The NBA has signed a deal to play games in the United Arab Emirates despite the fact that the country considers homosexuality an offense punishable by death.
Of course, the league paraded itself as ultra-woke by canceling its 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte, North Carolina, when that state passed its HB2 into law. It is a law that restricts restrooms in government buildings for use only by people whose birth gender corresponds to the sign on the door.
It was a bill that sent the NBA into high dudgeon.
In 2016, while announcing its decision to pull the All-Star Game from Charlotte, the NBA claimed that it based its move on “long-standing core values of our league.” The league added that its so-called “core values” include “diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect for others.”
In other comments, extremist, left-wing NBA chief Adam Silver went further and said that it would be “necessary” for North Carolina to change its laws before the NBA held the game there again.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver (Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
But, with its announcement that it has made a multi-million-dollar deal with the United Arab Emirates, those “long-standing core values” seem to be out of sight and out of mind.
Consequently, the league happily announced this week that preseason games between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks are scheduled for Oct. 6 and 8 at the Etihad Arena in the UAB’s capital city of Abu Dhabi.
The NBA Abu Dhabi Games 2022 Announcement at Dubai World Trade Centre (Getty)
The NBA’s big announcement should be no surprise, though. Despite the country’s very spotty record on gay rights, the league is also neck-deep in billion-dollar deals in China.
The NBA seems to have a lot of “long-standing core values” when its target of condemnation are places in the United States where it knows it will get accolades from the leftist media establishment but otherwise suffer no real financial burden. However, when it comes to its deals in nations where those “long-standing core values” are at odds with authorities, the NBA’s money takes precedence.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, or Truth Social @WarnerToddHuston
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.