The sports world’s foremost authority on social justice activism and virtue signaling is apparently the National Basketball Association (NBA), so much so that a delegation of players had Pope Francis for an audience.
On Monday, “five NBA players and several officials from the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA)” had a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Monday to discuss how they handled their social justice initiative following the polarizing death of George Floyd back in May.
According to ESPN:
An assistant to Pope Francis reached out to the players' association last week indicating the Pope wanted to learn more about how players had recently brought attention to pressing social justice issues and economic inequality -- and what they planned for the future, union officials told ESPN. The union agreed and quickly scheduled an overnight flight Sunday to make their private meeting with the pope, which happened at 11:45 a.m. local time Monday morning at the Vatican.
Cindy Wooden, the Rome Bureau Chief for the Catholic News Service, posted a tweet with a picture from the meeting at the Vatican.
#PopeFrancis met today with reps of the NBA Players Association to talk about their efforts to promote racial equality, social justice & to feed the poor. (📷 Vatican Media) pic.twitter.com/fGhoMJzQPl
— Cindy Wooden (@Cindy_Wooden) November 23, 2020
Sports in general has taken a downward turn since going full “woke” earlier this year.
Back in late September, the first game of the NBA Finals between activist LeBron James’ Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat drew the worst television audience for a Game 1 on an NBA Finals in the series’ history.
Around the same time, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN’s Rachel Nichols that going forward he thinks that social justice messages will “largely be left to be delivered off the floor.”
For anyone that still watches, the NBA will be starting their new season around Christmas on December 22.