NBA Hall of Fame coach Phil Jackson says he hasn’t enjoyed or watched basketball since the 2020 bubble year in Orlando, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic. the reason? He didn’t like the slogans on the players’ shirts or on the field.
Jackson said, “…they had things on their back like ‘Justice’ and a funny thing happened like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and level the playing field knocked him down'” Tetragrammaton podcast with Rick Rubin. “…some of my grandchildren thought it was very funny to juggle those names; I couldn’t watch it.”
The NBA has agreed to allow players to wear slogans like “Justice,” “Equality,” “Black Lives Matter,” “Say Their Name,” “Vote,” “Peace,” and more on the back of their jerseys instead of their names during the bubble in 2020 as a show To support the fight against racial injustice in the United States.
The league’s decision followed mass protests during the summer of 2020 following the killings of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, and Breonna Taylor, an unarmed black woman who was killed in her home. Games were postponed during the bubble when players refused to play in the aftermath of the killing of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man who was shot in the back by Wisconsin police.
Jackson, 77, seemed to think the letters did more harm than good because they made the league so political.
He said, “She was trying to cater to an audience or trying to get a certain audience into the game, and they didn’t know it was turning others away. People want to see sports as apolitical. Politics stays out of the game; it doesn’t have to be there.”
Here’s the full audio bite of Jackson in his own words:
No matter how you look at it, this isn’t the first time Jackson wanted basketball players to stay out of politicsnot him The first questionable note on racial topics.
Jackson he told ESPN’s JA Adande in 2010 That “I don’t think teams should get involved in politics” when talking about the Phoenix Suns’ peaceful protest against new immigration laws in Arizona in “Los Suns” T-shirts.
As he put it, “certain residents of our community” has “limitations on their attention span” Because of the rap, that guys “They were wearing prison uniforms… It’s like a gangster and a thug,” He referred to LeBron James’ business partners as his “boss”. 2016 interview with ESPN.
Chicago Bulls legend Scottie Pippen, who played for Jackson during the Bulls championship in the 1990s, accused his former coach in 2021 of being racist after Jackson played at the last second to play Tony Cuoco in place of Pippen during the 1994 playoff game.
“I don’t think it’s a mystery,” said Pippin, “you have to read between the fine lines.” “…I felt like it was an opportunity to give it a go [Kukoc] arise. It was a racist move to give him the ascent. After everything you’ve been through with this organization, now you’re going to tell me to take the ball out and throw it to Tony Kucock? You insult me. That’s what I felt.”
Pippen also said Jackson tried to “shame” Kobe Bryant after he left him and the Los Angeles Lakers to write a book in 2004, only to return in 2005.
Jackson played, coached, and was an executive in the NBA for 50 years from 1967-2017. He’s a basketball celebrity for his time as a coach, winning 11 NBA titles with the Bulls and Lakers. Jackson became president of the New York Knicks in 2014, but parted ways with the team in 2017.