Former NBA head coach Phil Jackson is making headlines. The “Zen Master” believes politics should be kept out of sports. He also states that he stopped watching basketball since the 2020 bubble in Orlando, Florida, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jackson is not feeling the politics and slogans that players are wearing, such as “Black Lives Matter,” “Equality,” and the list goes on.

Jackson won two championships as a player with the New York Knicks. He won 11 rings as a head coach with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. He also served as the president of the New York Knicks in 2014 but mutually parted ways with the team in 2017. 

Jackson is getting a lot of heat from social media and former players for his comments. I’ll never forget when Scottie Pippen called Phil Jackson a “racist” because he drew the play for Toni Kukoc instead of him during a playoff game against the Knicks in the 1994 NBA Playoffs. Pippen left the bench due to Phil’s decision. 

I agree with Phil Jackson that politics should not get involved in Sports. It’s doing more harm than good. It’s going way too extreme. Commissioner Adam Silver looks pretty soft, and I don’t see him as aggressive as the late David Stern was. People want to watch sports to be entertained and to get away and forget about problems. It’s one of the reasons why sports fans like myself fell in love with Sports. 

Unfortunately, we are getting to the point where Sports are becoming unwatchable to a certain degree. Sports owners and people in the front office, like the NBA, need to be firm and need to have more guts to stop the foolishness. Yes, there are real-life problems. Yes, we shouldn’t ignore them, but athletes are not politicians. Again, ATHLETES ARE NOT POLITICIANS!!! 

If athletes want to make a difference, leave the league and run for office.