Over the past eight years, the three top American sports leagues — the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball and the National Football League — have at times dived headlong into political maelstroms.
In 2016, the N.B.A. moved its All-Star Game out of North Carolina to protest a state law that eliminated anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Baseball moved its All-Star Game out of Georgia in 2021 in reaction to the enactment of more restrictive voting rules. And in 2020, as President Donald J. Trump reiterated criticism of N.F.L. players who knelt during the national anthem, Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a statement supporting players’ right to peacefully protest and condemning “the systematic oppression of Black people.”
During this presidential cycle, the leagues have stayed neutral, their only message being encouraging people to vote. However, many owners, players and coaches have opened up their wallets or their mouths in support of candidates. In recent days, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James announced his support of Vice President Kamala Harris, and the San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Nick Bosa sported a hat with Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan on national TV.
It was a show of how the professional sports world, just like the country, is divided by presidential politics.
Jonathan Isaac, who plays for the Orlando Magic, and Harrison Butker, the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, have perhaps been the most vocally conservative active athletes in the three leagues. Mr. Butker was little known outside the N.F.L. until he gave a commencement address in May at Benedictine College, a conservative Roman Catholic school in Kansas, in which he said the women in the audience were probably more excited to get married and have children than they were about their degrees. He subsequently started a political action committee to support Mr. Trump.
Mr. Isaac has been well known in conservative circles since he declined to join many other N.B.A. players in kneeling during the national anthem when the league restarted in a Covid “bubble” setting four years ago in Orlando, Fla.
“I truly don’t understand the mass fear mongering when it comes to Trump,” Mr. Isaac posted on X in July. “The man was ALREADY President!”
Mr. Isaac aside, N.B.A. players have been broadly supportive of Ms. Harris.
She visited a U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team practice in July, two weeks before President Biden dropped out of the race. She walked in with the team’s coach, Steve Kerr, who coached the Golden State Warriors to three N.B.A. championships when the team played in Oakland, Ms. Harris’s hometown, and another after it moved to San Francisco.
Ms. Harris greeted the Warriors star Stephen Curry warmly that day. He and Mr. Kerr spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August, Mr. Kerr in person and Mr. Curry by video.
Other N.B.A. coaches have criticized Mr. Trump, including Doc Rivers of the Milwaukee Bucks and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs. “This is the biggest whiner that ever walked the face of the earth,” Mr. Popovich said about Mr. Trump during a recent news conference.
The Spurs point guard Chris Paul, along with Thomas Booker, a defensive tackle on the Philadelphia Eagles, is part of a campaign group called Athletes for Harris, which also includes the retired sports greats Magic Johnson, Billie Jean King, Candace Parker and Emmitt Smith.
W.N.B.A. players have been politically active in the past, and were notably involved in a 2020 race that determined control of the Senate. This year, Nneka Ogwumike, who is the president of the W.N.B.A. players’ union, took over More Than a Vote, a voting rights nonprofit that Mr. James helped found in 2020. She said the organization’s focus would now be reproductive rights.
Ms. Ogwumike’s team, the Seattle Storm, has endorsed Ms. Harris, as it did Mr. Biden in 2020.
The N.B.A.’s commissioner, Adam Silver, has donated thousands of dollars to Ms. Harris’s campaign and the campaigns of other Democrats. But he also gave a few thousand dollars to Nikki Haley when she was running for the Republican nomination for president.
Mr. Goodell and Rob Manfred, baseball’s commissioner, did not make any publicly reported donations to political campaigns and parties this cycle.
Despite the N.B.A.’s liberal reputation, Miriam Adelson, who bought the Dallas Mavericks in 2023, is one of Mr. Trump’s biggest political backers. She created a PAC supporting him and funded it with $100 million, dwarfing political donations by any other owner in the N.B.A., N.F.L. or M.L.B.
But politics are complicated with the Mavericks. Mark Cuban, who sold his controlling share of the team to Ms. Adelson and is now a minority owner heavily involved in basketball decisions, has acted as a surrogate for Ms. Harris’s campaign.
One of the most prominent M.L.B. donors is Charles Johnson, who owns the San Francisco Giants and has spent $2.8 million on political causes this year, most of that going to Republican candidates and PACs. Members of the Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs, have made major donations to both parties. Senator Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican, is part of the ownership group.
The N.F.L. owners David Tepper (Carolina Panthers), Rob Walton (Denver Broncos) and Woody Johnson (New York Jets) have collectively donated millions to Republican efforts. Mr. Johnson was the U.S. ambassador to Britain during Mr. Trump’s administration and has given several hundred thousand dollars to Mr. Trump’s joint fund-raising committee.
Arthur Blank, the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and a founder of Home Depot, has donated to state Democratic parties and Ms. Harris’s political action committee. He is also part of Business Leaders for Harris, a group that includes Mr. Cuban.
As Election Day approaches, more sports figures have made their preferences known — though, as with any celebrity endorsement, whether they sway their fans is an open question.
After Mr. Bosa appeared with his MAGA hat during a teammate’s on-camera interview, he was asked about it during his postgame media availability. He declined to comment, other than to say, “I think it’s an important time.”
Mr. James entered the fray on Halloween. He posted a video on social media that meshed footage of civil rights protests and abuses with footage of Mr. Trump. The video, which Mr. James’s representatives commissioned, made the argument that Mr. Trump is racist.
“When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me,” Mr. James wrote in the post. “VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!”
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