Donda Academy off the City of Palms Classic basketball tournament list

Donda Academy, the private school run by Kanye West, is off the list of teams playing in the City of Palms Classic. 

This comes less than 24 hours after we talked with the organizers of the competition who said they had no plans to stop the players from coming.

If you take a look at the teams on the City of Palms Classic website, you’ll see a new school listed, Patrick School.

However, 24 hours ago, there was no Patrick School in sight, instead, Donda Academy.

When WINK News spoke with John Naylor, the executive director for the City of Palms Classic Inc. on Wednesday, he said they had no plans on removing Donda Academy from the tournament following Kanye West’s recent series of antisemitic comments.

“Our contract is with Donda Academy for their basketball team as their coach. We don’t have a contract with Kanye West,” Naylor said.

WINK News then asked if this decision could change in the future or if it’s set in stone.

“Well, no again it depends on if something happens with Donda, again, if one or two of their top players transfer, then, yeah, we’d invite another team because there are the signature series,” Naylor said.

Sure enough, on Thursday, reports of Donda Academy closing its doors for the remainder of the school year surfaced.

WINK News reached out to the City of Palms Classic to talk about the shutdown and what happens next.

After a few back and forths, and a request for an official statement regarding Donda being replaced, and if they can confirm Donda was switched out with Patrick School, WINK News never heard back.