Posted on 04/23/2021 4:28:45 AM PDT by gattaca
Staples and its affiliated arena in Los Angeles that hosts the Lakers have been silent on LeBron James' outrageous tweets threatening a police officer. Gabe KaminskyBy Gabe Kaminsky APRIL 22, 2021 National office supplies retailer Staples, which owns the naming rights to the arena that hosts the Los Angeles Lakers, refused to denounce Lakers star Lebron James’ targeted attempt to incite violence against a police officer who saved the life of a black teenage girl.
James has once more stirred up racialized political controversy. James has since deleted a tweet in which he posted a picture with the caption “YOU’RE NEXT #Accountability” in regard to the Columbus, Ohio police officer who on Tuesday appears to have protected a black teen from being stabbed by another by shooting the assailant as the teens fought.
Police officers convicted in the court of public opinion over applying force to black Americans have received death threats and in the past year cities across the nation have been looted, trashed, and burned in riots over such incidents.
A high-profile ESPN on-air employee who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Federalist in an interview that “it’s a very dangerous thing that the most prominent player in the sport [NBA] is doing something like this.”
“Is he backing [his tweet] up with statistics, or is it just based on emotion? It’s obviously based on an argument that is the popular argument to make. How is that not a threatening tweet?” The employee said. “This is where, you know, especially people in sports lose a lot of their fans. Kind of like this selective outrage. David Stern [the former NBA commissioner] must be spinning in his grave.”
Spokeswoman Julie Haff for the Republican Party of Los Angeles said James’s comments were “irresponsible and very counterproductive for any conversation related to policing or race relations.”
“Sending out a tweet like that is just very irresponsible,” Haff added.
Staples Center, which paid the Lakers $100 million for endorsement and naming rights in 1999, had no problem involving itself in other political controversies when it was bound to earn plaudits from the left. Since acquiring the arena’s rights, Staples has provided a venue for the Lakers, in addition to the Los Angeles Clippers and other minor league teams.
Data from 2014 showed earnings of $345 million for the arena, making it the number one venue in the United States by revenue. The Staples Center carried a price tag of $70.5 million in taxpayer money when it was built. The publicly financed stadium’s sponsor is clearly comfortable weighing in on political issues — but not in weighing in when its most lucrative client’s employee openly incites violence.
The Federalist emailed and called Staples after James deleted the tweet to understand if it agrees the NBA star was out of line. The company responded, “Staples stands behind our corporate values, which include respect for all people.”
Staples Stores tweeted its support for “black communities” during the summer of Black Lives Matter’s rioting and looting, but is unwilling to voice its support for the black community at a time a police officer ought to be commended for saving a black life. James perhaps realized his tweet was in poor taste, given his deletion, but one of the key corporations earning millions due to a contract with him has not.
“Staples stands with our Black colleagues, neighbors and friends,” the company said in a statement in June. “We do not and will never tolerate hatred, prejudice or discrimination. We are committed to supporting Black communities in both learning and working, and are donating funds and resources to both Black teachers and minority-owned small businesses. We must do better as a community and a nation, and Staples is committing to doing so.”
The Federalist also contacted The Staples Center arena directly to receive a comment, but did not hear back after being transferred to a few different individuals over the phone.
The corporation’s silence instead of support for the black teenager who gets to live another day thanks to this police officer speaks volumes about its so-called position of being “committed to supporting Black communities.”
On Wednesday evening following the deletion of his tweet, James blamed “the entire system” and said he is “so desperate for more ACCOUNTABILITY.” The Lakers star essentially doubled down and declined to admit that his prior tweet calling out a police officer was unethical and with a high potential to cause violence.
“LeBron and others live to promote the victim narrative, so much so they will post without any verification if it meets their self-fulfilling narrative,” Brandon Tatum, a former police officer in Tuscon, Arizona, who hosts “The Officer Tatum” show on YouTube, told The Federalist. “This goes to show these celebrity athletes are out of touch. I believe the only reason he deleted it was because the obvious nature of self-defense could make him liable in a defamation lawsuit.”
