JUST LET THEM PLAY
top of the NBA heap, and he does so because of his incomparable basketball mind. As the Wall Street Journal ’s Ben Cohen wrote in a 2019 piece, James “has a photographic memory,” he “knows the other team’s plays,” and “he can see into the future.” In the words of longtime NBA announcer Marv Albert, “Yes!” It’s important to note that for a time, James wasn’t at the top of the heap. It was Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry. Joyous about the formerly great rivalry between Curry’s Warriors and James’ Cavaliers was what James felt put the Warriors up top. It was – you guessed it – the “collective intelligence” of Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green that made the Warriors so formidable. Athleticism on the NBA level is a given... It’s the intelligence of players that takes them and their teams to the next level. Underlying such demands on athletes is the view that their color automatically defines their views – views seemingly easy to develop since sports are so, you know, instinctual... Presently James is the world’s smartest basketball player, and he also wears his politics (Joe Biden) on his sleeve. What’s unknown is if he felt he had a choice in the matter. To be clear, this is not meant to insult James... It’s instead meant to cast aspersions on a modern political culture in the U.S. that demands athletes have strong opinions on
matters unrelated to their unique brilliance. It’s again very insulting to the players. Why isn’t it enough that James be the most intelligent basketball player in the world? Why is it demanded that he have other opinions... about presidential politics, about George Floyd, about China? Politics in sports is not the problem, nor really is “woke” the problem. In a country founded on freedom and skepticism about politicians, how insulting for Democrats or Republicans outside of sports to expect that athletes, just because they’re athletes, shut up and do whatever it is they do on the field or court. Much more insulting, however, is the view that athletes must be political, and if they’re black, they must be Democrats and “woke” – regardless of what they really feel about politics and policy, assuming anything at all. Underlying such demands on athletes is the view that their color automatically defines their views – views seemingly easy to develop since sports are so, you know, instinctual... Talk about racist. Yes, when we demand that athletes be political, we thoroughly insult their genius.
John Tamny is a vice president at FreedomWorks, editor of
RealClearMarkets, and author of When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason .
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June 2021
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