Come on and slam (that vote into the ballot box)

The NBA announces it will not have any games on Election Day in 2022 in an effort to highlight the importance of voting. Will the league stop there?

Good morning. Let’s basketball.

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Opening session of the General Assembly, 5 May 1789; Auguste Couder; 1839

The NBA revealed that it will not play any games on Election Day, November 8, in order to use arenas as voting sites and encourage fans to cast ballots in the important Congressional elections. No word on what the NBA expects Canadian fans to do with their night off.

The NBA will also hold a rare 15-game night on Election Eve, November 7, themed as “Civic Engagement Night” with what one assumes will be non-partisan Get Out The Vote messaging and, one hopes, some good pre-game speeches from active players.

In perhaps the most Adam Silver move possible¹ the league apparently leaked the news to make a splash on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. The spirit of David Stern remains everpresent.

Morning Joe @Morning_Joe

The NBA is to announce no games will be held on Election Day. Fans, players and staff encouraged to vote. @shaqbrewster has exclusive reporting.

Look, Americans looking to corporations to rediscover their fondness for democracy isn’t great. But the overall democracy situation here isn’t great either, is it? In an imperfect world, it’s good that there’s a corporate entity that finds value in telling its customers that voting is really damn important. Small victories are still victories.

Some NBA teams have been leaning into more voter activation in recent years, though always non-partisan. Watching how individual teams, especially those controlled by franchisees whose own political interests are diametrically opposed to the assumed values of the majority of NBA fans and players, handle this will be fascinating. Let’s see if the Magic (owned by the scions of Richard DeVos, before his death one of the biggest donors fighting marriage equality) and Thunder (an NBA team based in Oklahoma City) get home games on Election Eve. I can see it now, Jonathan Isaac getting a spotlight at center court. Just what the league office envisioned.

What I’m eager to see is whether players widely become more direct with their fans and whether the players’ union is going to decide to play a bigger role by actually make some direct endorsements.