Originally published April 23, 2023 4:28 pm PDT
Hall of Fame basketball coach Phil Jackson claimed that he hasn’t watched an NBA game in years because the sport has gotten “too political.”
“They did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando, and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there,” Jackson said during a podcast interview.
“They had things on their back like ‘Justice’ and a funny thing happened like, ‘Justice went to the basket and Equal Opportunity knocked him down.’ Some of my grandkids thought it was pretty funny to play up those names. I couldn’t watch that,” Jackson said.
From The Blaze:
In July 2020, the NBA announced a list of 29 approved jersey names that were focused on social justice. Some of the approved messages that players could wear on their jerseys were Justice, Equal Opportunity, Black Lives Matter, Say Their Names, Vote, I Can't Breathe, Equality, Power to the People, Sí Se Puede (Yes We Can), Anti-Racist, and Group Economics. "They even had slogans on the floor," Jackson noted, likely referencing when the NBA painted "Black Lives Matter" on the floor of the main basketball court of the bubble playoffs. "It was catering, it was trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience into play," Jackson said. "And they didn't know it was turning other people off."
