Regular Degular Redux - 2019-20 NBA Season thread 2

like how in soccer each player has a child they hold hands with before the game

it strikes me as a bit cynical to say that the season would restart "merely" to entertain fans and to save the league money

But that is exactly what the proposed restart boils down to at the end of the day; a last ditch desperate attempt of the white billionaire owners and the TV network conglomerates funding their league's broadcasting deals to staunch the bleeding of their financial assets and investments in a league that has been forced to shut down entirely due to a global pandemic. Any concern for legitimate "competition" was thrown out the second they decided not all 30 teams were going to be invited to play this season. And none of these owners ever truly cared about that to begin with; every NBA franchises is now valued in the billions and almost all turn enormous profits regardless of their teams competitive win/loss records (hello NY Knicks!).

As far as "activism proposals go"... in a league where 80+% of the payers/workers are black, yet all but one franchise owners of the teams they play for are white, where the league commissioner, the overwhelming number of coaches, assistants, trainers, GMs, and front office executives are also all white... not contributing to putting a dime in the pockets of those executives and owners who have done nothing to combat such a disparity in representation from the top down by not playing in this shoddily drawn up Orlando bubble proposal is one of, if not the strongest message the players can send. And I am 100% in support of any players who have the courage to do so. Nothing is LESS important than sports in terms of the crises facing the US and the world at large at the current moment; the ire being directed towards Kyrie's thoughts and the mere idea of not playing reeks of privilege from people too insulated from and ignorant of those issues to understand that.

white players can choose to hold the cops hand instead of punching them we respect all cultures at the nba

it strikes me as a bit cynical to say that the season would restart "merely" to entertain fans and to save the league money

But that is exactly what the proposed restart boils down to at the end of the day

― Sabre of Paradise (trevor phillips), Friday, June 12, 2020 11:53 PM (seventeen seconds ago) bookmarkflaglink

idk i guess well see if the players want to play, i suspect they do as i said upthread "ballers ball", but it could also be that the other stuff is just too much, the world is kinda falling apart tbf

But that is exactly what the proposed restart boils down to at the end of the day; a last ditch desperate attempt of the white billionaire owners and the TV network conglomerates funding their league's broadcasting deals to staunch the bleeding of their financial assets and investments in a league that has been forced to shut down entirely due to a global pandemic.

this is wrong, as bobby marks has indicated, there are $1.2B in player salaries at stake this year, as well as the dissolution of the CBA and subsequent concessions players would have to make in future years.

Any concern for legitimate "competition" was thrown out the second they decided not all 30 teams were going to be invited to play this season.

most of the commentators i follow would say if anything too many teams have been invited back. like, what legitimacy is lost if no one makes the detroit pistons play any more games?

every NBA franchises is now valued in the billions and almost all turn enormous profits regardless of their teams competitive win/loss records (hello NY Knicks!).

you sure about this?

this shoddily drawn up Orlando bubble proposal

every covd-19 source i trust who has commented has said that the nba's bubble proposal is reasonable
.
the ire being directed towards Kyrie's thoughts and the mere idea of not playing reeks of privilege from people too insulated from and ignorant of those issues to understand that.

can you tell me what kyrie is doing on the ground? because i literally don't know.

the number one myth that needs to be dispelled right now is that the restart only benefits the owners. this is just wrong on its face.

a last ditch desperate attempt of the white billionaire owners and the TV network conglomerates funding their league's broadcasting deals to staunch the bleeding of their financial assets and investments in a league that has been forced to shut down entirely due to a global pandemic

ok but this isn't true, the players have a financial incentive too. there is hundreds of millions of dollars in salary that won't be paid out if the season isn't finished. and then you get into the stuff about the CBA & what could be a labor stoppage ... a worst case scenario of extreme labor strife if the players didn't come back would result in a lot of guys not getting paychecks for a year plus. if the players decided that their activism was more important that would be incredible, but i find it hard to believe that any significant number of players would get behind that beyond the guys so rich that missing out on $15 million doesn't mean anything to them. i think anyone who has been in a union would say that labor actions that extreme take a shit ton of effort, and this is a union of hundreds of members spread all over the country with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. there is no world where the players don't lose anything by walking away.

the idea of getting creative w/ activism proposals is not some crazy idea, some players are already leaking this as a middle ground

Yahoo sources: Several players are planning to be creative and use the global attention the NBA platform provides to promote and support the Black Lives Matter movement when the league returns to play

— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) June 12, 2020

the players have a lot of leverage right now... they could say, we'll come back but before every game one player will read a televised statement about black lives matter and system racism. they could say, we'll come back but only if the names of george floyd and breonna taylor are visible on every court, and each franchise donates to x y z organizations. i just think there's a way to satisfy both the need to get paid and the desire to be an activist (many ppl in america have been doing this for weeks)... and i think you could argue that it would be more powerful for players to try and leverage that huge TV platform instead of not playing, which essentially does nothing to move us culturally from where we are now (no basketball players on TV)

if they don't want to go sit in a bubble for 3 months that's a problem that has far fewer solutions

if i were a player i think i would want to go to the bubble at this point

"i mean weve all been living in a damn bubble anyway if you think about it" --kyrie irving

i keep thinking that if they can't even agree to finish this season that it's hard to imagine 2020-21 happening either. you've got all the same concerns but with a much longer timeline. unless you think *all this* gets resolved by december, which...seems very optimistic.

the players ive seen on social media are getting out and about, some are even travelling between cities. not to mention joining protests. healthwise being in a community with daily testing for all would have to be safer than most current circumstances

Yeah I think pretty conclusively that it’s safer to be in the bubble than to do the things which are now allowed across the country

I.e. the things my girlfriend now insists that we do. Can we go to the bubble plz

the bubble sounds good to me too. disney world is really nice!

