NBA Teams decide protest is more important than sleep
Whether we like it or not, Donald Trump is America’s next President. Unexpectedly to many, Trump was able to make a “comeback” victory over Hillary Clinton to win the 2016 election just a week ago.
For those who are against Trump, it is understandable why. He has made many racist, sexist, and anti-LGBT statements over the course of his Presidential campaign and even before then. His campaign and chance at winning the Presidency were thought to have been destroyed when a past recording of himself came out in which he made extremely vulgar comments about women. Trump followed up this tape by claiming that it was just “locker-room talk”, which set off a tirade of upset statements by current professional athletes.
Donald Trump's election into office has outraged many in the sports world.
In the end, it seems as if none of this mattered because Trump was still able to convince enough people that he was better for this country than Secretary Clinton. Now at this point there is nothing that can be done to get rid of Trump, but that is not stopping NBA teams and athletes from taking action.
Trump has always been known as a business man, owning or being involved in parts of several different companies, including a family-owned chain of hotels in the New York and Chicago area. In past seasons, these hotels have been occupied by NBA teams who are playing in these cities.
Trump is known for being a business man, including being a part of his family-owned hotel chain that NBA teams have stayed at in past seasons.
However, three teams are taking action by choosing to vacate these hotels and find somewhere else to stay. These teams are the Milwaukee Bucks, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Memphis Grizzlies.
When questioned about the choice to do this, representatives of all three teams claimed that politics had nothing to do with their decision. The Bucks instead cited an incident with one of the Trump hotels during the preseason as their reason for switching locations. According to the team, they tried to make last minute cancellations with the hotel, but were met with various complications and unnecessary difficulty. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and Grizzlies Head Coach David Fizdale both expanded on their team’s claims, saying that their decisions to avoid Trump hotels came way before the election took place. It is worth noting though that both Cuban and Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry were strong supporters of Hillary Clinton. More information on the explanations for each team can be found in the following ESPN article.
While the political influence on the decisions of each organization is very grey, the players who spoke out about this situation were very direct and straightforward. One of those players was Milwaukee Buck Jabari Parker, who stated that he was proud of the organization for making a stand and moving out of Trump hotels. His full statement, which can be read in the following Fox Sports link, mentions how he cannot support Trump because of his hatred toward minorities, which Parker and his family happen to be.
Other coaches around the league also share Parker’s beliefs, even though their teams are not one of the three taking action. Stan Van Gundy (Pistons), Steve Kerr (Warriors), and Greg Popovich (Spurs) have all spoken with the media about how uneasy they and their players are with having Trump as the next President. Van Gundy went even further to call Trump “openly and brazenly racist, misogynistic, and ethnocentric.”
Stan Van Gundy did not hold back when speaking to the media about Donald Trump.
After paying attention to the election process and listening to all of the information and negative publicity that came out about Trump, I can fully understand where these owners, coaches, and players are coming from. Trump has been in the wrong for much of his life for the comments he has made and the actions he has taken, and needs to put some serious thought into that. At the end of the day, it is the NBA organization that pays for the hotel rooms, and therefore they can decide where they do and do not want to stay. They should not have to explain their reasoning for switching to a new hotel, even if the driving force behind it is their political views.
Being on the road and away from home, organizations and players have the right to feel comfortable, and so if that comfort comes from staying in another hotel, then that is what they should do.
