Boston Celtics legend attacked by ESPN writer for attending Trump rally
Former Boston Celtics forward Kevin McHale is one of the best players to suit up in NBA history.
His footwork was the stuff of legend. His low post moves were brilliant. And despite not being a supreme athlete, he was always an underrated defender.
In fact, McHale often drew the ire of teammate Larry Bird due to his immense talent. According to anecdotes, the maniacally competitive Bird often felt that the aloof McHale wasn’t maximizing his talents, and harbored some resentment toward him during their playing days. Bird famously said that McHale could “be the best player in the league — if he worked harder.”
Disliking a teammate because he was good but could have been great is perfectly fine. After all, a teammate’s aloofness still affects you on a very tangible level.
But hating someone merely for having different political views from yours? That’s the epitome of closed-mindedness.
And yet, that’s where McHale finds himself now after having had the unmitigated gall to attend a Donald Trump rally in Minnesota on Wednesday.
Internet sleuths spotted the Celtics great in photos of the president’s rally in Duluth, and Trump’s detractors ripped into him for being there.
One person, radio host Henry Lake, essentially publicly canceled McHale’s appearance on his show just for being at the rally.
I’d love to get definitive confirmation. But if Kevin McHale actually showed up to Trump’s rally in Duluth today with everything that is happening now and what Trump’s done and stands for, yeah he’s cancelled. pic.twitter.com/A99QSV56s4
— Henry Lake (@lakeshow73) June 21, 2018
But perhaps the worst take came from ESPN writer Howard Bryant. It was a bad enough take that Bryant, possibly at the behest of his employers, promptly deleted the tweet.
“Kevin McHale is just a poor white man from a forgotten Deep South town suffering from economic anxiety. That explains it,” Bryant’s since-deleted tweet read.
Others piled on McHale in increasingly unhinged rants.
NBA writer Nathaniel Friedman said McHale’s decision to attend the Trump event made him unfit to work in the NBA ever again.
https://twitter.com/freedarko/status/1009651040579289090
Another sportswriter, Kelly Scaletta of Bleacher Report, outright called Trump a “flaming racist.”
Turmp is a flaming racist. Anyone who doesn't think he's a racist is a racist becuse they agree with his racism so deeply they can't see he's a racist. https://t.co/OqRHnntA4d
— Machine Pun Kelly 🇺🇦 (@KellyScaletta) June 21, 2018
Another dumb take came from Hollywood writer Jen Statsky, who suggested that McHale was a “clown” before attacking a completely unrelated NBA player (Celtics forward Gordon Hayward) for possibly having conservative viewpoints based on who he follows on Twitter. Never mind that Hayward also follows LeBron James.
https://twitter.com/jenstatsky/status/1009703885454245889
It’s just the latest in a bizarre saga of Trump hysteria. From all indications, McHale is affable, goofy and fun-natured. But all of a sudden, he’s the worst person in the world for supporting a president.
Just to be clear, Trump is certainly not above critique. But this blanket notion that he and every single one of his supporters are racists is intellectually disingenuous and the type of argument that couldn’t even win a seventh-grade debate competition.
Constructive criticism doled out in a respectful manner is good for any discourse, particularly political ones.
But whatever it is that is driving some sports fans to blindly rip apart Kevin McHale is not good for anything.
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