Two more NBA teams are now offering their arenas for voting use, as have the Atlanta Hawks:
The three teams that have so far offered their spaces — the Atlanta Hawks, the Detroit Pistons and the Milwaukee Bucks — are located in presidential battleground states. More than a third of the league’s teams are in states that could help determine the presidential contest this fall. [NPR]
And now we see the source of pressure under which the NBA may be laboring:
And the offers come as many of the NBA’s mostly African-American players have upped their involvement in social causes following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody. Last month, for instance, superstar LeBron James announced a new organization aimed at protecting Black citizens’ voting rights.
The group, More Than A Vote, has praised the NBA franchises volunteering their spaces, while also egging on others with a hoops-like challenge: “Who’s got next?”
There’s no doubt at all that the NBA exists on the backs of its superstars, From Mikan to Kareem to Jordan and James. Fans come to see them perform – and for the underdog roles of the lesser known players who play against them. It’s a fabulous story.
So the implicit threat in the More Than A Vote organization of the superstars choosing to sit out a season – or three – exerts a great deal of pressure on the money hungry NBA, which has to pay superstar salaries.
But I think the NBA teams are more likely very tired of the GOP, which is mostly responsible for the management, if not genesis, of the two events which are costing the NBA its business – the pandemic and the systemic racism-unrest.
So even if it’s not true that there have been deliberate efforts to suppress voting by communities thought to be inclined to vote Democratic, these offers, and those that follow, are symbolic of an industry that is entirely fed up with a Party that has become increasingly isolated from mainstream America, built an epistemic bubble in order to limit apostasy and keep the faithful, well, faithful, and continues to try to reassure itself that it represents normal America by labeling everyone else ‘Marxists’ and ‘terrorists.’
All the while, their ‘normal America’ was the one that repressed the black community and put absolute rights above public health and safety. So long as the Democrats continue to push this message, they should have a good chance of success in November.
