Hall-of-Fame NBA coach Phil Jackson has overruled LeBron James to declare that politics has no place in sports.
Jackson said he hasn’t watched basketball since the 2020 bubble in Orlando, Florida because the league became too political.
Jackson won 11 NBA championships coaching the Chicago Bulls, with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and the Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe And Shaq.
Phil said: “They did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there.
“And they had things on their back like, ‘Justice.’
“They made a funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.’
“So my grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names.
“So I couldn’t watch that,” he revealed.
“It was trying to cater to an audience or trying to bring a certain audience to the game and they didn’t know it was turning other people off.
“People want to see sports as non-political.
“Politics stays out of the game; it doesn’t need to be there.”
Phil Jackson says he doesn’t like basketball’s evolution & doesn’t watch anymore, thought the Bubble & political slogans on jerseys was “wanky” and made fun of it with his grandchildren
was listening to his new interview with Rick Rubin & thought it was interesting. pic.twitter.com/FVBpdnuCFj
— Clique Productions (@ImClique_) April 20, 2023
Phil Jackson says the ‘BLM’ slogans that the NBA publicly embraced during the 2020 bubble year turned him off from professional basketball for good — comments which you can now hear for yourself in their full context. https://t.co/zzj072bEVV
— TMZ (@TMZ) April 22, 2023
According to USA Today:
The NBA had “Black Lives Matter” on the courts in the bubble, allowed players to kneel during the national anthem, and offered them the opportunity to choose a social justice message for their nameplate.
Jayson Tatum, Pascal Siakam, Russell Westbrook and Tyler Herro wore “Black Lives Matter” on their jerseys. Zion Williamson and Carmelo Anthony chose “Peace” and Damian Lillard chose “How Many More” to go along with his No. 0 to plead that no more names would become hashtags as victims of racially-charged violence.
