{"id":605722,"date":"2026-04-14T06:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605722\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:44:10","slug":"abbys-angle-moral-double-standards-persist-in-the-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/605722\/","title":{"rendered":"Abby’s Angle: Moral double standards persist in the NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children idolize<\/a> professional athletes almost as much as they idolize parents and teachers. For this reason, I\u2019ve never been a fan of the \u201cshut up and dribble\u201d mindset<\/a>, as athletes have a huge platform and responsibilities beyond basketball.<\/p>\n

In late March, Jaden Ivey<\/a> of the Chicago Bulls was released from the team following multiple lengthy religious rants on Instagram condemning the NBA\u2019s celebration of Pride Month. After arriving in Chicago, Ivey became a locker room poison due to his preachy attitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to ESPN, Bulls coach Billy Donovan said, \u201cWe have to all be professional, there has to be a high level of respect for one another, and we’ve got to help each other and be accountable to those standards,\u201d following Ivey\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

The Bulls swiftly took action to release Ivey for his inappropriate behavior\u2013 great. Yet, a troubling number of domestic abusers<\/a> remain in the NBA, backed and elevated by the league. There is a gross moral double standard at play.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear, I understand why Ivey was waived and believe it was the right choice for the organization. I\u2019m not arguing, as the Association of Mature American Citizens<\/a> is, that Ivey was waived because of his religious beliefs in a so-called \u201cWoke NBA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Big names, like Kevin Porter Jr., Miles Bridges and Jaxson Hayes, some of whom are even repeat offenders, continue to be supported in the NBA after being charged with domestic violence or similar crimes. Every franchise<\/a> has dealt with these types of allegations, and most players face minimal consequences. The NBA<\/a> can\u2019t state \u201csports are intended to be inclusive for everybody\u201d and promote the NBA as a \u201csafe space\u201d while completely ignoring abusers populating their rosters in the same breath. They\u2019ve failed to take accountability for years against domestic violence and related incidents, and there seems to be no change on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Before the weak consequences, there are mismanaged investigations. Jaxson Hayes<\/a>, a Los Angeles Laker, was under investigation in 2021 for the alleged domestic abuse of his girlfriend and faced no penalties from the NBA; they didn\u2019t even interview<\/a> his then-girlfriend, who accused Hayes during their investigation.<\/p>\n

Something similar happened in the case of Joshua Primo<\/a>, the former San Antonio Spurs player who allegedly exposed himself to the Spurs\u2019 psychologist multiple times in 2022. The psychologist made \u201cnumerous complaints\u201d to the organization, and Primo continued to expose himself to her in private sessions after her complaints weren\u2019t taken seriously.<\/p>\n

The National Domestic Violence Hotline<\/a> says \u201cthere\u2019s a very low percentage of abusers who truly do change their ways\u201d because many factors behind abuse are learned emotions of \u201centitlement and privilege.\u201d NBA players obviously have status and money, and are often welcomed back to the league after controversy.<\/p>\n

Former NBA player Jason Kidd<\/a> is a prime example. Kidd pled guilty to assaulting his wife in 2001, continued to play in the NBA and then was hired as the Dallas Mavericks Head coach in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The NBA upholds strict policies on things like gambling and drug use. Paul George<\/a> served a 20-game suspension for using an \u201cimproper medication\u201d for mental health issues, while the longest<\/a> suspension served for domestic violence is 30 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a perfect<\/a> world, there would be no violence, but it isn\u2019t a perfect world, and \u201ceveryone within the NBA ecosystem needs to assume a level of responsibility for admonishing this type of behavior.\u201d Domestic violence allegations<\/a>, even without a conviction, \u201ccan affect your work, your income and even your career path\u201d in any other field, but rarely the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, Hall-of-Fame Charles Barkley<\/a> questioned NBA commissioner Adam Silver on national television about what the NBA was going to do about the high number of domestic violence cases within the league. Silver gave a mostly meaningless statement, concluding with, \u201c… if a guy, you know, does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n

The consequences are obviously not \u201cenormous\u201d if players continue to play, or even coach, in the NBA.<\/p>\n

I understand substance abuse, gambling and poisonous locker room behavior directly affect the integrity of the sport, but we must look at the bigger picture. The NBA has made it clear that domestic violence, sexual abuse or anything along those lines shouldn\u2019t affect your legacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Karl Malone<\/a>, a Hall-of-Fame player who has a statue<\/a> at his alma mater, Louisiana Tech University, impregnated a 13-year-old girl when he was in college. This is statutory rape, proved with a paternity test, which never affected his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sexual assault or domestic violence is not a morally grey area\u2013 it\u2019s inherently wrong. The NBA has a responsibility to make it clear abuse is not OK and abusers aren\u2019t role models. <\/p>\n

Abby Shriver is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Abby about their column? Email\/message them at as064024@ohio.edu<\/a> \/ @abbyshriver_<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Children idolize professional athletes almost as much as they idolize parents and teachers. For this reason, I\u2019ve never…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605723,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-605722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}