Rand Paul Complains College Basketball Players Are Turning Into ‘Rap Stars’

Senator Rand Paul predicted school basketball gamers will flip into “rap stars” whereas attacking anti-trust legal guidelines in sports activities on Tuesday, a remark that caught Twitter’s consideration.

Paul, the three-term junior Republican Senator from Kentucky, attended the Senate Homeland Safety Committee’s Everlasting Subcommittee on Investigations’ three-hour anti-trust listening to on the forthcoming merger of the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf group. The proposed deal has sparked widespread debate and controversy, with detractors arguing that the transfer is likely one of the many makes an attempt by Saudi Arabia to realize a foothold within the worldwide sports activities scene despite its historical past of human rights abuses.

In the course of the assembly, reactions to the deal from lawmakers typically fell alongside get together strains. Democrats like Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut urged PGA officers to not pursue the deal, whereas Republicans like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin have been extra supportive of the merger.

Paul was among the many GOP lawmakers in attendance to talk in help of the deal, however what caught Twitter’s consideration was his tangent about his opposition to anti-trust legal guidelines in sports activities, accusing them of denigrating school soccer by permitting gamers to monetize their “Identify, Picture, and Likeness” (NIL) rights.

“Many people liked watching newbie athletes that weren’t paid,” Paul stated. “Now everyone that performs basketball in school is gonna be driving a Bentley or a Rolls. I imply, we’re gonna be seeing rap stars as a substitute of basketball stars.”

Whereas Paul’s stances on anti-trust regulation and school sports activities are more-or-less frequent amongst Republicans, his feedback from the Tuesday listening to generated backlash on social media. Some accused the senator’s comparability of faculty athletes to rappers to have racist undertones, whereas others felt the feedback ran counter to the libertarian beliefs he has espoused up to now.

“I’m not a Rand Paul fan however he must be higher than this,” sports activities radio host Matt Jones tweeted. “To pick one group of athletes being profitable (basketball gamers) and say they’re now ‘rap stars’ is completely about race. He would not point out Soccer, Baseball, [or] ladies athletes or say they’re ‘Rock stars.’ It is pitiful.”

“Free market capitalist Rand Paul needs to forestall individuals from being profitable on the free market,” journalist David Gardner added in his own tweet.

Newsweek reached out to Paul’s workplace by way of electronic mail for remark.

In response to an inquiry from Newsweek, the School Basketball Gamers Affiliation cited the Supreme Court docket ruling in NCAA v. Alston, which allowed states and faculties to move new guidelines about student-athletes exercising their NIL rights.

Spokesperson Michael Hsu advised Newsweek the Affiliation agreed with the SCOTUS ruling, saying, “Anit-trust is a crucial idea to use to sports activities. The gamers who rating the factors must be paid market charges relying on the leagues they play in.”

In the course of the listening to, Paul conceded that there are authentic questions concerning the involvement of Saudi Arabia within the PGA-LIV merger. Nonetheless, he additionally expressed the assumption that the U.S. authorities shouldn’t be concerned in probing the matter.

“I discover no grounds for presidency to be concerned within the sport of golf,” Paul stated.