NBA Commissioner Mocks Laura Ingraham While Seeking ‘Balance’ for Political Messaging: I Won’t Tell Players ‘Shut Up and Dribble’

The NBA has been criticized for allowing its players to speak out against social injustices while becoming more politically active.

LeBron James and other stars have been vocal about social injustice since Trayvon Martin was killed in 2012, and their messages were amplified after George Floyd was murdered last summer. NBA commissioner Adam Silver joined Craig Carton on WFAN and expressed that he understands the league has fans on both sides of the political spectrum, but it won’t force him to try and silence their players.

“Our goal is obviously not to lose fans over political positions players are taking,” Silver said. “I recognize that there is a portion of our fanbase that is upset when players take positions. Now at the same time, I’m certainly not going to the sort of shut up and dribble notion.”

“Shut up and dribble” was a phrase popularized by Fox News host Laura Ingraham in 2018, who ranted against LeBron and other high paid NBA players having an opinion on political or social conversations.

“I think we have to present ourselves in a way where hopefully, if players are doing their jobs on the floor, that even if people disagree with them, they respect them for being engaged in society and for having a point of view,” Silver told Carton. “And that the players conversely respect fans who may disagree with them.”

Michael Jordan chose to remain politically neutral decades ago, but current NBA stars are more apt to take a position. Despite it bearing no impact on what happens during the 48 minutes of basketball on the court, many conservative NBA critics routinely use the players’ social efforts against them.

“People at the end of the day are paying a lot of money to watch basketball played at its highest level,” the commissioner acknowledged. “So we gotta find the right balance there in those issues.”

Watch above via SNY