NBA Thread 2019-20

[Jockey]

Reasonable response to the deaths of millions. Nice!

Look, we all see what your point is. You want to minimize what blacks are going thru in this country. You are cut from the same cloth as surgeon.

[Jockey]

@ShamsCharania: Sources: The Lakers and Clippers have voted to boycott the NBA season. Most other teams voted to continue. LeBron James has exited the meeting.

Boycott is the wrong term.

What the Bucks and others did yesterday was a wildcat strike.

[Skatastrophy]

Proud of the NBA players for bringing attention to these important issues.

Proud of the MLB teams for following.

Hopefully these teams follow the lead of Cleveland, banding together to insist on change in their respective regions. They hold a lot of economic power - https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1298970366736556033?s=19

[DegenerateDish]

I'm curious for more info to come out from the meeting last night. My guess is that when it was brought up that if the players decide to cancel the season, the NBAPA (Chris Paul) had to go through the ramifications of the owners locking out the players for next season. I'm not downplaying at all what the players are trying to do with their platform, but for guys 8-12 on rosters and guys on their rookie deals, there are real and significant financial implications. Chris Paul is in a really tough spot, he has to some how navigate both sides here.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I've been to protests supporting immigration reform, black lives matter, gay rights, ending sexual violence, etc. I have never gone to a protest about Hong Kong, ending animal cruelty, or gun control. It doesn't mean I don't care about those issues. It also doesn't make me a hypocrite. It just means I have limited time and outrage.

I think it's fine to question why someone is outraged by one thing and not about another. Hell, I've asked questions like that on this site more than once. But I think in this case, the answer is pretty obvious. Most NBA players are black. The Black Lives Matter movement is something that impacts their lives directly. They have a personal stake in it. What's happening in China and Hong Kong is thousands of miles away and doesn't impact anyone in their circles. Doesn't mean they shouldn't care, it just means like most humans they care more about causes that they are personally impacted by.

[Hards Alumni]

NBA players have voted to resume playing

[Galway Eagle]

Just a point about the picking and choosing of causes.

The NBA's demographics are vast majority black or mixed race. I'd say the boycotting injustices where they can see themselves in the people getting gunned down. Or have experienced the injustices themselves and it's happening on US soil is more meaningful to them than countering an injustice for faceless people they have no affinity with a world away. Just a thought for Unleash

[Jockey]

Funny (sad funny) how many people are treating the NBA players the same way that their ancestors treated Jackie Robinson 70+ years ago.

[#UnleashSean]

In other words, All Lives Matter?

It's become almost impossible to tell actual people on the right from the bots, since they're all so on message.

If you read enough, I think you can clearly see I'm not on the right.

[#UnleashSean]

but because you don't give a single sh-- about black people in America. You raise it for the sole purpose of trying to make deligitimate the righteous stance of the players and other people of color in this country.

  crap I hate myself

[MUfan12]

If you read enough, I think you can clearly see I'm not on the right.

Almost every MAGA comment on NBA stuff is "what about China?" so I made an assumption. My bad.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

https://sports.yahoo.com/the-truth-about-nba-player-protests-some-just-dont-want-to-hear-it-194533553.html?ncid=twitter_yahoosport_dw14wrbb51g

"This can’t be characterized as un-American either (although, really, wasn’t the Boston Tea Party an exercise in looting and vandalism?). This didn’t take place during the national anthem or involve the American flag or anything like that.

They didn’t even demand anyone stop flying the Confederate flag.

They asked to be heard. That’s pretty much it. Just be heard. NBA players and coaches asked that a country that keeps repeating the same mistake consider a different point of view, consider the perspective of others before reflexively retreating to the same old corner and repeating the same mistakes.

So if not now, when? If not this way, then what way?


...


"That kind of thinking suggests that NBA players shouldn’t express an opinion about what is happening in their communities and their country because they didn’t speak out forcefully enough about what’s going on in Hong Kong. It’s a bizarro purity test/talk-show trick designed to silence dissent. If it weren’t China, it’d be something else.

It works. Lots of people fall for it."

[GooooMarquette]

I agree with you.

