Orlando Magic Gave $50,000 to Never Back Down

[GGforever]

I’m not supporting the donation in any way because it was stupid to do in the name of the Orlando Magic. However, why the spin from the players association and others that the Magic gave this donation after the Desantis slave comments. It was clearly donated before and any association of the two is just lies.

[basketballRob]

The players have way more power in the NBA than the Devos family. That's why I think they got a little closer to the door.

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[OrlandO]

This is not the first time the magic as an organization have donated to a pac or desantis. Other NBA teams have donated as organizations to parties and politicians as well. If the bulls and nets can donate to lori lightfoot and letitia james, then the magic can donate to arguably the most popular governor in fl history.

[SOUL]

This is not the first time the magic as an organization have donated to a pac or desantis. Other NBA teams have donated as organizations to parties and politicians as well. If the bulls and nets can donate to lori lightfoot and letitia james, then the magic can donate to arguably the most popular governor in fl history.

Sources? Literally nothing comes up for either.

[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.

Because Orlando Magic is in the state Desantis governs. Lol

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I'm asking why the money have to go through the team, rather than them just donate it personally.

[Xatticus]

I love it. This was so profoundly **** stupid.

First of all, there are strict limitations on how much an individual can donate to a political campaign. This is, theoretically, to protect democracy. We don't really want individuals buying elections, right? The number is way too high as is. Most individuals can't afford to donate anything remotely close to the limit, but how much favor can you really buy for a few thousand dollars?

Super PACs exist for the purpose of circumventing this restriction. They can take in and spend unlimited money in support of a candidate as long as they operate independently from the campaign itself. Super PACs should be illegal, but they aren't because of an appalling decision by the Supreme Court under the guise of free speech. We lost one of our safeguards for democracy when that ruling was made.

The DeVos family can give whatever amounts of money that they want to in support of whichever political candidates they want to. That is called corruption, but it isn't illegal in our system. That's not what this is about. When the Orlando Magic donated to that Super PAC, they were effectively engaging in "free speech" on behalf of all Orlando Magic personnel. Every member of the Orlando Magic organization can now take heart in the fact that they have contributed to the election of Ron DeSantis as the next POTUS regardless of whatever their political inclinations are. Most players aren't going to care, but some absolutely will.

[Tarheel]

I really believe you are really overstating things here. This will have very little impact on the magic. The vast majority of people don’t care about politics or aware what is even happening politically. Again the vast majority of Americans can’t pass a citizenship test. I bet you the vast majority of people don’t even know this happened. I doubt the vast majority of Americans know the political background of their own employers; even if they did, I doubt they will let this determine their financial decisions when they have bills to pay.

Typically the mixture of politics and sports has no long term effect on the the sport. The same arguments used to say this DeSantis thing will negatively affect the magic are the same arguments used to say the NBA’s and players’ support of BLM would negatively affect the league and many teams. Just like the BLM uproar pretty certain everything will be just fine.

People need to stop watching polarized news lol

That's not really my argument. Everyone is entitled to their political opinions and you're right, a lot of people are probably employed by people who's personal politics differ from their own without any impact on their lives.

I'm saying that people and companies are different. The DeVos' have every right to donate in a personal capacity to whoever they like and that doesn't affect the team. What they've done here is use the Magic as an entity to make political donations which then ties the organisation to that politician.

I wouldn't be happy if my company made donations to political figures, but the people at the top can do whatever they like in a personal capacity. Just because you're paying someone's salary doesn't give you the right to determine the politics they are associated with.

Is it an overreaction to what is relatively a small donation? Sure. But if you let these things slide they snowball. Similar things are happening here with the EPL and in my view it is slowly ruining the sport.

[fendilim]

I love it. This was so profoundly **** stupid.

First of all, there are strict limitations on how much an individual can donate to a political campaign. This is, theoretically, to protect democracy. We don't really want individuals buying elections, right? The number is way too high as is. Most individuals can't afford to donate anything remotely close to the limit, but how much favor can you really buy for a few thousand dollars?

Super PACs exist for the purpose of circumventing this restriction. They can take in and spend unlimited money in support of a candidate as long as they operate independently from the campaign itself. Super PACs should be illegal, but they aren't because of an appalling decision by the Supreme Court under the guise of free speech. We lost one of our safeguards for democracy when that ruling was made.

