If only he’d worn a more acceptable symbol in the NBA, the Chinese Communist flag.

Houston Rockets’ star James Harden was back in the bubble for less than a day before a post shared by the team of the NBA scoring leader wearing a “Thin Blue Line” mask received major backlash.

It’s quite possible that Harden had no idea what he was wearing, except it was a color graded American flag and he thought it looked cool.

Which it does.

The bizarre part is that the media is eager to jump on a social media campaign against a black player. Despite false claims by the media, the Thin Blue Line is a pro-police symbol, it’s not extremist. But here’s Jeff Bezos’ social justice rag anyway.

Harden’s face covering featured the “Thin Blue Line,” a pro-police symbol that critics have long claimed also stands for white supremacy and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement, and a Punisher skull, which has been associated with far-right groups.

I mean the Punisher skull stands for a guy who shoots criminals. Or at least it used to before that became politically incorrect.

But I like how opposition to BLM is now automatically white supremacy. Much like how opposition to Communism, to leftists, meant you were a Nazi, or how opposition to National Socialism to its allies meant you were a Communist.

This is the logic of the Washington Post.

The skull symbol on Harden’s mask, meanwhile, is adapted from the logo of the Punisher, a violent vigilante Marvel Comics character. The character’s creator has asked police to stop using the logo, noting that the Punisher “represents a failure of the Justice system.”

I guess. Insofar as it’s a failure not to gun down criminals on sight. 

But I’m sure Harden will be made to disavow the mask. It’s not like he did something innocent, like endorse Louis Farrakhan.