Orlando Magic Gave $50,000 to Never Back Down

[VFX]

God the off-season needs to end with threads like this.

[MagicStarwipe]

Publicly donating to a politician who’s attacking your corporate sponsor is strangely hostile to your own bottom dollar. Unless the DeVos family are confident they can attract other sponsors for the team, which wouldn’t be too hard I don’t think.

The Magic will probably be sponsored by PragerU soon

[Rainwater]

Majored in poli sci and follow political heavily, I don't think this affects the magic in anyway basketball wise and I doubt this will affect the Magic relationship's with Disney. Disney is not going to stop supporting the Magic because they supported a Republican Candidate, half their guest are likely Republicans. Politics are not black and white.

[Rainwater]

The Orlando Magic gave $50,000 to "Never Back Down," the Super Pac carrying Ron DeSantis' campaign for president.

With DeSantis making national headlines for changing Florida's social studies curriculum to include lessons on the benefits of slavery to enslaved people, I'm sure the players love this. I'm sure this will also help with prospective free agents.

The DeVos family can give money to whomever they want, and their world-view is well-documented. But why do they have to put the team's name on this? Even other republicans are appalled by what DeSantis is doing in this state. But not our owners, the family that built their fortune on a shady pyramid scheme.

I am no Republican but I feel like you are a little bias. Republicans are appalled by what DeSantis is doing in this State???? This is the same party that might reelect Donald Trump and DeSantis is considered Donald Trump lite, lol. DeSantis was easily reelected by Republicans in his own state. And DeSantis is currently running second in polls as the Republican candidate for president. I really feel like you are are getting your information from one side (a problem for everyone nowadays despite your political affiliation) and believe this is the reflection of the whole country.

Again, I feel like this is a nonissue anyway, most people aren't politically aware. The average American can't even pass a citizenship test.

[Rainwater]

So i tried to invest some time and figure& learn any potential negative impacts of Orlando donating money to political party.

Aaaaand...drumroll.... To zero suprise to me, i learned around 80% of nba players don't vote
Than i used my favorite-hate place ,reddit to explore it deeper, as some person had intell on how many times players from Texas voted , i assume because he lives there and...once again, drumroll.... vast majority of credible players never voted

It's just drama over nothing. Should NBA team donate money ? No. Does donating money for person who fights your other sponsor both dumb and funny ? yes. But here wer are. Nobody will care about this in a week. Enjoj your summer.

Pepe, I don't think you live in Florida, and I don't think you even live in the States, so I get why this seems trivial to you. But Magic season ticket holders don't live in Europe, New York, California or Australia. Most of them live here in Orlando, and many have children in the public schools here who are being affected by these policies. Not everyone is amused.

As far as NBA players not voting, if those statistics are accurate then that is frustrating. However, I don't think it's relevant. Given their choice of teams, do you really, honestly think this sort of thing has no impact? If they don't know who's signing them to a multi-year contract, their agents do, because that is their job.

The backlash that should have the DeVos family worried is Disney, because that affects the bottom line. And again, if you don't live here, you have no idea how ugly the Disney-DeSantis battle is. Federal court battle, state court battle, DeSantis killing Disney's infrastructure district, and Disney responding by canceling plans for a $1 billion creative campus development in Orlando that would have brought around 2,000 high-paying jobs here from California. He's pissing off a lot of republicans here because his silly culture war nonsense is costing people a lot of money. I honestly can't think of anything more stupid for the DeVos family to do right now than give money to his PAC in the team's name, with Disney's name on their jerseys. I mean this is jaw-dropping stupid.

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/disney-cancels-plans-relocate-2000-jobs-florida-company-email-2023-05-18/

You do realize that despite what DeSantis is doing to Disney, Florida Republicans still reelected him, right? Just like you I thought this whole Disney thing would have hurt him but the people that vote love the guy.

