NBA shows Hypocrisy in "Green Week"

If you have been paying attention to the NBA recently, you will notice players wearing different warmups, green headbands, armbands etc. This is because the NBA tipped off Green Week, where it encourages being environmentally conscious to its fans and tries to convey a message of sustainability and overall green-ness. Make no mistake, this is about something green for the NBA, but not the one they are telling us about.

On the surface, this seems like a very noble thing the NBA is doing, raising awareness and the like. For instance, the new warmups are made of "100-percent organic cotton" and the green headbands also made of organic cotton. These warmups also will be available to the public at the nba.com fan shop. Two years ago, the NBA went so far as to have certain teams where green uniforms during the week.

So let me get this straight, the NBA promotes sustainability and using less by making brand new warmups for each of the hundreds of NBA players--warmups that they will only where for a couple of games. Maybe its just me, but the NBA could simply make the permanent warmups out of organic material, but instead of this, they use the old material on those and make a big announcement about the players temporarily wearing "green" warmups. 

The NBA is a business. My economics professor once told me that everything a for-profit company does  is aimed at helping their bottom line. When they do charitable things, they make sure you know about it by displaying giant checks and so forth. Don't get me wrong, I am not condoning that, I think it's great the companies can be generous. The NBA is no different--green week is all about money. All the commercials are great PR while selling organic warmups, that only get used for a week, bring in the green for them.