The NBA took a stand alongside the players and spoke against social injustice and racial discrimination during the season restart in Orlando.
The league put social-justice messages on jerseys, allowed players to kneel during the national anthem despite a longstanding rule requiring them to stand and put “BLACK LIVES MATTER” on the court.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver ruled out the possibility of these actions playing a role in the league’s lower ratings during the season restart.
(via NBC Sports):
“Now, some people might suggest that the words Black Lives Matter are causing massive amounts of people to tune out the NBA. There’s absolutely no data to support that,” Silver said.
“And in fact, as I said, there’s no doubt there are some people—and whether or not they were truly our fans to begin with is unclear—who have become further engaged with the league because they believe in our players and they believe in the positions they’ve taken, even if they don’t agree with everything they say. They respect their right to speak out on issues that are important to them.”
Silver spoke to Bomani Jones of GQ about the support on social justice issues, the NBA restart in Orlando and NBA’s relationship with the Chinese government.
The new NBA season is set to start on December 22.
