ESPN’s Wilbon praises disgraced Sacramento ex-mayor on Warriors pregame
Warriors #Warriors
Disgraced former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson attends a Kings game in 2016.
Ahead of a tantalizing Warriors-Kings Game 1 matchup Saturday night, ESPN’s Michael Wilbon brought a curious name into the mix: disgraced former Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson.
On an interminable ABC pregame show — the game tipped off about half an hour after scheduled — Wilbon praised Johnson for his role in keeping the Kings in Sacramento.
It’s true that Johnson, who was the mayor of Sacramento from 2008 to 2016, made using public funds to keep the Kings in the city a major plank of his administration. But he is in no way a praiseworthy public figure. Several women have said that Johnson sexually assaulted them as teenagers. In 2015, Deadspin published a video of a then-16-year-old being interviewed by police and giving a detailed account of sexual abuse by Johnson. (The alleged abuse occurred in Phoenix in 1995, when Johnson was an All-Star guard with the Suns. The woman, Mandi Koba, has been steadfast about her account. In 2016, two more women said Johnson sexually abused them when they were 18-year-old students at his charter school.
The flood of reports eventually forced ESPN to bury its “30 for 30” documentary on Johnson and the efforts to keep the Kings in Sacramento.
None of that stopped Wilbon from effusively praising Johnson on national television Saturday.
“There’s no big game in Sacramento tonight, there’s no game in Sacramento, without the efforts of Kevin Johnson,” Wilbon said. (Stephen A. Smith got in on the act too, chiming in with a “No question, … who by the way, I just saw.”) “He saved that franchise for that city. They would have been in Seattle. They were gone. I texted him that earlier today: There’s no game in Sacramento tonight without his efforts, going back to when he was mayor.” There appear to be no constraints on the pleasure that Wilbon gets out of name-dropping.
Only Jalen Rose had the good sense to realize that perhaps a panel discussion on the glorious achievements of Johnson was not a great idea. He abruptly pivoted the conversation to how young players might handle their first major playoff game.