NFL
By: Brock Vierra
Deemed one of the most progressive commissioners in all of sports, Adam Silver spent last week in Salt Lake City celebrating the NBA during its All-Star Weekend. Home to the Utah Jazz, Salt Lake City is home to one of the youngest owners in the NBA in Ryan Smith, and NBA legend Dwayne Wade. Silver who has not shied away from controversial issues hoped that this weekend would usher in another great celebration of the game. As commissioner, Silver has forced the sale of both the Los Angeles Clippers and Atlanta Hawks from their previous owners due to their use of racist language and there’s a belief he used certain strings to force U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler’s hand in selling the Atlanta Dream after she openly opposed the Black Lives Matter movement.
A champion for social justice, Silver was also responsible for the league’s support of BLM, certain social justice movements, and various player movements whose goal is to achieve social and racial equality. Silver is so down for the cause that he moved the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte to New Orléans after North Carolina passed the controversial bathroom bill forcing people to use the bathroom that aligns with the gender printed on that person’s birth certificate, essentially alienating transgender individuals from using the proper facilities for their faculties. The NBA All-Star game returned to Charlotte once the bill was repealed.
With such a progressive commissioner and an ownership group that refused to repeat the on and off-court policies of the past, it came as a surprise that the NBA chose this weekend to celebrate the career of Karl Malone. Malone, a two-time MVP and 14-time All-Star spent 18 of his 19 years in the league as a member of the Utah Jazz where he won two Western Conference Titles and finished his career as the second-highest scorer in NBA history. He’s currently ranked third in that category and owns or is second in almost every major statistical category in franchise history. Malone is also a statutory rapist and neglectful father.
That’s right. When Malone was 20, he had sex with a 13-year-old girl and got her pregnant. The young lady’s family decided to sweep this under the rug so they could extract child support from Malone. Malone rejected the child until 2014 when Malone and the boy Demetress Bell began to have a relationship. It seems that they are in regular contact as of writing and Malone has expressed regret over not being in his son’s life. Malone has yet to express regret over that statutory rape. Now I’m not trying to justify Malone’s behavior but this wasn’t a one-time thing. It wouldn’t be okay if it was but Malone has a history of disturbing comments.
As a Laker, he walked into the arena one day wearing a cowboy hat. Knowing Malone is an avid outdoorsman, Vanessa Bryant jokingly asked Malone what was he hunting. He responded with “little Mexican girls.” Vanessa Bryant is of Mexican-American descent and at the time of the comment, she and Kobe Bryant shared a one-year-old daughter, Natalia who is of Afro-Latina heritage.
However, the Jazz and NBA have found it fit to honor the on-court achievements of the franchise’s best player. They did it during the playoffs last year so it’s on-brand for the association. Except it isn’t equal treatment across the board. The NBA and Adam Silver pick and choose who and what they want to stand for. On the night that Malone was celebrated, the NBA’s biggest pariah dropped 32 points and 15 assists while a member of Team LeBron. Kyrie Irving has made comments in the past claiming the world is flat, the COVID-19 vaccine is meant to essentially enslave black people, shared viewpoints by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and tweeted a link to a documentary that some claim as antisemitic. I don’t know if the documentary is, I’ve never watched it. However regardless of if Irving is an antisemite or not is not relevant to the point. As a result of the tweet, Irving was suspended by the Nets for off-court activity. Something the Jazz nor the league ever did for Malone or for Myers Leonard.
Myers Leonard is an NBA forward who was just signed to a 10-day contract by the Milwaukee Bucks. Leonard has been out of the league since 2021 as he has been recovering from both shoulder and ankle surgery. Leonard also called someone a kike. What’s a kike? It’s an antisemitic slur used against Jewish people. The result? Leonard was suspended for a week. Irving was suspended for “at least” five games and Nets owner Joe Tsai required Irving to do a bunch of things before he could return, Tsai would go back on his requirements. Joe Tsai is also a Taiwanese national who is the executive vice chairman of the Chinese multinational technology company Alibaba whose headquarters are in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China. Tsai has yet to speak out on Chinses policies regarding Hong Kong or the human rights violation and alleged genocide of the Uyghur people.
Leonard will suit up in the NBA again despite actually being an antisemite. Let’s not mince words, most of us didn’t know what that word was until he said it. It’s not common verbiage in society, and it isn’t used in popular music, Leonard didn’t make a mistake, he got caught but it’s all good because it’s off the court right? Maybe not if you’re Kyrie Irving, Donald Sterling, Bruce Levenson, or Kelly Loeffler.
What if you’re Malik Beasley? Beasley committed a crime, Beasley went to jail during the offseason, and served a suspension by the NBA. However his actions did not impact the play on the court and the league, not his team chose to suspend him. Beasley who entered a plea deal had all felony charges dropped while Malone’s actions for which is clear that he committed is legally classified as a felony yet didn’t face anything as a player criminally or from the league and he still gets the spotlight in retirement? Makes no sense.
What I don’t understand is why celebrate Malone when John Stockton is right there. Stockton is a Hall of Famer, NBA leader in career assists, 10-time NBA All-Star, Dream Team member, NBA 50th and 75th-anniversary team, and has the same team achievements as Malone. Oh, its because Stockton is anti-vax because as we all know being anti-vax is so much worse than what Malone did.
The NBA and Silver are hypocrites. I’m not asking the league to be the pillar for social justice or to prohibit what players say. Public opinion will determine everything but I ask the NBA to be consistent. Malone is an outdoorsman who is spending his retirement out of the public eye, at his home in Louisiana. Keep him there. Or if you choose to celebrate the player, don’t suspend other players for off-court incidences.
The Jazz messed up, the NBA messed up, and Silver messed up. Stop trying to be the global force for good, that’s a slogan for the marines. There are so many great Jazz players you could’ve celebrated or just celebrate the game. When it came to Kyrie Irving and Alex Jones, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said that “[Jones is] one of the most despicable human beings alive…to associate with him means you share his stench.” To associate with Karl Malone is to do the same. The NBA can’t fix what they did nor have they made any attempts to. I guess some things are okay for some people. Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, would it be okay for you?
