NBA commissioner Adam Silver has reportedly sent email to league offices worldwide to reiterate the core values of the league remain even with the results of the recent election. (Photo : Getty Images/Drew Angerer)
According to a report by ESPN, sources said that the two-year NBA commissioner told employees that the league will remain as a community that aims to improve lives after a nation that seemed to have emerged divided following the fierce election season.
Additionally, the league are arranging staff meetings this week where NBA people can discuss what happened in the recent election.
Silver, since his first year as an NBA commissioner, banned former Clippers coach Donald Sterling for life after Sterling made racist comments in a private conversation with his girlfriend. Sterling was fined $2.5 million, the maximum amount that can be fined in line with the NBA Constitution, and Silver encouraged team owners to vote Sterling out of his Clippers ownership.
The NBA has long been a constitution of acceptance with what is controversial to the nation ever since raising awareness about HIV more than two decades ago with Magic Johnson's announcement that he had the disease. In 2013, Jason Collins became the first openly gay player in one of the four major American sports league and played with the Brooklyn Nets until 2014.
David Aldridge of NBA.com reported Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said that Trump was a "brazen misogynist leader" and Trump's election is "embarrassing."
Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors backed Van Gundy and said that Trump, through his brash statements, has affected not only his family but also his players. In a Golden State team meeting, Kerr described the election result "left all of us feeling kind of disgusted and disappointed."
From a report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, 74.3 percent of the NBA is comprised by black players and 81.7 percent of players are people of color. These blacks and people of color are mostly those whom Trump's controversial statements are focused on.
In an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," Trump is planning to stay true to his promise of deporting and incarcerating three million undocumented people.
With Trump's holding of office in 2017, Silver is determined there is no organization "better positioned than the NBA and its players to try and have an impact on these difficult issues plaguing many of our cities."
