The NBA had welcoming arms to the Black Lives Matter Movement but was everyone happy about it? Recent news is that an anonymous NBA agent bashed the league for supporting the movement. According to theroot.com, he/she stated it is a “horrible look on the league”. The agent also said the players were “being manipulated into something they don’t really understand”. 

The agent’s comment read:

“They initially did a great job by putting the bubble together and they completely s— the bed with all this nonsense. They really hurt the business. … All of this Black Lives Matter stuff. … I think that the players are being manipulated into something that they don’t really understand and I think it’s a horrible look for the league and they need to be very clear about the organization, what they stand for. … If that’s what the NBA wants to align with, they’re really hurting themselves. … They’re not helping the players, they’re hurting the sport. When the ratings are down 30%, who are you helping?”

This shocked many considering 81.1% of the NBA is African American. Why wouldn’t they support the movement? Many including the players took this as disrespectful. Although the agent was right about one thing, the NBA ratings have been down in 2020 but they sure aren’t the only ones. Blaming the decline in rating on the NBA su
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pporting BLack Lives Matter movement may not be completely true. Almost every major sport has experienced a ratings decline in 2020. There are many possible reasons for that: the upcoming election has taken attention away from sports, the COVID-19 pandemic has people thinking about other things and some don’t get the same enjoyment out of watching sports without live fans.

It’s possible some fans were turned off by the NBA supporting the movement. Yet it’s also true that some fans were more interested to watch the sport for that reason. Any argument that tries to argue activism with the NBA’s lower ratings isn’t entirely accurate.