Welcome to Apocalypse 2020 where billionaires reap the lion's share and millionaires fight for future endorsement deals by playing games in an impervious disneyworld bubble WHILE THE WORLD BURNS?!?!?!?

Anyways, I'm sticking to the same point I made yesterday and that jordan fleshed out further: if they're going to do this, it would be a good look for the players to use this opportunity as leverage to nudge the NBA platform to being explicitly supportive of police defunding/abolition and, i dunno, deposing neo-fascists.

Separate from all that and apropos of nothing, watching the backy ball would be a deeply fun distraction and i would dearly like to finish the season. So I'm torn.

I don’t think the NBA needs to endorse police abolition

i still think they should abandon 2020 and focus on making sure next season happens smoothly but seems like they've gone too far down a different route at this point

this is prob a warm up for next season tho

nudge the NBA platform to being explicitly supportive of police defunding/abolition and, i dunno, deposing neo-fascists.

consider who owns the NBA platform: billionaires, including not so long ago, Donald Sterling. the best I would expect would be a feel good message about how everyone deserves equal treatment and justice under the law, underlined by some less controversial quotes from MLK, Jr.

suspect theyre gonna have to do a little better than that this time

i mean weve got candy bars saying black lives matter these days

weve got candy bars saying black lives matter

The owners would have to figure out whether letting the NBA logo appear on PSAs where players say "black lives matter" would be construed as the league endorsing Black Lives Matter. I think owners like Dolan would shrink violently from anything that looked like endorsing BLM.

make pop commish

he'd hate it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfkM5CHGrdk

if anyone didn't hear this well i thought this was Good

https://www.gq.com/story/damian-lillard-black-lives-matter-george-floyd-interview

this is also very good

Hoopers say what y’all want. If @KingJames said he hooping. We all hooping. Not Personal only BUSINESS🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 🙏🏾 #StayWoke ✊🏿✊🏿✊🏿

— Patrick Beverley (@patbev21) June 14, 2020

i mean, he's not wrong

I do think letting the stars decide is the way to go

well it's sorta the reality one way or anothe r

what the

Stephen A Smith compares what Kyrie Irving and Dwight Howard are doing to rioting and destroying their own community

Max Kellerman "Rioting in their own communities? Black people don't own those communities" pic.twitter.com/YQXquGkDXm

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) June 15, 2020

kellerman's been about the shit on the espn

jesus christ

SAS is a fucking clown and always has been. if he gets canceled yesterday it’d have been too late

lol the look on his face he thought he had a layup won that tired old play

SAS is a fucking clown and always has been. if he gets canceled yesterday it’d have been too late

― k3vin k., Monday, June 15, 2020 8:17 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm, i have no idea why anyone even pays attention to what these guys say

i think he's entertaining enough in bite size clips here or there. no reason to take him seriously or watch him daily though.

he's very deferential to power... he's also very funny

the Drew Magary profile of him was great, I think it did a great job of getting to the essence of Stephen A Smith

fwiw I kinda love the guy even though he's wrong about basically everything. I cringe whenever he talks about any non-sports stuff b/c I know he's gonna say something terrible

It’s really funny when Stephen a smith talks football and thinks a retired player is starting that Sunday at tight end

J0rdan S.
Posted: June 15, 2020 at 4:16:25 PM
well it's sorta the reality one way or anothe r

wld be interested in hearing about how star players came to wield so much power union wise

The NBA has long presented itself as a league of star players, not a league of teams. Their influence with fans gives them leverage with owners, their leverage with owners gives them pre-eminence in the union.

idk if that really scans

i mean i guess marginal players cld be sucking up to stars to get jobs but that seems more like an edge case

like most personnel decisions arent influenced by stars, and most players arent stars but also not end of the bench guys in danger of falling out of the league if some star doesnt cosign them

breaking

Sources: NBA teams Disney hotels based on seeding:

-Grand Destino: Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics, Nuggets, Jazz, Heat
-Grand Floridian: Thunder, 76ers, Rockets, Pacers, Mavericks, Nets, Grizzlies, Magic
-Yacht Club: Blazers, Kings, Pelicans, Spurs, Suns, Wizards

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 16, 2020

stars bring in the money. having an outsized effect on the league's profitability gives them outsized power.

yeah but in a union where everyone gets a vote whats the mechanism of that power

kyrie reeeeally trying to disrupt things

In a recent chat group with Nets players, Kyrie Irving lobbied for skipping the bubble, the Daily News has learned. In that chat, he also proposed that the players can start their own league, according to a source. https://t.co/SqC0wcccPJ

— Stefan Bondy (@SBondyNYDN) June 16, 2020

players league! players league!

I’ve noticed that amongst some of my more out there friends that lockdown has really sharpened a lot of their edges, so if that holds true this scans