Opinion | NBA-China feud: like Michael Jordan, LeBron James and modern players cannot escape politics
- The Last Dance highlighted Jordan’s ‘Republicans buy sneakers, too’ quote – has LeBron James made the one that will haunt him?
- League is more political in US since Jordan’s playing days, but players kept quiet over Daryl Morey tweet
If there is one thing that has consistently dogged Michael Jordan’s reputation, it is he never took a stand politically.
The charge is that this man at the peak of his powers, the most recognisable athlete in US sports, did not speak up, let alone speak out.
“Republicans buy sneakers, too,” is the quote that has followed him around for 30 years – with former US president Barack Obama expressing his disappointment in the ESPN-Netflix series The Last Dance.
“I do commend Muhammad Ali for standing up for what he believed in, but I never thought of myself as an activist, I thought of myself as a basketball player,” Jordan said on The Last Dance. “I wasn’t a politician when I was playing my sport, I was focused on my craft. Was that selfish? Probably, but that was my energy, that’s where my energy was.”