Rumors

It’s not nearly as one-sided as the WNBA, but the NBA player base is undoubtedly Democrat-leaning. In a sample of 170 players in the 2024-25 season out of approximately 430 voting-eligible, there are 73 Democrats, 76 independents, 17 Republicans, and four affiliating with other political parties. The 32.9 percentage-point margin between the two major parties is smaller than in the other leagues examined thus far, but the political leanings of independents would need to be strongly Republican to eliminate this gap. Again, demography explains the partisan leaning of the player base here. The vast majority of the NBA is black, and young black men have historically been a strong constituency for the Democratic Party despite recent slippage. This also meant the league was a natural home for Black Lives Matter activism, including a strike during the playoffs after the killing of Jacob Blake. In Trump’s first term the champion Warriors (twice) and Raptors both did not visit the White House, effectively the first time players and the President collectively refused to participate in the tradition. Although the league saw the Big Four player to come out as gay in Jason Collins, the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder did not hold a Pride Night last season, and the league has had its fair share of controversies over gay slurs.

VoteHub

“The reality is we need people now more than ever that can’t be bought,” White stressed during his speech. “They don’t have a price, and I can’t stress that to you enough.” After landing the endorsement, White seethed at media reports noting his past marching with Black Lives Matter activists. “I never marched with BLM, they marched with me… to The Federal Reserve,” he claimed on X. “As soon as the higher ups in BLM run mainstream media figured out I wasn’t there to pitch the same ol story and smart enough to speak about a much deeper money problem, they quickly decided this Black [sic] man’s life DOESN’T MATTER so much.”

New York Post

Royce White, a former Black Lives Matter protester turned InfoWars darling, won the state Republican Party's endorsement Saturday to challenge Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar for her U.S. Senate seat.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

In response to this detail, a Black Lives Matter chapter in Chicago posted a picture of a paraglider with a Palestinian flag and a caption that read, “I Stand With Palestine.” Moldovan, who is Jewish, responded to that image on Instagram, with his own caption: 72 hours after terrorists paraglided into a music festival and slaughtered 260 young people. This is how BLM chose to symbolize where their support lies. Fuck BLM and anybody who supports them.

houseofstrauss.com

Some have blamed the drop in eyeballs on the league’s embrace of the BLM movement in the wake of social unrest following the killing of George Floyd. The NBA painted “Black Lives Matter” on all the league’s courts and allowed players to wear jerseys with social justice messages. “Half the country says this is not us,” the source close to the NBA said.

New York Post

“After the Floyd murder (in May 2020) and all the things that were going on, I reached out to my players and (special advisor to the general manager) Joe Dumars and said, ‘What can we do? … how can we be helpful?,” Ranadivé, the Kings’ chairman, said in a phone interview. “I marched for Black Lives Matter,” he continued. “I said BLM is not enough; we need to do more. Black education matters. Black internships matter. Black schools matter. And the people here said, ‘You know the governor. You know the people in the White House. You know the attorneys general. You need to use that platform to affect real change and access to power.'”

The Athletic

How do you respond to the criticism that the NBA and its players are outspoken about BLM and police violence, but don’t talk about human rights abuses in China? Adam Silver: My response there is that we and our players speak about issues that are closest to home. Our players have the absolute freedom to speak off the floor about any issue they want. I think it was a unique set of circumstances that led us to talk about Black Lives Matter over the course of last summer.

TIME

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: However, in September of 2020, following the summer of national Black Lives Matter protests, he offered more direct support of the activists’ cause: “Everyone should deserve the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. Being in the locker room for 20 years and being around guys with every different race, religion, skin color, background and different states. Everyone [brings] something different to the table and you embrace those things. They expand you in ways that you couldn’t have been expanded if you weren’t exposed all those different things.” That suggests to me that he’s becoming a player who wants to use his voice to help achieve equity among Americans.

The Guardian

Marc J. Spears: The Hawks say the Pope wanted to acknowledge the stand #NBA players took in support of #BLM. Vatican reached out 1/7 asking for MLK Hawks jerseys the Pope could pray a blessing over on MLK Day. Pope also met with 5 players November praising their fight against social injustice. pic.twitter.com/N41r8Dr1MV

Twitter

Eric Walden: Jordan Clarkson, on how today's Capitol invaders were treated, as opposed to summer BLM protestors: "People see the difference; they saw what people did today and how there were no consequences for them. On the other side, it would have … ended in multiple arrests and deaths."

Twitter

Jamal Crawford: Whole different energy for BLM though... 🤷🏾‍♂️

Twitter

Adam Silver: Now, some people might suggest that the words Black Lives Matter are causing massive amounts of people to tune out the NBA. There’s absolutely no data to support that. And in fact, as I said, there’s no doubt there are some people—and whether or not they were truly our fans to begin with is unclear—who have become further engaged with the league because they believe in our players and they believe in the positions they’ve taken, even if they don’t agree with everything they say. They respect their right to speak out on issues that are important to them.

GQ.com

Chris Mannix: Norman Powell, very emotional, says he is tired of talking about BLM and seeing some law enforcement — and Powell goes out of his way to note there are great police officers — kill black men. “If you have that badge,” Powell said, “you should wear it with honor.”

Twitter

Serge Ibaka: Can’t stop, won’t stop... until no more unarmed black men and women are killed #blm #enough pic.twitter.com/Em4ajxPNdl

Twitter