Retired NBA player Etan Thomas rebuked President Trump's criticism of the professional basketball league becoming like "a political organization."
Thomas, an 11-year NBA veteran, writer, and activist, insisted the people who oppose sports protests are mostly Trump supporters, who he claims act morally superior to the unrest occurring following the police killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Jacob Blake.
"You’re not in a moral position to take any kind of moral high ground on anything. But, still, you do," Thomas said. "That’s the definition of a hypocrite. And it's not just Jerry Falwell Jr. It's the entire Republican, conservative, evangelical party."
Thomas, who was a member of former President Barack Obama's Fatherhood Initiative, also hit at Trump on several allegations he faced in the past, most of which the president denied.
"The same people who have the audacity to take the moral high ground, who actually claim to be Christians, who attack Joe Biden for not being Catholic enough, whatever that means ... are the same people who, you know, support Donald Trump," Thomas said. "If we go into his priors, I mean there's a pretty long, extensive list. He’s been accused of some kind of sexual crime against women more than ... 20 times, including a 13-year-old girl. He’s paying off mistresses. He's dealing with prostitutes. He literally represents
every single one of the seven deadly sins ... All of them."
Trump attacked the NBA this week after players took part in back-and-forth boycotts of their games to stand in solidarity with Blake, a black man who was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during an arrest as he reached into his car where investigators later found a knife. Blake remains hospitalized, and his family says he is paralyzed from the shooting.
Thomas has been a staunch advocate for high-profile organizations, such as the NBA, to use their influence to inspire social change.
"It is a huge moment," Thomas said. "I know a lot of people are kind of concerned with their games are going to start or not, but they have to understand the real reason why they had the boycott in the first place. First of all, that a black man should not have to be perfect in order to be viewed as human. That’s number one."
Thomas also suggested there is a double standard by conservative media in the ways they covered Blake and white, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been arrested and charged in connection to a shooting that killed two people during the unrest that followed in Kenosha.
"You know what would happen to me or Lebron James or Kawhi Leonard or Giannis or James Harden or Westbrook if we walked anywhere in America with an AR-15 on our shoulders?"
Thomas asked. "Open carry state or not, let's just say that it wouldn’t end well for any of us. And nobody, not the NRA, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, none of them would champion us because of our Second Amendment rights."
