The players, management, and executives of the National Basketball Association care very deeply about social justice issues. Just ask them, and you’re sure to get an earful.
Ask LeBron James about his thoughts on Black Lives Matter and he’s certain to go into a lengthy rant about his all-in support for the group and the movement. Ask league commissioner Adam Silver about his commitment to LGBTQ causes, and you’ll likely hear a lengthy lecture about his commitment including that time he pulled the league’s All-Star game out of Charlotte to protest North Carolina’s reasonable bathroom bill. The NBA even has a strong opinion on the 2nd Amendment, going so far as to launch an advertising campaign calling for strict gun control.
The NBA is all about speaking their minds and standing up for the oppressed and vulnerable. So long as those being oppressed are in the United States and provided their support won’t cause even a remote bit of financial pain.
According to Outkick, the NBA will have multiple preseason games held in Abu Dhabi, which is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the move makes sense from a financial standpoint. The UAE is a relatively untapped market for the league, and it has quite a bit of wealth. Expanding their fan base in the Middle East, particularly in a nation with so many folks driving Lamborghinis and Ferraris, could prove to be very lucrative. There’s just one problem: The UAE has an extremely authoritarian government system.
In the UAE, homosexuality is illegal, and in fact is punishable by chemical castration, life in prison, and even death. According to Human Rights Watch, the UAE has a “fierce intolerance of criticism” and engages in the detainment of ‘criminals’ in horrific conditions. Additionally, the UAE’s treatment of women is medieval:
“For a woman to marry, her male guardian must conclude her marriage contract. Men can unilaterally divorce their wives, whereas a woman must apply for a court order to obtain a divorce. A woman can lose her right to maintenance if, for example, she refuses to have sexual relations with her husband without a lawful excuse.”
[At least in the UAE, they seem to be able to define what a woman is.]
Yet the NBA is choosing to play games there? Hmm. It’s almost as if the NBA really doesn’t care about social justice, they just like to virtue signal. And collect fat checks from fat-cat foreigners.
This development shouldn’t come as a shock, of course. The same NBA that preaches about America’s ‘systemic racism’ has no problem taking billions of dollars from China, where there is no freedom of speech, where Uyghurs are being held in concentration camps due to their religion, and where “authorities devastated human rights protections and civil liberties in Hong Kong.”
The reality is, that the NBA, just like most other ‘woke’ corporations, doesn’t give a damn about human rights or social justice. They just want you to think they do, and they hope you don’t notice and call them out when they show their true colors in places like the UAE.
By Jess Lawson
Jess Lawson is a regular contributor to The Blue State Conservative and a passionate, conservative millennial who loves America.
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