Donovan Mitchell responded on Thursday to a Utah company’s decision to cancel its suite at Jazz games over the team kneeling when NBA games came back.
Salt Lake County-based SME Steel Contractors sent a letter to Jazz owner Gail Miller earlier this month announcing its decision to cancel its suite at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The company began licensing a suite annually since 1992 and estimates it has spent $6 million on suites over the years.
The company is thouroughly upset with the way the NBA, its teams, and its players have politicized the sport as well as players and coaches kneeling during the national anthem. As expected, they also do not like the messages around courts supporting the Black Lives Matter political organization.
“The recent actions of the NBA — including the owners, coaches and players of the Utah Jazz — have converted a beloved entertainment venue into a forum for dissemination of political propaganda which is divisive and completely out of step with our company and its values,” they said in their letter.
“They cannot, however, force paying customers, to be subjected to their ostentatious acts of disrespect for our country and its values, without any consequences.”
Mitchell responded on Twitter Thursday.
