Tilman will be on CNBC in 1 hour. Prepare for greatness!

changed his tune like a good politician.

 

Do you want people in the Rockets organization to speak out on political matters?

First off, speaking up on issues in America vs speaking up on issues somewhere else in the world are two different matters. In America, we have free speech, we can do whatever we want to do and say whatever we want and not be penalized. I 100% believe you should not be a political organization because we have 60K employees, 100M customers and we don't always agree. It's usually 50% one way, 50% this way but when it comes to an issue like this in America, you sure should speak out and say exactly what you want. I encourage all of my employees from my basketball team to my restaurants to my hotels to my casinos to speak out on this issue and let's make this world better and this country better that we live in that's been great for so many of us.

 

Till-man consistently does an unintentionally great job in underscoring how complicity with our highly unjust economic system reinforces complicity with systemic racism and oppression

I mean, I'm not 100% convinced all the time.

Then he goes on CNBC and things really clarify.

 

General reaction to what you've seen across America this past week and weekend.

I go back to what happened with Eric Garner in New York, which is a second home to me and of course George Floyd, who is from Houston. It's inexcusable for two men to die like that who did not appear to be putting up a fight.

I totally agree and understand the protests & injustice out there. It's really a shame because of a few bad people that the distraction of protesting for inequality that we have to watch everything else. There's bad journalists, there's bad CEOs, a few bad cops and a few bad protesters. It's disappointing because I love the protesting. That's what makes America great. We got in trouble, my team, earlier in the year because we commented about something, which was such a disappointment because that's what makes America great. I hate that we have to see the coverage of a few negative things when it's a great issue to be protesting about.

Have NBA owners as a group said/done enough to speak to these issues of importance in urban communities?

I believe they have. I know how the NBA feels. I've talked to a lot of owners and know how they feel. We've been supportive of this from the beginning.

The bigger issue is, and you brought up I'm Chairman of the Board at UH, every year I watch and give diplomas to thousands of students and people of color that want to be entrepreneurs and that's what makes America great and let's get back to the PPP that there's still $150M left (later corrects himself $120B) and all the small companies that wanted it have gotten it. I'd love to see that money converted for entrepreneurship for young minorities out there who had enough drive to go out and get a college degree and now if you want to get into American capitalism, let's use that money on you. You put in a little money and let us, our US government, help you enjoy the capitalism of America that so many people have enjoyed but so many people didn't get the chance to enjoy like so many of us.

How many locations were victimized?

Let's get back to the re-opening. Casinos have opened up, two of them. They're doing well. 83 restaurants were closed yesterday at some point because of the protests and riots. A half dozen at least have been vandalized. It's really disappointing because where the protests are happening is in the urban areas where a lot of the restaurants and retail were just opening up again. Here we go again. I think it's gonna set us back weeks now. It's really a disappointment.

Are you worried on top of the Coronavirus and now civil unrest, how worried are you your locations in urban cores, that those locations are going to be jeopardized? A slow resurgence?

This goes back to the stock market. This time of year, they're looking at '21 earnings. I hope they're looking at '22 & '23 earnings because it isn't gonna be '21's earnings for probably 80% of the S&P 500 and everyone else that's public. Everyone better have a long haul from here on out. It's gonna be a long time for New York and the big cities to come back.

New York City is the greatest city in the world for tourism, shopping, the business traveler and conventions/groups and it's not there. It's not coming back the rest of this year and it's not all coming back in '21. It's gonna be a hard haul for all of us and now this is another setback. It's really a shame because of just a few bad apples. I've been in New York when there were protests for other things but you didn't have the bad apples trying to cause the issues.

NBA return?

The NBA definitely has their act together, between the league, owners and players. We all want this to happen. We're gonna play basketball at the end of July. Everybody knows that, it's out there. It's gonna happen. Will it be 16/22/30 teams? There's people that just want to go to the playoffs. There's some teams that don't want to play because they won't be in the playoffs and there's people that feel it's tradition and all 30 teams should show up. Where does 22 come from except that there's some type of play in. We're all gonna come to terms in the next couple of days. Players are getting in shape. I think we'll have some great NBA basketball this summer, which we'll all truly enjoy watching live sports on TV.

Do you want people in the Rockets organization to speak out on political matters?

First off, speaking up on issues in America vs speaking up on issues somewhere else in the world are two different matters. In America, we have free speech, we can do whatever want to do and say whatever we want and not be penalized.

I 100% believe you should not be a political organization because we have 60K employees, 100M customers and we don't always agree. It's usually 50% one way, 50% this way but when it comes to an issue like this in America, you sure should speak out and say exactly what you want. I encourage all of my employees from my basketball team to my restaurants to my hotels to my casinos to speak out on this issue and lets make this world better and this country better that we live in that's been great for so many of us.

 

Tilly should invest in a good PR firm and company spokesman.

No wonder Trump considers him a twin, the stuff he says is embarrassingly insensitive.

 

Class is in session.

 

The best part of today's CNBC appearance was Tilman going H. Ross Perot and holding up charts for all those who just couldn't figure it out.

 

I swear I'm not @The Cat 's twin...

 

Well, if you watched the interview, he started with a mask on and the interviewer said "you're wearing a mask", and Tilman proceeds to take it off to talk. LOL.

It seemed like he was saying to wear a mask or we'd have to shut the economy down again. I'm guessing that's what he's more worried about. No idea for sure.

 

Everyone assumes that TF is a hardcore Republican.... reality is he isn't tied to a particular party. He liked Obama and he liked Clinton.

Honestly he is just extremely money motivated and will do whatever is best for his business. The crappy part of that is he tends to think everyone has the same values he has.

So I am not entirely shocked he is pro mask as he isn't terribly political........ the only people against masks are idiots tied by political party.

 

I would rather die without mask then live wearing one