The ESPN employee added that LeBron “is beholden to the league itself and to its players who are African American,” and that leftist virtue-signaling from corporations like the NBA “has backfired from a financial standpoint.”
“[The NBA] is taking cues from LeBron and ESPN wants to maintain a good relationship with LeBron,” the employee added.
That cop was in a no win situation. If he let her stab the other girl me would be accused of letting the girl die. He does what he did and he killed a black person. Because of remarks of people like James and others and white people backing down it’s made things impossible for cops. Meanwhile cops are getting shot and nobody says anything, some almost think they have it coming.
As a first step, police should refuse duty and private security jobs at NBA venues. Let James and the NBA wallow in their desired chaos and see what happens when the can’t even play because of the crowd’s actions.
Thank you for posting this. Staples’ “standing behind (it’s) values” is probably a relic off when Mitt Romney co-founded and served on the Board of Directors. The old Romney two step (go along to get along) still infects the company and discourages them from having strong values shared across America.
It is sad when a corporation like, Staples has less values than it’s customers. Lightning will descend on them for failing to have any values.
Just sayin’
Companies should never let themselves be drawn in to a tit-for-tat social media cat fight. No matter how good their responses, they will lose. Someone said that no publicity is bad publicity. Well, I’d argue that most of the woke companies are in decline. Whether the decline is due to wokeness or the wokeness was a attempt to fight the decline is a separate issue. There’s a good argument that Coke was in decline and went full woke in an effort to gain acceptance from a more educated marketplace that believes Coke’s ingredients are bad for their kids. (The better approach would be to leave the legacy products in place with no further advertising and venture into a different marketplace, perhaps health products.)
The point is, you can’t fight the mob of activist people living in their parent’s basements and who make their money as paid rioters, or, as Nancy Pelosi calls them, “AstroTurf.” In order to win, the other side has to admit defeat. What are the companies going to do? Take possession of their parent’s houses and kick them out? There is no way to reach the astroturf and no way to educate it. Astroturf is more resistant to education than igneous rocks.
The biggest mistake conservatives have made of the past few decades was putting too much faith in Corporate America. It's also time to admit that the left had some valid criticisms of Corporate America since the 60s though their solutions were and still are always wrong. Unrestrained corporate power is just a big a threat to liberty as is unrestrained government
Great idea! Maybe the black panthers would step in for security.
Whitey shouldn't be supporting NBA anyway. Isn't that cultural appropriation?
Expect this anonymous, soon-to-be ex-ESPN employee to be doxxed and fired.
Makes sense: I bet Lebron buys an awful lot of office supplies!
Dangerous?
King James may just kill the NBA
Or cause it to be moved to the CCP. At least his uniform is yellow.
James has made his money and they are now bringing politics into the game. I THINK the NFL has learned their lesson and maybe the players will back off before they lose more viewership. The NBA is going to lose. Fans don’t go to games to see this stuff. They go to watch them play a game. A lot of people don’t like Jerry Jones but he nailed it when he said “these players are actors on a stage entertaining. They are on my stage.” Covid hit all sports last season. This season they should allow more in the stands. Best leave your movement and opinions on social media and play. NBA started letting them put quotes on the backs of the jerseys. If there was no covid they would have started losing viewership anyways.
i stopped doing business with Staples long ago.
That’s ok, I have enough staples to last a life time.
Add State Farm to the list - they are one of the biggest sponsors of the NBA
And it's not as if the savages are suddenly going to show up and purchase office supplies or sending out resumes.
The cop did the right thing. White cops today are the target. The left intends to eliminate you. Go work in a Republican town, or you will be found guilty for doing your job.
They don’t want their big arena in Los Angeles trashed.
The wrong girl died.
These “influencers” prefer perps to victims
Good. Staples should just stay the Hell out of politics.
What next???????
Refuse to sell pens with black ink?
No More black or brown markers????
Most of this kind of sensativity phobia gets handled on Dr Phil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.