Putting an even uglier polish on the NBA’s kowtowing to China is the news that the Portland Trail Blazers recently bowed to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment Sanctions movement.
Specifically, the Blazers dropped a local sponsor simply because the company does business with the Israeli Defense Forces.
The local Democratic Socialists of America branch has been campaigning for the last year to get the team to break off with Leupold & Stevens — a family-owned firm based in Beaverton, Oregon, since 1907 that makes binoculars as well as telescopic sights, red-dot sights and other firearm optics.
Disrupting games and screaming on social media, the #NoLeupold campaigners claim the company “actively profits from war crimes.” Of course, Israel doesn’t commit war crimes — indeed, takes enormous care to avoid them, quite unlike the terrorist groups now festering on its borders.
More important, this action is transparently hypocritical when the league has been eagerly pursuing ties with the Chinese government — whose human rights abuses are vast and ongoing, from its concentration camps for Muslims to its harvesting of organs from political prisoners.
Not to mention Beijing’s bid to strangle liberty and the rule of law in Hong Kong — or its insanely over-the-top reaction to a single NBA GM’s tweet in support of Hong Kongers’ current protests.
To appease the Chinese Communist Party, NBA teams are even confiscating fans’ pro-Hong Kong signs and ejecting those who cheer for freedom.
It’s starting to look like an honor to be boycotted by the NBA.
