Former NBA player and champion Stephen “Stak” Jackson is not feeling the NBA.
He believes they should do more to support Ice Cube’s BIG3 basketball league which is full of former NBA players, and that the league isn’t totally invested in the struggle.
“I’m going to give you a perfect example, I’m the face off the biggest civil rights movement ever with the George Floyd… I’m an NBA champion, played in the NBA, the NBA didn’t reach out to me for the Black Lives Matter, the movement for social justice or equality,” added Jackson. “They don’t move how we are supposed to move. They move how they want to move.”
The Face Of A Civil Rights Movement?
The face of the biggest civil rights movement is a wild overreach. Yes, the summer of the George Floyd murder saw people unite, mobilize, and protest in ways we haven’t seen in years. Stak and Floyd were close friends and grew up together in Texas. The murder of Floyd was very personal for Stak.
But what kind of change actually occurred as a result of the protests?
The civil rights movement brought about meaningful change. It abolished legalized racial segregation and disenfranchisement and it took nearly two decades.
The Floyd protests lasted a summer and not even the entire summer.
We can forgive Jackson for misspeaking, as what he’s likely trying to convey is that the NBA had a real opportunity to get behind its players and communities and really push for meaningful change.
The NBA Is A Business
But the NBA is a multibillion dollar business run by the 30 governors who are apex predator capitalists and don’t want to do anything that will mess with the cash flow.
Despite being a predominantly Black league, the NBA serves a predominantly white audience. Most NBA fans grade somewhere on the liberal scale but the league is trying to grow its audience. Anything that may upset that growth is bad for business.
During the NBA Bubble and the summer of Floyd the NBA pivoted in that direction with various messages in support of the Black community on the court and on player’s jerseys. That move was widely criticized and blamed for the league’s poor ratings during that time.
Whether true or not, the league has not gone back to that type of outward support since.
Commissioner Adam Silver does what he can to support the players and their causes. The NBPA also does what it can to elevate players and give them an opportunity to use their platform for issues that matter to them.
But ultimately Stak is right. The NBA moves how it wants to move. That is, in service to whatever is going to keep the money flowing.
