As the NBA returns to action in late July, players were given the option to have a social message on the back of their jersey. Players are given the opportunity to choose from 28 options ranging from messages like Black Lives Matter, Equality, and Vote.

Missouri Senator Josh Hawley released a letter Friday telling the NBA that their list wasn’t expansive enough. Suggesting that players should wear messages like Back the Blue, God Bless America, and Support our Troops. You know, culture war stuff politician do to get their base behind them.

When Senator Hawley wrote the letter, he could not have drawn up what would happen better.

ESPN Senior NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski replied to his press release 8:57 in the morning, “Fuck you”. The Senator tweeted out the email and tagged Clay Travis, creator of Outkick the Coverage, a sports outlet with an anti-left viewpoint.

This the most chaotic and uncharted time in American history. Most importantly there is a pandemic that, as this is written, killed 135,205 Americans and infected 3,304,942. City hospitals are being overwhelmed with an influx of patients and case rate is going in the wrong direction. There has been an economic collapse that we more than likely have not seen the worst, yet. There is also racial unrest and a national conversation about the role of policing in America.

There has never been so much to do in any of these senators lifetimes. Yet, Hawley decided to send out this letter which main purpose was to call out the hypocrisy of staying silent about the human liberty issues in China and the battle for sovereignty in Hong Kong.

Everyone participates in hypocrisy. I am certain Hawley has objected to something, probably many things, hat President Trump done while in office. I could not find a single instance where Hawley has spoken out against him. It is in his self interest to keep quite when the president does something objectively awful.

The truth is the NBA is a corporation. They are not out here trying to save the world. There are many good people that work inside the NBA, including Adam Silver, but the purpose of supporting BLM was to not cause friction with players. They are silent on China because the country has shown after the Daryl Morey saga that they will use their audience, and their money, as a weapon to keep the NBA silent. they were given a guarentee that letting players speak up against the injustices in Hong Kong.