As the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks compete in the NBA Finals, the sport’s biggest stars are doing what professional athletes have done for years: telling stories with their shoes. In Game 1, Celtics forward Jayson Tatum wore custom sneakers inspired by a sunset in China. In Game 2, Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving sported moccasin-inspired shoes as an homage to his Native American heritage. Both told stories familiar to the NBA’s values of cultural exchange and diversity, equity, and inclusion. But they also, inadvertently, told another story: one the NBA would rather ignore.
Nike and ANTA, which produce these custom shoes, have come under congressional investigation for their use of cotton produced by slave labor in the People’s Republic of China. These concerns are not new. Neither is the NBA’s indifference to them. Time and again, the league has revealed a penchant for maximizing money at the expense of morality.
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