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Over the weekend, the Basketball Hall of Fame honored columnist J.A. Adande with the Curt Gowdy Media Award. The list of previous recipients of the award is significant, including Michael Wilbon (2020), Bob Costas (1999), Dick Vitale (1998) and Peter Vecsey (2009).

The award matters. Err, it used to.

The credibility of the Basketball Hall of Fame comes into question after honoring Adande with the award.

While Adande can tout his mediocre columns about the intersection of race and basketball while at the Los Angeles Times, he will always be known as the U.S.-based journalist who downplayed China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs, which the U.S. Secretary of State found in 2021 includes genocide.

In 2022, while appearing on ESPN’s Around the Horn, Adande defended China hosting the 2022 Winter Olympics. According to Adande, Americans have no right to question human rights violations in China because of the human rights violations that exist in the United States.

To which human rights violations in the U.S. does he refer? Specifically, voter identification laws in red states.

“Who are we to criticize China’s human rights records when we have ongoing attacks by the agents of the state against unarmed citizens, and we’ve got assaults on the voting rights of our people of color in various states in this country,” Adande asked, rhetorically.

Got that?

Per Adande, asking for identification to vote is as ruthless as slave labor, concentration camps, torture, rape, and forced abortions and sterilizations — all of which Uyghurs reportedly experience in the Xinjiang region.

Adande’s statements were evil and filled with propaganda. He sounded like a proud stooge of the Chinese Communist Party.

China’s handling of Muslim Uyghurs resembles how Nazi Germany treated the Jews. Likening genocide to voter identification on national television is inexcusable.

J.A. Adande used a Disney platform to spread CCP talking points. ESPN should have fired Adande for that. Northwestern University, where he serves as the director of sports journalism, should have done the same.

An ID is required to book a hotel, buy alcohol, drive and adopt a pet. So, yes, states should also require ID to cast a ballot – a system that decides the future of the most powerful country in the world.

Asking for an ID is not racist. Assuming that black people are not capable of obtaining an ID–as Adande suggests–is. 

His assumption is also inaccurate.

Much was made about Georgia’s voting laws ahead of the 2022 midterms. Joe Biden dubbed Georgia’s Election Integrity Act “Jim Crow 2.0.” In reality, Georgia saw record early voter turnout, including among black voters. The state outpaced its 2018 midterms by more than 50%.

Professor Adande doesn’t have his facts straight.

Adande should not be honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame. He should be shunned for downplaying genocide at the hands of a totalitarian regime in order to score partisan political points.

That can’t be forgotten.

OutKick asked Adande, ESPN, Northwestern and the Basketball Hall of Fame for comment. None of the four parties responded. Three years later, J.A. Adande stands by his commentary.