"Disney responding by canceling plans for a $1 billion creative campus development in Orlando" is kinda misleading. Did DeSantis' actions regarding Disney play a role in rejecting the project, maybe. However, there are bigger reasons the project was rejected. With Iger returning to Disney the company has been currently in cost saving mode cutting 5.5 billion throughout its business. This included the layoffs at ESPN with guys like Mark Jackson and Jalen Rose, layoffs locally, and other areas of the business. It was reported that Iger never really supported the project in the first place, and believed the project should have remained in Cali. With everything going on between DeSantis and Disney the Media is not giving a well rounded view of why Disney took the actions it took regarding the project. There is a good chance that project was going to be cut regardless what was happening with DeSantis.

https://www.theverge.com/2023/7/14/23794886/bob-iger-disney-marvel-espn-streaming

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/05/18/disney-canceling-1b-campus-project-for-orlandos-lake-nona-heres-why/

[Rainwater]

So i tried to invest some time and figure& learn any potential negative impacts of Orlando donating money to political party.

Aaaaand...drumroll.... To zero suprise to me, i learned around 80% of nba players don't vote
Than i used my favorite-hate place ,reddit to explore it deeper, as some person had intell on how many times players from Texas voted , i assume because he lives there and...once again, drumroll.... vast majority of credible players never voted

It's just drama over nothing. Should NBA team donate money ? No. Does donating money for person who fights your other sponsor both dumb and funny ? yes. But here wer are. Nobody will care about this in a week. Enjoj your summer.

Yeah, completely agree.

[davey_wavy]

The check written to DeSantis was on May 19th before he announced his run for president. This has been confirmed by the Magic

Everyone can quit crying now

[Skybox]

The check written to DeSantis was on May 19th before he announced his run for president. This has been confirmed by the Magic

Everyone can quit crying now

PUBLICLY announced…more tampering in politics than the NBA.

Desantis in a nutshell…getting idiots excited about insignificant drag shows while quietly feeding his constituents to insurance companies.

[PigsEatHam]

When I saw this news, I thought, Ugh, gross.

I thought gross not because I find Governor DeSantis to be a small, loathsome, petty, pathetic, and fascism-curious human being who would rather see American democracy defeated than live under a version of it where his party's unpopular and extremist ideas lose out to the majority who think differently than him. (Which is basically how I feel about all Republican politicians, judges, and other professional Republican political actors; other people feel equally passionate in the opposite direction, I know.)

No, I thought gross because sports is where I go to get away from politics, where I can come together with other good people who I know voted twice for Ron DeSantis and other politicians I find repugnant (or people who didn't vote at all) and it doesn't matter, because we're all just hanging out, cheering on our team. It's a community that, in its best form, transcends politics. So, when the DeVos family does something like this under the team's name, it puts political disagreements front and center in a place where politics ought not be.

It's of course their right to donate to whoever they wish to support, but as many others in this thread have said, doing it as the Magic organization is just effing dumb.

[Tarheel]

Has there been any suggestion as to why the donation came from the Magic and not personally from whichever DeVos family member wanted to donate?

It seems to me to be pretty counterproductive to use a sports vehicle for political donations - you're going to alienate part of your customer base (and, most likely, piss off at least part of your staff who wouldn't want to be associated with whichever politician you've donated to).

It's difficult enough to follow a sports team in any high level league that doesn't have owners with either deplorable politics, dirty money or a penchant for tax evasion, but using the teams to route money to political causes just seems like another step into the sportswashing ether. The NBA (and other leagues) needs to do better to regulate stuff like this, IMO.

[jezzerinho]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

[FFBlitzace]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

Republican voters can point at the Biden Administration and make the same kind of schoolyard burn. It's meaningless.

[fendilim]

Has there been any suggestion as to why the donation came from the Magic and not personally from whichever DeVos family member wanted to donate?

It seems to me to be pretty counterproductive to use a sports vehicle for political donations - you're going to alienate part of your customer base (and, most likely, piss off at least part of your staff who wouldn't want to be associated with whichever politician you've donated to).

It's difficult enough to follow a sports team in any high level league that doesn't have owners with either deplorable politics, dirty money or a penchant for tax evasion, but using the teams to route money to political causes just seems like another step into the sportswashing ether. The NBA (and other leagues) needs to do better to regulate stuff like this, IMO.

Because Orlando Magic is in the state Desantis governs. Lol

[jezzerinho]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

Republican voters can point at the Biden Administration and make the same kind of schoolyard burn. It's meaningless.

The Climate Emergency is the single biggest challenge we face and this guy wants you to believe it's completely irrelevant. The cost of delaying action will absolutely ruin economies in the near future.

Just on that item alone, he would strike me as unvotable. That was my point. I live outside the US, so it wasnt a Rep/Dem based observation.

