NBA Commissioner Adam Silver today reiterated the league’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, but also stressed the importance of tolerance toward -- and dialogue with -- those who have a different point of view, including U.S. Sen. and WNBA Atlanta Dream co-Owner Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). Silver, speaking during Part 2 of our SBJ: The Road Ahead Virtual Series, said of the NBA and WNBA’s position, “Part of the principles of all our leagues, you need to respect other points of view. Clearly, our leagues collectively have gotten behind Black Lives Matter as a statement, as part of a social justice movement in this country.” But Silver added: “Tolerance of all sorts is important too, and to the extent that people disagree, whether they feel that those words have come to mean something beyond the plain meaning of Black Lives Matter, I think that has to be respected and understood.”
Silver rejected the feasibility of separating sports from societal issues, saying, “You’ve heard me say this before: I certainly don’t think that’s really workable in 2020, to turn the clock back to the extent this ever was the case where sports would somehow operate independent of society. We’re part and parcel of society, and again, this is a form of expression by the league and our players. This is how we’ve chosen to express ourselves.”
Silver concluded by expressing hope that the league’s promotion of BLM will lead to a healthy discussion. “I understand that it’s not just Senator Loeffler, that there may be others out there who disagree with our views of this platform, and it’s my fondest hope that they will therefore engage with us and that we’ll start a conversation that could lead ultimately to change and to people having a better understanding of each other.”
