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Wizards owner Ted Leonsis created an off-putting tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

Wizards owner Ted Leonsis created an off-putting tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.

The NBA and its owners tend to rate very highly when it comes to encouraging diversity amongst its workforce, and the league itself routinely promotes Black History Month amongst many other inclusive endeavors.

Sure, there have been some notable step-backs, but usually this group of 1-percenters seems to act properly when faced with what could be sensitive topics.

I’ll let the readers decide if Ted Leonsis’ decision to pair his face with that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visage, in some ham-hock attempt at celebrating Black History Month, would rank amongst those proper acts.

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From the Wizards’ Facebook account, via Vice, take a look at what popped up on Saturday:

(Via Facebook, though I'm not sure they want to take credit for this one.)
(Via Facebook, though I'm not sure they want to take credit for this one.)

(At least Leonsis got the month right. Barely.)

As Vice pointed out, even Leonsis’ choice of pull quote is a little maddening – the sort of Tony Robbins-esque nonsense that corporate types love to spew while combing their various industries for new loopholes to exploit. That’s not the most upsetting thing here, though.

At best, Leonsis is aligning his thoughts with that of Dr. King. That’s passable – his words are usually ones worth riding with.

The average viewer here would contend that Leonsis is outright comparing himself to Dr. King, all while passing off some corporate-speak pablum as on the level as one of King’s statements. That’s outrageous and infuriating enough.

At worst? This is the owner of a basketball and hockey team, someone who made most of his fortune in investing in AOL in its nascent days, piggybacking on Martin Luther King Jr. in order to win some weird strain of Facebook favor. The median take is also the absolute worst take.

“Doing well is doing good” means absolutely nothing, and yet Ted Leonsis still somehow failed to live up to the ideals behind his own made-up language.

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Kelly Dwyer

is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!