The media’s desire to turn every discussion in the arena of sports into some sort of commentary on racial politics is well-known. However, what went down at a press conference at the Australian Open is just downright weird.
Nick Kyrgios, an Australian tennis star, was fielding questions from the press after he defeated Rogerio Dutra Silva in straight-sets. When all of a sudden, a reporter asked Kyrgios a question which had nothing to do with tennis, the Australian Open, Australia, or anything closely related to what was actually happening.
Instead, the reporter asked Kyrgios about Colin Kaepernick.
The reporter asked:
“You’re friends with the American football player Colin Kaepernick and supportive of him in the past. What are your thoughts on his not being signed by an American football team this season?”
Kyrgios replied, “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him in my life.”
Undeterred by the destruction of his basis for asking the question in the first place, the reporter doubled-down: “But what are your thoughts about that?”
“I mean, I don’t even … Where does that question even come from?” Kyrgios justifiably fired back. “We’re at the Australian Open, man.” Kyrgios then mercifully ended the interview.
WATCH:
This is extreme, even by activist media standards. Trying to turn a press conference with an Australian, in Australia, at the Australian Open: into some kind of stump-speech on racial politics in America, is beyond absurd.
According to Yahoo, “Kyrgios knelt prior to a Laver Cup match in September, the same weekend NFL players began a concerted protest against Trump’s words, but Kyrgios said at the time it was a “personal tribute.” (Kyrgios has made his feelings about Trump known; he did an interview about a year ago with a T-shirt bearing the image of Trump with devil horns.)”
So perhaps the reporter felt that since Kyrgios had knelt, he would be sympathetic to Kaepernick. But to assert that Kyrgios and Kaepernick are friends? Not to mention asking about Kaepernick’s continued unemployment when Kaepernick hasn’t played in a year and has no chance of playing again this year? And to ask these questions at the Australian Open?
Just weird.
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