Bob Costas Rips LeBron, Kaepernick, and China

updated 12 Comments

Videos by OutKick

The Biden administration announced on Monday that the United States will stage a diplomatic boycott of the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in protest of China’s human rights abuses.

On CNN Tuesday, Michael Smerconish called the effort, which does not extend to Team USA athletes, “half-assed.” Smerconish is correct, the boycott is meaningless. However, former Olympic broadcaster Bob Costas said he believes that NBA players will see the symbolic boycott as a threat to their relationship with China.

“The NBA is up to its neck in China,” Costas said. “China is a huge sports market. Basketball is especially popular there. But they will put up with not even the slightest criticism.

“Back a couple of years ago when Daryl Morey, then the GM of the Houston Rockets, tweeted ‘Stand with Hong Kong,’ Rockets games were suddenly off the air for an extended period in China. And the Rockets are one of the most popular teams there because Yao Ming was the first big Chinese star in the NBA. More recently, Enes Kanter, who grew up in Turkey, spoke out against China. Same thing: Celtics games are gone.

“I guarantee you that the feed of this conversation [on CNN] is gone.”

Costas then turned his focus to Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James:

“By the way, a lot of Nike’s goods that benefit the likes of Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James is made in China. And those outspoken individuals — and in many cases, I think millions of Americans would agree with their positions on domestic issues, but they are conspicuously mum when it comes to China, and no matter what the issues are here, and they are serious issues, they pale alongside what’s going on there.”

Costas was one of the first and last sportscasters to speak out against China. In 1996, Costas, while hosting the event for NBC, said China was the one nation that had the means and the motivation to replicate what the old Soviet Bloc and the Eastern Bloc did with their sports machine. Costas said there was then an effort, “orchestrated from Beijing,” to have him fired.

Credit to Costas and Smerconish for speaking out on this topic. No one at ESPN, CBS, The Ringer, Bleacher Report, or NBC Sports will cover LeBron, China, or Kaepernick honestly — so the cable news industry has to. And, surprisingly, CNN is doing so right now.

Related at OutKick: CNN’s Jake Tapper Blasts NBA, Hollywood and Wall Street Over Relationships with China

Written by Bobby Burack

Bobby Burack covers media, politics, and sports at OutKick.

12 Comments

Leave a Reply

  3. CNN merger coming up and the Political Activist Newscasters are scrambling to distance themselves from the Woketardeness and appear objective so that if/when the new owner cleans house and tries to start over and build credibility at the Clown News Network – they don’t get axed*?

    “Axed” as in “fired”;
    not “axed” as in “I axed La’Quesha if they was goin’ on a mostly peaceful looting spree.”

  4. Smerconish is a little bit more “moderate” than most Clown News Nitwits, but don’t confuse him with a die hard conservative. That said, he probably was the most likely person on that network to even address the issue in the first place.

    As for Costas, his response was a rare moment of common sense from a sports media guy who tends to be insufferable.

    • LOL.. when the Feds put NBA refs in jail for “fixing” games, I was D-O-N-E with that crap… The odd part was that the whole world seemed to just ignore it, like it never happened, like they were just a few bad apples in the bunch… BS! That whole organization is broken.. how many “Finals” have NOT gone to, at least a “game 6” to maximize revenue?

      all “Pro” sports are rigged – the league gets what it wants.

  6. Where did he “rip’ into James and Kaepernick? He and the host talked about the NBA in general terms and never mentioned their names. I want to like Outkick and I want it to be an accurate, authority e voice to counter the ESPN garbage. Click bait titles like this don’t help accomplish that goal.

Leave a Reply