The NBA seems to have become another garbage institution

Steve Kerr serves up a steaming pile of moral equivalency:

Golden State Warrior coach Steve Kerr was in China and he said that during his visit to that country, no one had asked him about Chinese human rights abuses . . . nor “our record of human rights abuses”, either, referring to the United States.

“As far as North Korea, I don’t know much about North Korea. As far as the Ukraine situation, I don’t know much about the Ukraine situation. We could just go around the world and maybe I can pinpoint a couple others I’m comfortable about, but this whole thing is so ridiculous. Again, we’re fortunate in this country to have free speech. I exercise that. But part of having free speech is also electing not to speak if you don’t feel comfortable about something.”

“It has not come up in terms of people asking about it, people discussing it,” Kerr said. “Nor has our record of human rights abuses come up, either. Things that our country needs to look at and resolve. That hasn’t come up either. None of us are perfect. We all have different issues we have to get to. Saying that is my right as an American. It doesn’t mean that I hate my country. It means I want to address the issue. But people in China didn’t ask me about, you know, people owning AR-15s and mowing each other down in a mall. I wasn’t asked that question."

Got that? Private citizens owning AR-15s (and, according to Kerr, "mowing each other down in [malls]") is the same thing as the government hauling citizens off to gulags for speaking out against a system that empowers the government to haul citizens off to gulags.

And another NBA team caves to Jew-haters even as it tiptoes around the Chinese totalitarian regime:

The Portland Trail Blazers announced that they have severed relations with a company that does business with Israel following a pressure campaign by activists tied to the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.

As the NBA is facing outrage after the general manager of the Houston Rockets capitulated to censorship by the Chinese communist government, the Trail Blazers quietly severed ties with the manufacturer Leupold, which has a contract to produce accessories for the Israeli Defense Forces.

Trail Blazers president and CEO Chris McGowan recently announced the decision to bow to pressure from BDS activists, telling a reporter for the Bleacher Reportthat "Leupold is no longer a part of the organization."

The move was celebrated by anti-Israel activists and picked up by the pro-BDS blog Mondoweiss, which stated that the decision came "after a year-long campaign by local activists to pressure the Blazers to drop the sponsor."

The NBA has been facing fierce backlash following the fallout from the Rockets incident. The controversy erupted after the Rockets general manager tweeted—and subsequently deleted—a tweet expressing support for pro-democracy protesters who are being met with violence by the Chinese government.

The NBA, which has deep business interests in China, has sought to quell the controversy, sparking accusations it is capitulating to China’s censorship regulations.

A league of cowards.