We set aside a Monday around January 15th every year to honor a man whose convictions impacted American history in a way that few people have ever managed. January 15th is Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and we now get a day off from school and mail, banks are closed, and there are multiple retail sales to cash in on the long weekend. (How this honors a man who dreamed of racial equality is beyond me. Maybe because everyone gets an equal shot at no money down on a newly discounted big screen TV? But I digress.)

ESPN, which is still purportedly a sports channel, has decided to take this coming Monday honoring Dr. King by… showing Barack Obama’s greatest sports hits.

No, really.

The coverage kicks off with a feature documenting the outgoing president’s love of basketball, ESPN announced in a press release on Friday. Highlights of Mr. Obama filling out his annual March Madness brackets on ESPN will be included.

ESPN will then air the White House ceremony honoring the World Series champion Chicago Cubs, followed by highlights of other championship teams that have visited Mr. Obama over the years.

Presumably, we’ll be watching a lot of videos like this:


Really, ESPN? It’s a day to honor Martin Luther King, and you’re busy showing off eight years of Obama sports videos? No documentaries recognizing the Negro Leagues. Nothing about Jackie Robinson. Nothing about Kenny Washington, Marion Motley, Bill Willis, or Woody Strode. We can’t even get a crummy dumb report on Colin Kaepernick and how “influential” he is. Instead, we get the Obama tribute. On Martin Luther King Day.

Granted, Obama has always assumed that everything is about him, including MLK Day.

"Today, we pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr." —President Obama: http://t.co/n7wtFm4W9I #MartinLutherKingDay pic.twitter.com/DTyu5nhnij

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 19, 2015

But for ESPN to feed into this ego-stroking is too much. Look, we get it. You’re sad he’s going to not be president anymore. (ESPN is also saying they will cover President-elect Trump’s love of sports later in the week. Frankly, we don’t need that show, either, but I get the attempt at bipartisanship.) But why override those truly brave souls in the sports world who fought for racial equality, and the right of a single athlete to prove that he or she belonged on a team because of their skill and drive, and not the color of their skin, in favor of a good-bye party for an outgoing president, just because he is the first African American president?

Have some dignity, ESPN. I bet if you studied the lives of those who broke the sports color barriers, you might find some. Start there.