Politixia
Legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson got into some hot water a few weeks ago when he commented on the “woke” culture of the NBA.
Jackson said that the NBA was “trying to cater to an audience” without knowing that “it was turning other people off” because “people want to see sports as non-political.”
Jackson clarified his comments about the “woke” NBA on the Audacy Original Podcast “Stacey King’s Gimme The Hot Sauce”, saying that he doesn’t think people got the humor in it.
“I don’t think people got the humor,” Jackson said (57:01 in player above). “The names are on the back of the players that were in the bubble because if you apply them to defending and challenging and going to the hoop, and you use those monikers that were on the names, it had a funny aspect to it. That’s just what I was bringing up to the kids. Visually, this is kind of humorous.”
During his appearance on Rick Rubin’s podcast in late April, Jackson brought up that players had monikers on the back of their jerseys like “Justice” and “Equal Opportunity”, which could lead to play-by-play like “Justice went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.”
Perhaps the thought of hearing phrases in place of names during play-by-play is humorous. However, given the political climate in 2020 and still today, not everyone saw the humor in Jackson’s comments.
Jackson insisted that he has nothing against Black Lives Matter or any of the causes behind what happened in the bubble.
“I had nothing against BLM or the cause that was behind it,” he said. “The humorous nature of going completely woke by the NBA really was like, it’s pretty hard to watch.”
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