Neither of us is Black, and neither of us is an NBA player, so we can only try to walk in another man's shoes and try our best to empathize with these fellow fathers, fellow brothers, fellow sons, fellow human beings.

But I just can't shake the feeling that athletes would be able to help their cause more by continuing to compete on the courts and fields, and using their tremendous platform before, during and after games.

I am not certain of that. I am not certain of much right now. As I sit here this minute, that's my opinion ... but current events, insights of others and further reflection on my part could make me change my opinion.

What I am certain of is this: When the knee-jerk reaction by some is to blast pro athletes for caring deeply and for trying to use their voices to make the world a better place for all of us, it's very sad.

Strange times. Sad times.

One noted expert on sports protests agrees with you.

https://sports.yahoo.com/should-nba-players-walkout-on-the-season-the-worlds-preeminent-expert-on-sports-protest-says-no-061020189.html

To Edwards, however, the question of ending the season was never the right one to ask. “I don't think that's the issue now,” he said. “They are not boycotting basketball any more than Kaepernick was protesting the flag and the anthem.” Rather, players are sending a message about police brutality. A strike wasn’t the endgame. It was a means to real, tangible change.

The players, Edwards said, should be negotiating a strategic plan for enacting that change. “You've got to get people who are in the best position to leverage what they have access to to compel changes,” he said. By that, first and foremost, he means the billionaires who own NBA franchises. “They can pick up the telephone and call a governor, and a governor will pick up,” he explained. “They can call the attorney general, and the attorney general will pick up. They can call the mayor, and the police chief of a local town, and then have one of the athletes go with them to talk about these issues that we have to clean up.

“In other words, these are people that have resources that they can leverage, to get this situation [fixed]. So owners, sponsors,” broadcast partners – anybody who benefits from basketball being played, and who’ll suffer if it isn’t played— must help the players push for change. “But they've got to be strategic about it,” Edwards said.

[Skatastrophy]

They should replace the national anthem. Don't play the song, don't stand in a line. That nationalism part of sports has always been cringey to me, and this is a good time to replace it with a meaningful message. Every game.

[GB Warrior]

I think what the players won is that they've proven they can exert their power to prompt changes, and others will bend. And now they've proven a willingness to use it. That's meaningful even as (and in my opinion, especially as) they continue their games.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Next time one of these faux SJW’s falls into trouble with the law

Yeah, clearly these NBAers are faking it, they don't *really* think Black Lives Matter.

Oh well, racists are gonna be racists I guess.

[MU82]

They should replace the national anthem. Don't play the song, don't stand in a line. That nationalism part of sports has always been cringey to me, and this is a good time to replace it with a meaningful message. Every game.

Agree 100%.

It's an often badly-performed song that was a bad poem written by a racist. It isn't played before movies, concerts, the ballet, school days, work days, military operations, government meetings, etc etc etc. There is no reason to play it before sporting events other than faux patriotism. Replacing it with a meaningful message is as good an idea as any.

[Hards Alumni]

Jay Bilas tweeted this article this morning.  Thought it was pretty on point.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/08/sports-race-nba-boycott-strike-jacob-blake-shooting

[GooooMarquette]

Jay Bilas tweeted this article this morning.  Thought it was pretty on point.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/08/sports-race-nba-boycott-strike-jacob-blake-shooting

As is often the case, Jay does an excellent job of putting words to concepts that are difficult for so many to understand.

[Hards Alumni]

As is often the case, Jay does an excellent job of putting words to concepts that are difficult for so many to understand.

Jay didn't write it, but he tweeted it for visibility.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

As is often the case, Jay does an excellent job of putting words to concepts that are difficult for so many to understand.

He didn't write the article though.

[GooooMarquette]

He didn't write the article though.

Jay didn't write it, but he tweeted it for visibility.

Another reminder about the dangers of posting before the caffeine has fully taken effect....

Still, a very solid article.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

Today's front page of the New Haven Register.


https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/NewHavenRegister/Default.aspx

TAKING A STAND
Wes Matthews Sr. proud of NBA star son standing up for Jacob Blake
By David Borges

PHOTO: Hearst Connecticut Media file photo
At top, his father, Greenwich Academy basketball coach Wes Matthews Sr. in 2017.

