Thread by @SlavaMalamud

I am really loving it how North American media is taking LeBron to task over China. This shows me that sports writers here aren't only "sticking to sports" and can indeed criticize athletes for questionable political choices.
Good.

Great.

Awesome.

Now do Ovechkin.

Because, you know, an open advocacy and outright promotion of a ruthless dictator who is an enemy of the United States and has violated America's sovereignty is pretty much on a vastly different level from whatever it is LeBron is doing. A very different level.

And look at the Ovechkin stories we get.
Handling cute puppies.
Handling cute baseball players.
Passing some Canadian in a scoring stat category.

Crickets on anything else. Hockey media should be ashamed of itself. Their fear of losing access is crippling their professionalism.

The excuses I hear are, if anything, even more disgusting that the silence.
"Well, we tried, but he won't talk about it, so what can we do?" [off to write another puff piece]

Also, I don't buy the bullshit explanation that hockey fans don't care about anything other than hockey.

Yes, fans can be selfish, childish and stupid. Yes, a player's ability to propel the doodad into the thingamajoo may be more important to them than anything else.
But this doesn't stop journalists from raking players for bad behavior, be it drug-related, or DV, or even politics.

No, the silence from the hockey media is the result of one thing only: its incapacitating fear of losing access. The fear that ultimately tramples all principles, all morality, all professionalism.
In the world of hockey, Ovechkin's ass exists to be kissed. And everyone complies.