[jezzerinho]

Has there been any suggestion as to why the donation came from the Magic and not personally from whichever DeVos family member wanted to donate?

It seems to me to be pretty counterproductive to use a sports vehicle for political donations - you're going to alienate part of your customer base (and, most likely, piss off at least part of your staff who wouldn't want to be associated with whichever politician you've donated to).

It's difficult enough to follow a sports team in any high level league that doesn't have owners with either deplorable politics, dirty money or a penchant for tax evasion, but using the teams to route money to political causes just seems like another step into the sportswashing ether. The NBA (and other leagues) needs to do better to regulate stuff like this, IMO.

Because Orlando Magic is in the state Desantis governs. Lol

My guess is we wanted something off the DeSantis administration and this was the quid pro quo.

[pepe1991]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

Let's not pretend global warming isn't politically driven and isn't fed -to-masses to oblivion by mega companies who saw great way to force you into buying new stuff by guilt tripping you.


If you are older than 35, you grew up listening about Boogeyman called Ozon layer and how it's so awful over Antartica, and how it will literally kill us and how it will take 50-150 years of molecules of chlorofluorocarbons to be destroyed.

Than you were guilt tripped into buying new fridge to save the planet but they also forgot to tell you that in atmosphere 1,1 millions of tons are relled by CFC product. Sounds a lot , i know.
However, same people who are "Earth protectors" also forget to tell masses that Evaporation relises 300 000 000 of tons of same clorin naturally, and vulcanic activities relise 36 000 000 . Ooops... It seems like...your new fridge didn't save a planet, but for damn sure it helped company sell you new bullshi*


And after all this nobody ever today talks about Ozone layers. I guess those new fridges once again saved the planet

Now it's time to repeat same with cars. And nobody will tell you ( oops...) that 77% of total global GHG emission isn't done by cars but..drumroll... Industries and agriculture . Now we can be sain persons and ask ourselfs simple question:

What was last time we saw on tv or youtube or anywhere "Green " commercial that goes at companies and food factories and blames them for polluting us ?

But Pepe, you crazy basterd, 16% of GHG emmision is done by transport you say? Yes. But here's dirty little secret: one cruise ship pollutes more than cars of some 5 million people -together.

But that's not all, all the s** you take on your cruise ends up where? Well....you can only imagine where will massive boat dump his s***.


So whole tihng is way more political than you want to admit. Nobody is questioning global warming nor should, nobody is questioning global pollution nor it should, but answer that you get once you start to get to a bottom of it will probably not be one you hoped that will be sold with you buying new Tesla . Mostly because your Tesla needs electricity, and your country can't provide enough without nuclear energy, coals or oil. So you are "all green and good " but you are actually being played as a fool. Congratulations! Buy new fridge, help ozon!

[GGforever]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

Watch Seaspiracy on Netflix and then you will see what climate change really is and how it’s being allowed to happen.
The way politicians and media sell climate change to the public is as big a sham there will ever be.

[VFX]

Anyone who supports not just a climate change denier but someone who wants to roll back the little progress that has been made to avoid catastrophe... i guess the truism is correct that voters get who they deserve.

I don’t want to get into political talking points on this forum. However, everyone is aware that Florida has had the largest population growth in the last few years as Desantis has been Gov. (and not necessarily due to him) from mostly failing blue states/cities where people say the same thing “you get what you voted for”.

I left Los Angeles in this same timeframe and decided to work only on the east coast instead of bi-coastal for reasons I’d rather not get into about the city.

Both sides use this rhetoric. All you have to do is look at the numbers.

[tooler]

The Climate Emergency is the single biggest challenge we face

I want to make a joke about how the biggest challenge we face is finding some shooting for this Orlando Magic team, but I try my best to be polite and not egg people on.

[89Magicfan]

As a native Floridian from Orlando and a independent I’m nit the biggest Desantis fan. Only thing he did well was question the motives for Covid and didn’t cave into Biden administration and shut the whole state down. After that he just lost focus. I’m alright with some of his beef with Disney. They are out of hand with some of the crap they pull. I haven’t taken my family there in years and don’t plan on it anytime soon. I also like how he went hard on public schools.

The price gouging is insane here in all aspects though.

He could give two **** about the middle class IMO.