Before a panel event about sports and activism, a young man asked me a question: “Why do you think the NBA is more accepting of political athletes than the NFL?” Near me was Grant Farred, a brilliant author and Cornell University professor who studies these issues with a scholar’s attention to detail. He replied, “Why do you think that is even the right question?”
Professor Farred’s comments have been turning in my brain like a rotisserie chicken ever since.
‘Systemic racism is important to me because it affects me, my family, my culture, and the systematic oppression we have endured.’
There is a baseline assumption that the NBA as a corporate institution is more accepting of outspoken players than the NFL. People who make this argument invariably point to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has expressed support for athletes letting “their political points of view be known”—albeit with reservations about them wearing “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts.
They also look at the much more supportive atmosphere in the NBA among fans for players and coaches who have criticized Trump, from Le-Bron James calling him a “bum” to San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich referring to him as a “soulless coward.” Neither man has felt much backlash from the NBA faithful.
And yet, the question itself—why is the NBA better?—assumes that the NBA is a more benign corporate institution than the NFL; that it puts the political desires and imperatives of its players on equal footing with its own profit margins, saying “damn the latter if it impedes the former.”
The NBA has been happy to spread this idea, contrasting itself to the NFL as the sports home for younger, millennial fans who are much more left-leaning and outspoken than their older counterparts. But comparisons are not appropriate, because NFL players have protested in a way that NBA players have not—for instance, by taking a knee, sitting, raising a fist, or otherwise protesting during the national anthem.
This protest, launched by Colin Kaepernick in 2016, is still reverberating at high schools and colleges around the country in sports ranging from football to soccer to cheerleading. In February, after the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Wisconsin basketball player Marsha Howard remained seated for the anthem in silent protest of gun violence.
In an interview with ThinkProgress, Howard explained her action: “I have not only been protesting the brutal acts of gun violence but also the improper attainment of justice and liberty for all, and the understated emphasis on racialization and inequality of people of color. Systemic racism is important to me because it affects me, my family, my culture, and the systematic oppression we have endured.”
When WNBA players protested during the anthem after the killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling in the summer of 2016, before Kaepernick, the league issued fines to the players and their teammates. The fines were rescinded only when the players both refused to pay and marshaled public outrage against the WNBA. The league’s instinct was punitive.
Their male NBA counterparts have chosen to not take a knee. One reason often given for this is that the league is supportive and therefore the players do not have to protest in that manner. But that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, since the NFL players weren’t protesting the NFL. They were protesting racial inequality and police violence.
The other reason often given is that the collective bargaining agreement for NBA players mandates that they stand at attention, unlike the NFL’s, which only suggests standing.
At any rate, we simply do not know how the league would respond if there was widespread protest during the anthem. There is a famous quote attributed to Polish socialist Rosa Luxemburg: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
As long as NBA players do not move—that is, actually make people uncomfortable, jeopardizing the bottom line—we won’t have any idea how Adam Silver and the NBA really feel.
Dave Zirin is the host of the popular Edge of Sports podcast and sports editor of e Nation. His new book, Jim Brown: Last Man Standing (Blue Rider Press) will be released in May.