The liberals and sports media figures who fawned over Colin Kaepernick and declared that he was being “blackballed’ from professional sports don’t seem to be keeping that same energy for an NBA player going through what is nearly the exact same thing.
Jaden Ivey, a former No. 5 overall pick and former all-rookie team selection, has been released by the Chicago Bulls after a series of posts on social media. Ivey made a series of comments, the media deciding that the worst of which was his declaration that LGBT Pride Month celebrations were celebrations of “unrighteousness.” In speaking about Ivey’s release, Bulls coach Billy Donovan said that “there are certain standards we want to have as an organization and try to live up to those each and every day.” Ivey’s comments, it can be inferred, did not meet those standards.
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Oddly enough, there is no widespread sports media backlash over this release, the way there was when Kaepernick remained unsigned in the NFL. On its face, this would be understandable: Ivey had struggled to remain healthy for the past two seasons and was going to be a free agent this summer anyway, meaning the Bulls aren’t losing much. But that didn’t stop the freakout over Kaepernick remaining unsigned, despite him being one of the worst quarterbacks in the league at the time.
In fact, the Ivey situation would be worse by any metric. Kaepernick was a mediocre 29-year-old at the time of his free agency, while Ivey has only recently turned 24. Ivey was rehabbing an injury and hadn’t played for the Bulls in nearly two months, which means he wasn’t cut for poor performance, but solely for his comments. Kaepernick, meanwhile, opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers after he refused to take a pay cut to be traded to the Denver Broncos.
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By any reasonable metric, Ivey is being punished for his views more so than Kaepernick was. And yet, sports media figures and outlets have simply accepted, or even defended, Ivey’s release, even as the industry spawned a conspiracy theory that NFL owners were colluding to blackball Kaepernick from the league under similar circumstances.
Either sports media figures think that Ivey is not being “blackballed” for his comments, which is inconsistent with the standards they set out in the Kaepernick saga, or they think it is good that Ivey is being punished for his view, showing their lack of principles. One way or another, they are contradicting themselves because they only care about freedom of speech for athletes when those athletes serve as an extension of their political beliefs.