Governor DeSantis on Friday slammed the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) for condemning an Orlando basketball team’s donation to his campaign PAC.
The 2024 GOP contender knocked the NBPA, which represents NBA players, after it released a statement attacking the Orlando Magic for contributing $50,000 to DeSantis’ Never Back Down PAC.
“It appears the NBA took a break from protesting our anthem and bending the knee to Communist China to chirp about my policies,” DeSantis tweeted Friday.
In its press release, the union claimed a Florida team’s support for the governor’s campaign was “alarming given recent comments and policies of its beneficiary.”
“NBA governors, players, and personnel have the right to express their personal political views, including through donations and statements,” the statement read. “However, if contributions are made on behalf of an entire team, using money earned through the labor of its employees, it is incumbent upon the team governors to consider the diverse values and perspectives of staff and players.”
The NBA has been criticized for behavior aimed at appeasing China. When one NBA general manager posted a tweet in solidarity with Hong Kong, which has seen its tradition of civil liberties dismantled by the Chinese government, the tweet was soon deleted. The NBA rushed to quiet the PR drama as games were scrubbed from Chinese state television. When Enes Kanter Freedom, an NBA player, began to speak out publicly about the Uyghur genocide that the Chinese government has been accused of perpetrating, Freedom was allegedly blackballed.
“So, recently, whenever I have a conversation with someone from the NBA or one of my ex-teammates, they’re like, ‘Listen, this is your farewell tour. Have fun with it, enjoy it, I hope you win a championship because I don’t think you’re going to sign another contract after this year,'” the anti-China critic said during an interview with PBS’s Firing Line.
When host Margaret Hoover asked him whether that meant the NBA would penalize him and not renew his contract, he replied: “I don’t want to say they’re going to punish me, but I’m going to say that they’re going to do everything they can to, I believe, not sign me now.”
In March, America First Legal Foundation, the nonprofit founded by Donald Trump’s former political advisor Stephen Miller, petitioned the Department of Justice to require NBA commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA itself to register as agents of the Chinese Communist Party.