby and the gun industry. Doesn't seem like it would be that far of a stretch, but for whatever reason we're paralyzed and unable to do anything to protect our citizens. It's disgusting and it's a shame.
Phillips went on to praise Coach Pop for leading the good fight against white privilege. In September, Popovich said:
It's hard to sit down and decide that, yes, it's like you're at the 50-meter mark in a 100-meter dash. You've got that kind of a lead, yes, because you were born white. You have advantage that are systemically, culturally, psychologically rare. And they've been built up and cemented for hundreds of years. But many people can't look at it that way, because it's too difficult. It can't be something that's on their plate on a daily basis. People want to hold their position, people want their status quo, people don't want to give that up. Until its given up, it's not going to be fixed.
This apology for white privilege is a real bonus for the Spurs' season ticket holders, one they weren't expecting.
Phillips returned to Kerr, who "was thrust into talking about politics after Donald Trump rescinded his team's White House invitation. He's also been an advocate for the LGBTQ community. Really? It takes courage for a coach in the Bay Area, of all places, to support the homosexual agenda?
Sports fans have seen the NBA "Brotherhood" of LeBron James, Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade use their platforms for social justice and equality, Phillips says. "And we know of the activism they bring to their games. But we haven't seen two coaches speak out the way that Kerr and Popovich have. And the best thing about it?":
Two white men are using their voices to speak about issues that are greatly affecting black and brown people, while also touching on topics that are problematic for all Americans, period.
Patriotism has no color, but it does help when people from one race use their voices to help another.
It's uncertain how apologizing for "white privilege" actually helps minorities or how disarming law-abiding citizens makes them safer when their lives are threatened by violent, deranged people.
Leftists want to draft Kerr and Popovich for a presidential ticket because they are so thoughtful and they've got all the "Left stuff." They "have consistently reacted to our ongoing political malaise with reason, empathy, and candor," is a line taken directly from the PopovichKerr2020.com website.
The fallacy of those claims took a major broadside last week when the Spurs played the Warriors. After that heated game, Kerr had to apologize for yelling: "F--- you, m-----f-----" at the referees. Popovich was ejected for yelling "f------ terrible ref" in the same game.
"Leadership" like that will never make America great again. And columns like Phillips' will never make "journalism" great again either.
