Phil Jackson Says He Hasn't Watched The NBA Since 2020 Because Of Black Lives Matter Slogans

Phil Jackson says he hasn't watched the NBA since 2020  since it went into the bubble for the playoffs and publicly supported Black Lives Matter The iconic head coach who's got 11 championships under his belt from the '90s through the early 2010s between the Bulls and Lakers sat down with Rick Rubin earlier this month for a podcast Rick asks Phil if he watches NBA basketball to this day in the wake of retiring in 2011, and Phil says he kept his eyes on the game only through 2020. Phil says the NBA did something "wanky" while in Orlando namely, getting mixed up in politics with a bunch of slogans on the court and on the jerseys of the players themselves. He never says "BLM" but there's no doubt that's what he's talking about here. He even kinda mocks it saying he joked about it from home with his family. Phil says guys would have phrases like "Justice" plastered across their backs instead of their surnames like normal and goes on to explain that he'd make cracks about "Justice" or so-and-so making a drive to the basket which he says his grandkids got a kick out of. Phil thinks the NBA was pandering to a certain audience and demographic and their virtue signaling that year turned a lot of people off including himself. He says politics should stay out of sports, and that folks don't wanna see 'em mesh. Phil cites athletes who've gone on to have political careers the implication being if you wanna pursue that, do it off the court and outside of the league. BTW, Rubin did a good job pressing Phil on what exactly bothered him about the BLM stuff and he responded clearly.

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