The contribution from the NBA team to Never Back Down, the group supporting DeSantis’ campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, has drawn attention from Florida Democrats and LGBTQ activists.
The Orlando Magic donated $50,000 to a super PAC that supports the presidential bid of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an opponent of LGBTQ rights who has consistently worked to raise his national profile by restricting the rights and freedoms of LGBTQ community members in Florida.
In a recent video produced by DeSantis’ presidential campaign, for example, the governor is shown laughing maniacally next to images from the movie American Psycho, while bragging that his policies toward the LGBTQ community are “totalitarian, horrifying, and evil.”
The decision by the Magic contradicts the public image the Central Florida NBA franchise has tried to create for itself as a supporter of the LGBTQ community. The organization not only hosts a Pride Night, but has also donated part of the proceeds from ticket sales to a fund that supports victims of the 2016 mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in the city where the team is based, among other pro-LGBTQ non-profit groups.
‘A Slap in the Face’
News of the donation also comes as DeSantis has spent recent weeks defending Florida’s controversial new Black history standards for public schools that claim that slavery had its benefits for Black people, because it allowed them to learn “some skills” which “in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
For these reasons, the contribution from the NBA team to Never Back Down, the group supporting DeSantis’ campaign for the Republican nomination, has drawn attention from Florida Democrats and LGBTQ activists.
“This donation is a slap in the face to the team’s Black players and their LGBTQIA+ fans,” Nailah Summers-Polite, co-director of the Florida social justice group Dream Defenders, told the Popular Information newsletter, adding that the NBA franchise’s claims of social justice was “all just PR work.”
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Orlando-area State Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, also expressed disappointment in the team’s decision.
“Gov. DeSantis has based his entire political career on targeting, demonizing and taking away health care from LGBTQ+ people, including youth,” she said. “It’s incredibly disheartening that a team that markets itself as being welcoming to all people, behind the scenes, gives $50,000 to a DeSantis PAC.”
Orlando Magic spokesman Joel Glass described the check as supporting DeSantis in his role as governor and claimed it was written on May 19, days before DeSantis formally launched his presidential candidacy on May 24. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, however, the Never Back Down Super PAC received the donation made by the basketball team on June 26.
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The donation isn’t the first time the franchise has donated to right-wing groups. According to the FEC, the team donated $500 to Conservative Results in May 2016, and $2,000 to a conservative political action committee, Maverick PAC USA, in August 2014.
The Family Behind the Magic
The Magic’s latest donation, however, underscores the fact that the franchise’s public image is very much at odds with that of its owners: the DeVos family, a wealthy clan prominent in Republican politics.
Betsy DeVos, the sister-in-law of Magic chairman Dan DeVos, served as education secretary in the Trump administration. The family also has a history of donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to anti-LGBTQ causes, as noted by Popular Information. The family has also previously backed DeSantis, with various members collectively donating nearly half-a-million dollars to him between 2018 and 2022.
“The Orlando Magic needs to pick a side,” former state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D) tweeted Wednesday in response to the news. “You can’t have Pride Night and claim to celebrate and support the LGBTQ community, and then donate $50,000 to a presidential candidate running against the LGBTQ community and promoting a platform to take away our rights.”
On Thursday, the NBA Players Association, the union for its players, issued a statement criticizing the donation and making clear it did not represent the values of the Magic players.