PHOTO: Kim Klement / Associated Press
Above, Milwaukee Bucks guard Wesley Matthews reacts after making a 3-point basket on Aug. 18.

Wes Matthews had a feeling something was going to happen.

He had a feeling the Milwaukee Bucks, for whom his son Wesley is a starting guard, were going to somehow protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man shot seven times in the back by police on Sunday in Kenosha, Wis.

“We had talked (Tuesday) night,” Matthews Sr. said. “I kind of felt they were gonna take the stance. Even though the Celtics and the Raptors had already had conversations about it, I kind of felt the Bucks were gonna do something very, very, very powerful. And they did exactly that.”

Indeed, the Bucks boycotted their scheduled playoff game against the Orlando Magic in the NBA bubble on Wednesday night, kicking off a chain reaction throughout sports. All three NBA playoff games as well as all WNBA games and a few Major League Baseball games were canceled as players protested.

“We’ve been talking all day,” Matthews Sr., 61, told Hearst Connecticut Media on Wednesday night. “I told him I’m super proud of him, I’m glad he’s taking a stand.”

Matthews Sr., the Bridgeport product and former Harding High star, played nine seasons in the NBA and won titles with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1987 and 1988. He is proud not only of the stand his son has taken, but of what the entire league has done since the Blake video surfaced.

Blake has survived, but is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down. Protests have erupted in Kenosha, which is about 40 minutes south of Milwaukee, and around the country since the video went viral.

“I stand by them all,” Matthews Sr. said. “I stand by what they’re fighting for, I stand for equality, I stand (against) injustice, police brutality. I mean, enough is enough. That’s all they’ve ever been saying. That’s all (Colin) Kaepernick ever said. We’ve got to sit down at the table and eat. There shouldn’t be a divided America. It should be one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Whatever happened to that?”

He continued: “The fan loses out, but at the end of the day, they’re human beings, they’ve got to go back to their communities and live ... We’ve all been pulled over — African-Americans, Hispanics, and even whites have been pulled over and have injustices done to them. It’s just time for everybody to get to the table, man, and talk about supper. That’s all Kaepernick ever said. He was just bringing light to it.

“It takes shutting something down just for you to listen? This has been happening for 400 years, unfortunately. But now, it’s 2020 and they’ve got cell phones, video coverage, so it’s not hidden and can no longer be swept under the rug.”

Wesley Matthews is in his 11th NBA season and first with the Bucks. He attended Madison Memorial High and Marquette University, both in Wisconsin, so he has deep ties to the state. During the continuation of the NBA season in the Orlando bubble, players have been allowed to wear social justice messages on the back of their uniforms.

Matthews’ jersey simply says “Vote.”

“Get out and vote!,” his dad echoed. “That’s the issue that will settle everything. That’s the beginning. He’s got to do what he’s got to do for the city of Milwaukee and everybody else.”

Matthews didn’t tell his father how long the NBA boycott might last.

“He didn’t say anything of that nature,” Matthews Sr. said. “He just said ‘We’ve got to do what’s best for the country and the city and the people of the state of Wisconsin.’ He bleeds Wisconsin, because that’s where he was raised. It’s very close to him in that sense.”

But Matthews Sr. believes this could last a while.

“You can almost see this being shut down until they sit down with the people,” he said. “It’s bigger than basketball, it’s bigger than baseball, it’s bigger than all sports.”

Matthews Sr. recently resigned from his job as head girls basketball coach at Greenwich Academy. He is now doing some personal training in the Bridgeport area.

He has strong feelings about the Blake shooting.

“You can’t shoot a man seven times in the back, with his kids in the car, and then say you feared for your life,” he said. “You shot him in the back, bro. I empathize with the police, their jobs are hard, as well. But common sense, man. You don’t shoot a man in the back. If I shot somebody, I’m going straight to jail. I’m not going home. If I shot somebody, I’m not going on administrative leave. Enough is enough, that’s all they’re saying.”

“We’ve got to get back to the basics, man,” he added. “It’s a crazy world we’re living in.”

david.borges@hearstmediact.com

[MUfan12]

I didn't realize Wes and his dad had reconciled. That's great to hear.

[Jockey]

Wow!!!