First, the idea that this performative signaling on the court will actually solve the underlying social problems people are concerned with strikes me as wishcasting.

But more importantly, the NBA is poised to join Facebook and Twitter in the great “platform vs. publisher” quagmire. That debate is dumb enough when it comes to social media. It will be a bonfire of idiocy when the NBA wades in.

What slogans count as acceptable social justice slogans?

Recall, that it wasn’t long ago that many in the NBA beclowned themselves by becoming craven lickspittles to China in order to keep the money spigot open. Last October Houston Rockets general mnager Daryl Morey rightly tweeted support for protesters in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party took offense, and the NBA quickly proceeded to prostrate itself to China. The league shamefully kicked out fans carrying pro-Hong Kong signs from an NBA exhibition game in Philadelphia. Lebron James got snared in the controversy for giving a weasel-worded defense of China that would get him canceled if he said something similar about the Minneapolis Police Department.