Thursday, July 29, 2021

Olympic Schadenfreude

 Charlemagne Institute  "If there are two sports more ferociously woke than NBA basketball and women’s professional soccer, I am unaware of their existence.

"Unfortunately for athletes in these two sports, their commitment to wokeness and the language of equity is increasingly backfiring, so much so that I have found their recent Olympic adventures delectable. They are so rich in Schadenfreude that I am tempted to use a neologism I only just discovered: “Schadenfreudelicious.”

"From the first moments after the death of George Floyd, professional basketball players and their league have emitted a constant bleating of support for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) narrative, which claims that the situation in America has never been worse for blacks. The league’s biggest star, Lebron James, characterized BLM as a “lifestyle” and, in stupendous ignorance of American history, denied that there had ever been any social movement dedicated to improving the situation of blacks. The NBA’s commitment to the BLM perspective is so complete that at least one player’s agent anonymously observed how this stance has damaged the league’s brand with fans who do not share the movement’s radical leftist worldview.

"Not surprisingly, Olympic men’s basketball is in total disarray. Many of the leading lights in the NBA, including James and the equally woke Stephen Curry, felt such a surge of patriotism over the Olympics that they declined to play on the national team.

"Lauren Holiday, a former professional soccer player herself and the wife of Jrue Holiday—one of the NBA stars who did sign up for the U.S. Olympic team—publicly and shrilly denounced police as racist for briefly handcuffing her husband when he showed up at the scene, bringing her driver’s license, when she was stopped by police and eventually ticketed for overly tinted windows. Other team members—Damian LillardBradley BealBam Adebayo—backed BLM’s radical agenda and attended protests." . . .

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