Time To Shape Up Sports Once And For All

First of all, I had to think long and hard about even writing this one. You have to understand my feelings about race overall. I was raised to believe that every single person you meet deserved respect and dignity. It didn’t matter where they came from. It didn’t matter how much money they had. It didn’t matter what color their skin was. You went in to every meeting of a person with a baseline of respect and dignity. Now, if they screwed it up after that, it was on them.

So, let’s just say I don’t care what color you are, or where you come from, or how much money you have. None of that is important. What type of person you are is. How you help the least of us is. The rest is just conversation.

So, when sports teams like the Milwaukee Bucks decide that they are going to boycott their own NBA playoff game because some guy was shot in Kenosha, I have a problem with that. First of all, none of us know the facts. You can’t sit there and say that the cop that shot Jacob Blake was wrong. But you don’t have the facts. All you know is that some black guy got shot. And until the whole story comes out, you won’t know the facts.

So, for this NBA team, comprised of millionaire black and white athletes decides to boycott their own playoff game because of it, it’s wrong. Sorry, but it’s dead wrong. And NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver was dead wrong for not punishing the Bucks. What he should have done was to have forfeited the game to the Orlando Magic. And he should have fined each of the players on the Bucks’ team $250,000. That money should have gone to the TV networks that lost money because of their actions.

And any other team that decided to boycott playing should also have been forfeited and fined. Sports is different from violence and politics. And quite frankly, if these over-blown egotists want to step into the world of social justice, fine. But I don’t have to take part or listen. And if they screw up a sporting event, there should be consequences.

This all started with Colin Kaepernick back when he started kneeling for the national anthem. And since then, athletes all over have decided that we Americans really care what they think about social justice and politics. You may, and you certainly have that right to. I don’t. This is the point where, as I explained at the beginning, you lose my respect. You lose your dignity. You’ve now screwed things up. The same thing holds true for washed up singers like Bette Midler, or unfunny comedians like Kathy Griffin. If you want to be political, you certainly have that right. But I also have the right to call you out on it and tell you what a buffoon you are (as I did with Midler the other night).

It’s time that we realize that sports teams, and actors, and comedians, and singers are entertainers. They have but one job in this world and that’s to entertain the masses in some way, shape, or form. If you have a political view, or want to be a social justice warrior, I really don’t care…have at it. But when it starts interfering with your chosen profession, and you’re getting paid buku bucks for that profession, that’s when you start losing dignity, and respect. The NBA lost both in my eyes eons ago. And I haven’t seen any reason to believe they’ve changed.

Carry on world…you’re dismissed!