As RedState wrote Thursday, the Orlando Magic organization has came under fire from left-wing hacktivists after it was revealed that the Magic donated $50,000 to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ Never Back Down super PAC.
Though according to a spox for the Magic, the donation was made mid-May, just before DeSantis officially launched his presidential campaign, the NY Times made sure to point out that it happened “weeks after DeSantis signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, prohibiting the termination of pregnancies after six weeks.”
The whole point behind the gnashing of teeth over the supposed issue was, as my colleague Bonchie pointed out, an obvious effort by The Usual Suspects to cancel the Magic over their history of supporting Republicans and Republican-backed legislative efforts despite putting on a public face that their critics say is at odds with who they are:
The Magic are owned by the DeVos family, well-known conservatives. Betsy DeVos, the daughter-in-law of the former Magic chairman Richard DeVos, who died in 2018, was former president Donald J. Trump’s education secretary.
[…]
The donation was also a reminder that for all of the N.B.A.’s professions of support for progressive causes that its players believe in, several billionaire team owners — whose interests Silver represents — have deployed their own power to fight those very causes.
Also joining in on the pile-on against the Orlando Magic was the National Basketball Players’ Association, which put out the following statement condemning the donation because it “does not represent player support” for Ron DeSantis:
“A political contribution from the Orlando Magic is alarming given recent comments and policies of its beneficiary.
NBA governors, players and personnel have the right to express their personal political views, including through donations and statements. However, if contributions are made on behalf of an entire team, using money earned through the labor of its employees, it is incumbent upon the team governors to consider the diverse values and perspectives of staff and players.
The Magic’s donation does not represent player support for the recipient.”
In other words, the NBA players’ union likely would not have had an issue with the donation had it gone to Joe Biden.
To his credit, DeSantis has responded accordingly as only he can, dunking on the players’ union and the NBA by reminding people that the NBA and its woke players don’t do much standing at all – especially when it comes to the national anthem and China:
It appears the NBA took a break from protesting our anthem and bending the knee to Communist China to chirp about my policies. https://t.co/j8uH4AmAx7
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) August 4, 2023
And that pretty much should be the standard response anytime the NBA, its players union, and/or the players themselves come after one of their own over their support for Republicans and Republican policies.
After all, as we saw here in North Carolina during the HB2 “bathroom bill” drama, the NBA – like most other professional sports leagues – is big on virtue signaling about “human rights for all” but looks the other way when it comes to actual human rights abuses like China’s communism and slave labor practices, both of which the NBA has been the beneficiary to the tune of billions.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member