Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Breakers proved why sport needs to stay out of politics

There would not be a drama today about the Breakers basketball team not wanting to wear the rainbow flag on their jerseys if the basketball league had stayed out of politics in the first place.

Now, if you haven't caught up on this, there is unnecessary upset today because it's emerged that the entire Breakers team will not wear that little rainbow Pride flag on their jerseys during Pride Round next year because some of the players don't want to.

And it's for religious and cultural reasons, apparently. So because some of the players don't want to, the whole team won't.

Now, as you can imagine, this has absolutely blown up and it has led to accusations of homophobia, accusations of bigotry, accusations of cowardice. And look, I don't know, maybe all those accusations are right, but this didn't have to happen.

They didn't have to have this drama if they hadn't tried to get all of the players to wear a symbol that you can guarantee some players wouldn't want to wear, because statistically that had to be a possibility when you had 150 players rostered on for any particular season.

Now, I don't think that this kind of rainbow-washing helps anyone. There is no need for a random sports league to run any kind of a week, whether it be Pride Week or Indigenous Week, or Women's Menstrual Rights Week. I don't know what kind of week, you just don't need it.

Maybe it sells a few tickets - probably not a lot - but it can backfire and it has backfired in this case. So now instead of looking inclusive to the rainbow community, the NBL looks the complete opposite and has accusations of homophobia coming at it.

Now, you would have thought that everyone under the sun would have learned from the massive rugby league debacle three years ago when those seven Manly players refused to wear the Pride jersey.

And yet, the basketball league decided to start up its own Pride Week the very next year, having learned nothing.

Now, I say this all of the time, and I will say this again - sports needs to stay out of politics. There is no real upside in it and there's way too much downside, and this is a case in point.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
There would not be a drama today about the Breakers
basketball team not wanting to wear the rainbow flag on
their jerseys if the basketball league had stayed out of
politics in the first place. Now, if you haven't caught
up on this, there is unnecessary upset today because it's
emerged that the entire Breakers team will not wear that
little rainbow Pride Progress flat on their jerseys during Pride

(00:20):
Round next year because some of the players don't want to,
and it's for religious and cultural reasons apparently, so because
some of the players don't want to, the whole team won't. Now,
as you can imagine, this has absolutely blown up, and
it has led to accusations of homophobia, accusations of bigotry,
accusations of cowardice, and look, I don't know, maybe all
those accusations are right, but this didn't have to happen.

(00:43):
They didn't have to have this drama if they hadn't
tried to get all of the players to wear a
symbol that you can guarantee some players wouldn't want to wear,
because statistically that had to be a possibility. When you
have maybe I don't know, one hundred and fifty or
so players rostered on for any particular season, it would
have to be a possibility that some of them wouldn't
want to wear it. Now, I don't think that this

(01:03):
kind of rainbow washing helps anyone. There is no need
for a random sports league to run any kind of
a week, whether it be Pride Week or Indigenous Week
or Women's men strual Rights Week. I don't know what
kind of We just don't need it. Maybe it sells
a few tickets, probably not a lot, but it can backfire,
and it has backfired in this case. So now instead
of looking inclusive to the rainbow community, the NBL looks

(01:25):
a complete opposite and has accusations of homophobia coming at it. Now,
you would have thought that everyone under the sun would
have learned from the mass of rugby league debarcle three
years ago, when those seven manly players refuse to wear
the Pride jersey, and yet the basketball team decided all
the basketball league decided to start up its own Pride
Week the very next year, having learnt nothing. Now, I

(01:47):
say this all of the time, and I will say
this again. Sports needs to stay out of politics. There
is no real upside in it, and there's way too
much downside. And this is a case in point for
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