Knicks Choose Bubba Wallace Over Actual NASCAR Champ In Bizarre, But Predictable, Social Media Snub

Reigning NASCAR champ Ryan Blaney and best buddy Bubba Wallace were courtside at the New York Knicks-Utah Jazz game Tuesday night, and the interns over on the Knicks' social media team decided to pounce.

It's not often you get championship-caliber people that get that close to the court at Madison Square Garden, after all. How long's it been? 51 years? Goodness.

Anyway, Blaney and Bubba put on a couple big 'ol smiles, said 'cheese,' and away they went -- straight into the Twitter world for everyone to see.

Well, scratch that -- they didn't both make the cut. In a sad yet predictable twist, the Knicks cut out the actual NASCAR champ, instead choosing just to promote Bubba Wallace.

Feel like this meme is apporporaite here:

New York Knicks snubbing NASCAR champ Ryan Blaney for Bubba Wallace was predictable for one of two reasons

Yikes. Hilarious, sad, predictable, bizarre, you name it. Editing out the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion from a picture when he was at your game, sitting on your court, is certainly a choice.

But it's also 2024, so it's not that surprising of a choice if we're being honest.

Look, I know most folks are going to want to make this about Bubba Wallace being a black NASCAR driver, which immediately puts eyeballs on him because society is obsessed with color in 2024. We can't get enough of it.

Bubba can't go anywhere without being asked about being the black NASCAR driver. I know that because I've seen it, and he even snapped back at the media a few years ago down here in Daytona because someone asked him about it.

Now, the whole noose/Talladega/BLM crap from a few years ago certainly didn't help his cause, and it was mostly on him, so I can only have so much empathy for him at this point. I say mostly, by the way, because virtue-signaling NASCAR deserves plenty of blame for that fake incident, too.

That's another story, though.

Regardless, my point here is that while the Knicks could have certainly promoted Bubba Wallace over Ryan Blaney because he's NASCAR's black racer, I don't think that's the case here. Personally, I think they cropped Blaney out of the picture because they had no idea who he was.

OR, they knew who he was but also knew Bubba Wallace was the bigger draw -- pedigree be damned -- so they made a business decision.

According to Bubba, it could be the latter:

Either way, it's not great for the sport of NASCAR. What does it say about the reach of a sport if your reigning champ doesn't even make the cut?

Personally, I prefer to think of some intern taking the above picture, running off to tell the social media team that they got Bubba Wallace sitting courtside next to a bunch of random folks, and to just crop everyone else and use Bubba.

And while you may think well, that's better than the other option, I disagree. I expect Option A in 2024. I'm numb to it at this point. NASCAR has openly admitted to being all-in on the ongoing DEI nonsense, so it just doesn't bother me anymore. You wanna go that route, knock yourself out. Your funeral.

What does bother me is the New York Knicks not knowing/caring who defending NASCAR champion Ryan Blaney is. And it should really, realllllly bother those DEI-pushers in the NASCAR marketing office, too. That's concerning.

How many sports could send their very best stars to an arena and have them go unrecognized? Could you imagine the Knicks cropping out Patrick Mahomes or Shohei Ohtani or Tiger Woods? No shot.

Hell, if Twitter was around 25 years ago, could you imagine them cropping out Dale Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon because they didn't know who they were or didn't think they would move the needle enough? Come on.

But nobody knew the reigning NASCAR champ was sitting right next to Bubba Wallace last night. And if they did, they chose to market Bubba while ignoring Blaney entirely.

Like the last 50 years in MSG, it's a lose-lose for the Knicks.