Former ESPN journalist Bob Ley wondered in a recent podcast interview whether the same criticism of LIV Golf and its ties to Saudi Arabia should be applied to the NBA and its ties to China. Ley appeared on Michelle Beadle’s podcast “What Did I Miss?”. The rival golf tour and the players who have joined the league have been heavily criticized and accused of helping Saudi Arabia use sports washing to reduce criticism of the country’s human rights violations.
Ley told Beadle on the podcast the same amount of scrutiny should apply to the NBA’s relationship with China. “The LIV Golf thing has unleashed a fury of convenient and easy outrage, not that I disagree with it at all. … It’s real easy to be pissed off and angry about LIV Golf and Saudi. All I ask for is philosophical and ideological consistency. Apply it to China consistently, LeBron,” he said.
“Outrage tempered by the popularity of the sport” – Bob Ley
He continued, “There’s been another reporting. I mean, the Fainaru brothers at ESPN.com have shown some of the things with camps and knowledge of what the NBA’s involved with,” Ley said. “China has as many issues as any other country, and is the outrage tempered by the popularity of the sport and the dollars at stake?”
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He also mentioned specifically that LeBron James had an “opportunity” to raise the curtain on the issue, and so far he’s not done so. “LeBron, I think, has a responsibility, and an opportunity more importantly,” Ley said. “And it’s easy for people to come to the conclusion that players, at a time when social voice and equity are very much a part of sports, more so than ever before, here’s an opportunity to make a stand.”
“If you are a billionaire, you can afford to perhaps make a stand and at least become educated,” Ley said. “If you want to get into a froth about LIV Golf — and you have every right to — take a pause, take a deep breath, and look at China. Should this outrage and should this introspection extend to the NBA?”
