ESPN’s Jalen Rose was critical of Hall of Fame basketball coach Phil Jackson’s comments about the “politicization” of the NBA. Rose opined that Jackson should stop watching the NBA forever. Social critic Jason Whitlock took umbrage with Rose’s comments and called the former NBA player an “idiot.”
“You can’t make this up. Hall of Fame coach and 11-time champion, Phil Jackson, claims to have stopped supporting the NBA because it ‘became too political’ when it went into the bubble, and was catering to certain audiences by putting slogans on the back of jerseys, and ‘Black Lives Matter’ on the floor’ said Rose.
“The same Phil Jackson that won championships with some of the greatest Black athletes in the history of the game — Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant — made millions on their backs and off their sweat equity. You’re sitting there watching the game with your grand kids and ya’ll think it’s funny when ‘Justice’ passes the ball to ‘Equal Opportunity’? When somebody shows you who they are, believe them. So stop watching, FOREVER.”
“Jalen you’ve ‘shown’ who you, you’re an IDIOT. Rose played the race card, what a surprise. … Phil Jackson was a pot-smoking, hippie leftist in the 60s and 70s saying what all of us believe, and anybody with any common sense believes — that this over-politicization of basketball, football, and all sports was a mistake,” said Whitlock.
“This kind of pointless gesturing that athletes love to do, Phil Jackson just called you out on it and it proved your stupidity. None of that did anything to improve America. You got hoodwinked by three Black lesbian Marxist communist idiots. That’s who you caped up for, Jalen Rose, LeBron James, and all the idiots in the NBA. You got played, suckers.”
This Is Who Whitlock Is
If you are a person that stands for basic human decency you will ignore anything Whitlock has to say.
A long time ago he was a legitimate sports journalist, but his takes on race and culture have always been dangerous and steeped in respectability politics. Now he’s leaned fully into this caricature as the Black critic who is harshly critical of Black people for the enjoyment of a white audience.
Whitlock claims that he is a “Christian,” has a biblical worldview, and is not a conservative. As if he doesn’t know that Christianity has been adopted by the right wing of American politics and used in the culture wars he is an active participant in on his various platforms.
Whitlock Is Not Apolitical
He claims to be apolitical yet his platform is Blaze TV, the overwhelmingly right leaning media company founded by Glenn Beck. He champions men like Tucker Carlson and Ron DeSantis and traffics in conspiracy theories that are supported by the far right.
Whitlock is a huckster and a charlatan. He sold his soul a long time ago and will do whatever he thinks is necessary to preserve his place in the media landscape.
If you want to have a discussion about the politicization of sports, have at it. But sports have been politicized since their inception and that will never change.
Reasonable people can have discussions and debates over how America can best serve its citizens.
But all of that begins from a place of decency and humanity. Two things Whitlock lacks.
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