Kyrie, Trump, and the Billionaire

EPISODE 114: Crafting the course of nations.

The biggest, most shocking story of the NBA Finals isn’t the Celtics being up 2-0 or the return of Kristaps Porzingis or whatever.

It’s something that nobody else is even really talking about. Which is profoundly crazy, once you set one foot outside of sports.

Because nobody donated more money to Donald Trump in 2020 than Miriam Adelson. Few people in right-wing politics, period, are more powerful. Or wealthier. She is also happens to be one of the most influential pro-Israel extremists alive, by any standard.

And at the end of last year — weeks after October 7th — Miriam Adelson set out to buy the Dallas Mavericks from (noted anti-Trump critic) Mark Cuban.

If you missed this story, I don’t blame you. Nobody in the NBA, let alone sports media, broadly, seems to want to discuss it. Not even Kyrie Irving, of all people, the second-biggest star on the Mavs, the player once condemned as the most notorious anti-Semite in all of sports, has said a word about Miriam.

But with her Dallas Mavericks hosting their first game of the NBA Finals Wednesday, and one of the most unlikely championship celebrations ever still possible, I found someone to help us tell a story that lots of people wish we didn’t.

Hope you can watch or listen.

UPDATE: In response to our report that Miriam Adelson would not have been approved as governor/primary owner of the Mavericks — which is why her son-in-law, Patrick Dumont, was selected instead — an NBA spokesman said, “That is categorically false.” (We stand by our reporting.)

DKN/YOUTUBE SPOILER ALERT:

Electorally,

Pablo

P.S. I believe that the Trump White House being this undeniably up for sale is one of the more underrated stories in politics, generally. Not just sports. Which is why you may have noticed me tease today’s episode on MSNBC late last week: