The NBA has suspended an employee without pay for two weeks after he appeared to celebrate the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

In an email to Fox News Digital on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the association confirmed that the employee “violated multiple NBA policies.”

According to OutKick, which first reported the incident, the former employee called Kirk a “terrible person” and a “s—hole” in an Instagram story.

In a post the employee shared that asked what Kirk’s “legacy” was, the employee wrote that he did not have one.

“Did absolutely nothing healthy for the world except spew dangerous rhetoric… There is no legacy,” the post read.

“Oh I also forgot to include ‘thoughts and prayers.’ LMAO,” another post read.

The NBA told OutKick on Oct. 6 that it was “looking into” the matter but did not provide another update until announcing the suspension Wednesday, after multiple requests for comment from Fox News Digital and OutKick.

Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA speaks during the Turning Point Action conference, July 15, 2023, in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)

MARK TEIXEIRA SAYS ‘UNREASONABLE’ DEMOCRATS ARE HOLDING AMERICANS ‘HOSTAGE’ WITH GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

It is unclear when the suspension was handed down or what policies were broken. The NBA has not responded to an email from Fox News Digital about those details. 

Kirk, who would have turned 32 on Tuesday, was assassinated at Utah Valley University while debating college students. He was shot while being asked about gun violence.

President Donald Trump awarded Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom Tuesday in a ceremony that Kirk’s widow, Erika, attended.

U.S. President Donald Trump posthumously awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to late conservative activist Charlie Kirk as he presents the Medal to his wife Erika Kirk (L) during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House on Oct. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Kirk’s “Turning Point USA” announced earlier this month that it would host its own halftime show for the Super Bowl in San Francisco, shortly after the NFL announced that Bad Bunny would perform at Levi’s Stadium.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

The government shutdown is more than two weeks old, and an MLB star turned congressional candidate is pointing the finger at Democrats on Capitol Hill.

Mark Teixeira, who launched his campaign for Texas’ 21st Congressional District in August, said the “craziness we’ve seen on the left” has set “a terrible precedent” as the government shutdown continues.

The former Texas Ranger, Atlanta Brave, and New York Yankee said the Democrats are not doing “their job” and should be willing to negotiate.

“Elections have consequences. The losing side of an election knows that they’re not going to get everything they want every time a bill is passed, or a budget is passed. So you have to accept that maybe you’re not going to get your way,” Teixeira told Will Cain on Wednesday. 

“The Democrats are saying, ‘No, we don’t accept that. We’re just going to shut the government down, and we’re going to make Americans, we’re going to make military pay for us complaining that we’re not getting our way.”

Mark Teixeira #25 of the National League looks on during pregame ceremonies prior to the 2024 All-Star Futures Game at Globe Life Field on Saturday, July 13, 2024, in Arlington, Texas.  (Sam Hodde/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

BOSTON MAYOR RESPONDS TO TRUMP’S THREATS TO PULL WORLD CUP GAMES OUT OF CITY AMID SAFETY CONCERNS

Cain showed a Reuters/Ipsos poll that indicated 67% of voters blame Republicans for the shutdown, and 63% also blamed Democrats and 63% blamed President Donald Trump. But Teixeira said he does not “trust polls,” adding that there is still “Trump derangement syndrome” among those blaming conservatives.

“As long as there are Democrats and there are people out there that say everything Republicans do is bad, even if it’s reasonable. This is reasonable. Hey listen, you want to negotiate on some things? Alright, give us a few weeks. We’ll negotiate. But don’t shut the government down and hold the American worker, the American military personnel hostage because you haven’t gotten your way up to this point,” Teixeira said.

“I understand that a lot doesn’t get passed when you don’t have big majorities, and we have to work across the aisle every now and then. But we’re not going to negotiate with terrorists. We’re not going to negotiate with a party that says ‘if we don’t get our way, if we don’t change the rules, then I’m going to close the government down.’ That’s not fair to the American people, it’s not fair to all the Republicans that are trying to do this the right way and (saying) ‘Just give us a few more weeks to negotiate.’ 

Mark Teixeira playing for the Texas Rangers. (Tom Szczerbowski/USA TODAY Sports)

“I just believe Democrats are being unreasonable.”

In an X post earlier this month, Teixeira said, “Democrats are destroying our country, and President Trump needs reinforcements who will fight to take our country back.”

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

At 5:37 p.m. Wednesday, Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good” blared from the Dodger Stadium speakers.

Shohei Ohtani came strolling to the plate with a bat in his hands.

There was no one in the stands, of course. Nor an opposing pitcher on the mound. The Dodgers, on this workout day after returning from Milwaukee, were still some 22 hours away from resuming their National League Championship Series against the Brewers. For any other player, it would have been a routine affair.

Ohtani, however, is not just any player.

And among the many things that make him unique, his habit of almost never taking batting practice on the field is one of the small but notable ones.

Which made his decision to do so Wednesday a telling development.

Over the last two weeks, Ohtani has been in a slump. Since the start of the NL Division Series, he is just two-for-25 with a whopping 12 strikeouts. He has been smothered by left-handed pitching. He has made poor swing decisions and failed to slug the ball.

Last week, manager Dave Roberts went so far as to say the Dodgers were “not gonna win the World Series with that sort of performance” from their $700-million slugger.

Thus, out Ohtani came for batting practice on Wednesday in the most visible sign yet of his urgency for a turnaround.

“The other way to say it is that, if I hit, we will win,” Ohtani said in Japanese when asked about Roberts’ World Series quote earlier Wednesday afternoon. “I think he thinks that if I hit, we will win. I’d like to do my best to do that.”

In Roberts’ view, Ohtani has already started improving from his woeful NLDS, when he struck out nine times in 18 trips to the plate against a left-handed-heavy Philadelphia Phillies staff that, as president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman emphatically put it, had “the most impressive execution against a hitter I’ve ever seen.”

In Game 1 of the NLCS against the Brewers, Ohtani was 0-for-two but walked three times; twice intentionally but another on a more disciplined five-pitch at-bat to lead off the game against left-handed opener Aaron Ashby.

The following night, he went only one-for-five with three more strikeouts, giving him 15 this postseason, second-most in the playoffs. But he did have an RBI single, marking his first run driven in since Game 2 of the NLDS. He followed that with a steal, swiping his first bag of the playoffs. And earlier in the game, he scorched a lineout to right at 115.2 mph, the hardest he’d hit a ball since taking Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene deep in the team’s postseason opener.

“The first two games in Milwaukee, his at-bats have been fantastic,” Roberts said Wednesday, before heading out to the field and watching Ohtani’s impromptu BP session.

“That’s what I’ve been looking for. That’s what I’m counting on,” he added, while noting the careful approach the Brewers have also taken with the soon-to-be four-time MVP. “You can only take what they give you. So for me, I think he’s in a good spot right now.”

Ohtani’s overall numbers, of course, continue to suggest otherwise. His .147 postseason batting average is second-worst on the team, ahead of only Andy Pages. His seven-game drought without an extra-base hit is longer than any he endured in the regular season.

“The first thing I have to do is increase the level of my at-bats,” Ohtani said in Japanese. “Swing at strikes and not swing at balls.”

On Wednesday, Ohtani’s slump also led to questions about his role as a two-way player, and whether his return to pitching this season (and, this October, doing it for the first time in the playoffs) has contributed to his sudden struggles at the plate.

After all, on days Ohtani pitched this season, he hit .222 with four home runs but 21 strikeouts. On the days immediately following an outing, he batted .147 with two home runs and 10 strikeouts.

His current slump began with a hitless, four-strikeout dud in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he also made a six-inning, three-run start on the mound.

And in days since, Roberts has acknowledged some likely correlation between Ohtani’s two roles.

“[His offense] hasn’t been good when he’s pitched,” Roberts said following the NLDS. “We’ve got to think through this and come up with a better game plan.”

Ohtani, on the other hand, pushed back somewhat on that narrative during Wednesday’s workout, in which he also threw a bullpen session in preparation for his next start in Game 4 of the NLCS on Friday.

While it is “more physically strenuous” to handle both roles, he conceded, he countered that “I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation.”

“Physically,” he added, “I don’t feel like there’s a connection.”

Instead, Ohtani on Wednesday went about fixing his swing the way any other normal hitter would. He went out on the field for his rare session of batting practice. Of his 32 swings, he sent 14 over the fence, including one that clanked off the roof of the right-field pavilion.

“Certainly, there’s frustration,” Roberts said of how he’s seen Ohtani handle his uncharacteristic lack of performance.

But, he added, “that’s expected. I don’t mind it. I like the edge.”

“He’s obviously a very, very talented player, and we’re counting on him,” Roberts continued. “He’s just a great competitor. He’s very prepared. And there’s still a lot of baseball left.”