The DeVos family can give whatever amounts of money that they want to in support of whichever political candidates they want to. That is called corruption, but it isn't illegal in our system. That's not what this is about. When the Orlando Magic donated to that Super PAC, they were effectively engaging in "free speech" on behalf of all Orlando Magic personnel. Every member of the Orlando Magic organization can now take heart in the fact that they have contributed to the election of Ron DeSantis as the next POTUS regardless of whatever their political inclinations are. Most players aren't going to care, but some absolutely will.

Miss you

[pepe1991]

This is not the first time the magic as an organization have donated to a pac or desantis. Other NBA teams have donated as organizations to parties and politicians as well. If the bulls and nets can donate to lori lightfoot and letitia james, then the magic can donate to arguably the most popular governor in fl history.

Sources? Literally nothing comes up for either.

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=orlando+magic

I found it on reddit

It's not new, especially for the Magic.

The Magic (the team, not the owner) have made hundreds of contributions to politicians
, nearly all of them Republicans. They donated to DeSantis in 2020 and 2022, and they donated to previous Republican governors in 2014 (Rick Scott) and 1998 (Jeb Bush). They also donated to Matt Gaetz in 2020.

The Nets gave to NY AG Letitia James in 2018.

The Warriors gave to CA AG Rob Bonta in 2018.

The Bobcats gave to DC mayoral candidate Linda Cropp in 2006.

The Sonics gave to gubernatorial candidate Ron Sims in 2004.


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Clippers owner over span of 5 years donated $8M to left political wing.

It gets crazy once you figure almost all nba owners donate money to both parties. Money talks, BS walks at the end of a day i guess.

[basketballRob]

This is not the first time the magic as an organization have donated to a pac or desantis. Other NBA teams have donated as organizations to parties and politicians as well. If the bulls and nets can donate to lori lightfoot and letitia james, then the magic can donate to arguably the most popular governor in fl history.

Sources? Literally nothing comes up for either.

https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=orlando+magic

I found it on reddit

It's not new, especially for the Magic.

The Magic (the team, not the owner) have made hundreds of contributions to politicians
, nearly all of them Republicans. They donated to DeSantis in 2020 and 2022, and they donated to previous Republican governors in 2014 (Rick Scott) and 1998 (Jeb Bush). They also donated to Matt Gaetz in 2020.

The Nets gave to NY AG Letitia James in 2018.

The Warriors gave to CA AG Rob Bonta in 2018.

The Bobcats gave to DC mayoral candidate Linda Cropp in 2006.

The Sonics gave to gubernatorial candidate Ron Sims in 2004.


260


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Share

Clippers owner over span of 5 years donated $8M to left political wing.

It gets crazy once you figure almost all nba owners donate money to both parties. Money talks, BS walks at the end of a day i guess.

Most on the left, see DeSantis as a white supremist. Every policy that he makes has backed that belief. The NAACP put out a travel advisory for colored people not to travel to Florida. Ironically, that was around the same day the Magic made the donation.

So, the Magic donation occurred at the height of the Florida legislature trying to rewrite black history in the school system.


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[davey_wavy]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

[basketballRob]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

I think it's 50/50, whether Trump is even allowed to hold office again. He got voted out of office and tried to stay by throwing out legally cast votes allegedly. If he's found guilty of this, I don't think he'll ever be able to hold any kind of office again.

My best guess is that DeSantis will be the candidate.

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[Fortune Teller]

We live in different times now. You can't compare political donations now to political donations pre-Trump. The days of Bush and Clinton, middle-of-the-road politicians who tried to please everyone, are over. Trump has ushered in a new brand of politics where you can be openly hostile to large portions of the populace and try to win the electoral college with your hardcore base and nothing else. Trump lost the popular vote by a lot to Hillary and still own the electoral college. He lost the popular vote by even more to Biden and tried to claim he had won the electoral college. As a result, our country is more polarized than ever, and it's getting worse as left-leaning citizens are leaving red states for blue, and right-leaning people are leaving blue states for red.

I think that's the point Rob is making -- this isn't just giving money to a politician. It's giving money to a person who feeds off of us-against-them hate politics and manufactured culture wars. If the money had gone to Jeb Bush or some other past Republican Florida Governor I don't think the NBPA issues an official statement.

And the Magic PR machine can say what they want, but this PAC was created for DeSantis's presidential run. Just because he didn't officially announce until after the date of the check doesn't mean they didn't know where the money was going. That is preposterous. They are banking on their belief that most of us are stupid and won't actually think about the logistics here. Just take a look at the Never Back Down website. The very purpose of these Super PAC's is to avoid campaign financing rules and give donors plausible deniability when it comes to things like this.

[VFX]

How do you block a thread?

