Shannon Sharpe, a former NFL star and Fox Sports host of “Skip and Shannon: Undisputed,” called legendary NBA coach Phil Jackson “foolish” for saying the sport was being “too political.”
On an April 24 episode of the sports and entertainment talk show, Shannon Sharpe discussed Phil Jackson’s recent comments regarding the NBA’s support of Black social justice during the height of the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd, The New York Post reported.
Jackson, who made an April 5 appearance on the Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin podcast, disliked how the players, who were at the time playing in Orlando stadium under strict guidelines, commonly referred to as the bubble, had jerseys that read “Justice,” and “Black Lives Matter.”
“I am not enjoying the game,” said Jackson. “There’s a whole generation that doesn’t like the game.”
“They did something that was kind of wanky, they did a bubble down in Orlando, and all the teams that could qualify went down there and stayed down there,” Jackson said on the podcast. “And they had things on their back like, ‘Justice.’ They made a funny thing like, ‘Justice just went to the basket and Equal Opportunity just knocked him down.’ … My grandkids thought that was pretty funny to play up those names. …I couldn’t watch that.”
The comments are now being reported, and viewers vehemently disagree with Jackson’s stance on the NBA being too political, a talkpoint certain conservatives hold.
Perhaps the famed coach, best known for his 11 titles between his career with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, thought activism had no place on the court or was being implemented incorrectly, but some took his criticism as an anti-Black statement and labeled him a racist.
Sharpe is one of the naysayers.
“Can you tell dumb dumb politics have always been in sports?” Sharpe said of Jackson. “Ali, Jack Johnson… Go back in history of the time. Politics have always been in sports,” Radar Online reported.
“Now, all of a sudden, it turns him off,” Sharpe told cohost Bayless.
“I don’t care nothing about what’s on the court. Can they go put the ball in the basketball then go ‘d’ up? I wanna see the shot making. I wanna see the ball handling. I wanna see the creativity. It wasn’t what’s on no damn court.”
“Come on, Phil. You sound foolish,” Sharpe said of Jackson.