[89Magicfan]

We live in different times now. You can't compare political donations now to political donations pre-Trump. The days of Bush and Clinton, middle-of-the-road politicians who tried to please everyone, are over. Trump has ushered in a new brand of politics where you can be openly hostile to large portions of the populace and try to win the electoral college with your hardcore base and nothing else. Trump lost the popular vote by a lot to Hillary and still own the electoral college. He lost the popular vote by even more to Biden and tried to claim he had won the electoral college. As a result, our country is more polarized than ever, and it's getting worse as left-leaning citizens are leaving red states for blue, and right-leaning people are leaving blue states for red.

I think that's the point Rob is making -- this isn't just giving money to a politician. It's giving money to a person who feeds off of us-against-them hate politics and manufactured culture wars. If the money had gone to Jeb Bush or some other past Republican Florida Governor I don't think the NBPA issues an official statement.

And the Magic PR machine can say what they want, but this PAC was created for DeSantis's presidential run. Just because he didn't officially announce until after the date of the check doesn't mean they didn't know where the money was going. That is preposterous. They are banking on their belief that most of us are stupid and won't actually think about the logistics here. Just take a look at the Never Back Down website. The very purpose of these Super PAC's is to avoid campaign financing rules and give donors plausible deniability when it comes to things like this.

He didn’t manufacture up culture wars. The middle of the roads did so they can get more votes. He just pointed them out.

It’s crazy to me. We have an administration who right now there’s proof of treason yet here we are talking about this bs which is nothing new. Just an issue because it doesn’t align with the NBA’s communistic choice.

[MAGICian619]

Is there a more politically involved league than the NBA? Seriously. Constantly inserting themselves into everything politically related. The worst part is they have clearly chosen their side. Any thought that goes against that side is considered Alarming. There is nothing more alarming than that last sentence.

Does the entire league share one brain and set of values? Absolutely not. So why does the NBAPA pretend to speak for all players as if they have come up with a unified position?

[Skybox]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

Imagine getting less votes than an orange man in an orange jumpsuit What have we come to? Really stupid move organizationally...my own politics aside, dumb business move. GM can't be happy about that "optic" being attached to his recruiting efforts.

As Xatticus expounded above, corporate donation loopholes big enough to drive a battleship through are one of the truly despicable problems with our (USA) system.


...wait, Xatticus?

[89Magicfan]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

Imagine getting less votes than an orange man in an orange jumpsuit What have we come to? Really stupid move organizationally...my own politics aside, dumb business move. GM can't be happy about that "optic" being attached to his recruiting efforts.

As Xatticus expounded above, corporate donation loopholes big enough to drive a battleship through are one of the truly despicable problems with our (USA) system.


...wait, Xatticus?

You seem to think many players all believe the same. I think you’d be surprise to know how many actually don’t and just don’t say anything out of fear of the consequences.

[MAGICian619]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

Imagine getting less votes than an orange man in an orange jumpsuit What have we come to? Really stupid move organizationally...my own politics aside, dumb business move. GM can't be happy about that "optic" being attached to his recruiting efforts.

As Xatticus expounded above, corporate donation loopholes big enough to drive a battleship through are one of the truly despicable problems with our (USA) system.


...wait, Xatticus?

Do you applaud that mass donations to Democrats from the NBA and their constant pushing of organizations' that if donated to your money goes to nothing but getting Democrats elected?

No one ever seems to have an issue with the above. Flip it around and people like you are ready to jump off a cliff.

[89Magicfan]

People are going to forget this happened. And here's the kicker.... Just wait until Ron drops out of the race (he's getting smoked by the Donald harder than a pack of Seneca's on the corner of Orange & Kaley). After he flops out it will be a non issue

Imagine getting less votes than an orange man in an orange jumpsuit What have we come to? Really stupid move organizationally...my own politics aside, dumb business move. GM can't be happy about that "optic" being attached to his recruiting efforts.

As Xatticus expounded above, corporate donation loopholes big enough to drive a battleship through are one of the truly despicable problems with our (USA) system.


...wait, Xatticus?

Do you applaud that mass donations to Democrats from the NBA and their constant pushing of organizations' that if donated to your money goes to nothing but getting Democrats elected?

No one ever seems to have an issue with the above. Flip it around and people like you are ready to jump off a cliff.

Of course not. “How stupid and awful Devos and The Magic supports said republican nominee but all is well in supporting BLM organization which its manager was charged with human trafficking and prostitution.” Because you know, they really care about the African American community. Lol such bs.