Toronto Raptors have discussed boycotting games in wake of the Jacob Blake shooting?

Again, what is this based on? Do you even know who all the owners are? I certainly don't. Why would we expect to know what they do with their money and their influence? How much time, money, and other resources have they contributed to these causes? Do you actually know?

 

I don't think the goal here is necessarily to directly influence police departments. You're right, they don't have that kind of power.

But doing something, anything, to show that they deeply care about this can still be important. It demonstrates solidarity with the victims and with other protesters outside the bubble who are moved to action. I think that that in itself helps the movement. Of course, much of the country is against social justice political movements, and they will see this act by the players in the most cynical light possible.

 

I'm referring to the owners and the league collectively. Again, you clearly hear about the league putting their $$ and influence behind regulations/laws that benefit the league. That isn't happening for police reform. They are not doing all they can to support their players on this front.

 

The league has already given their players a MASSIVE platform to share their opinions, add them to their jerseys, and they have black lives matter painted on the court. They talk about their social issues on major networks during each broadcast. This is far above and beyond what almost any other employer would do. Maybe they just need to form their own political lobby if they don’t think their employer is doing enough? What more can the NBA exactly do? Adam Silver isn’t god of violence who can simply snap his fingers and fix these issues.

The players aren’t offering any suggestions on police reform either. From what I’ve seen they only have slogans and canned responses. They are just taking a stance that might as well be a beauty pageant answer.

I wish they were bringing more to the table because this is a good discussion to have and they have an amazing platform but I’m not seeing it.

Also, it’s fine if they don’t want to play but from my point of view it’s a terrible move tactically for their objectives. I guess we will see what happens.

 

I mean they are the ones to loose money, nowadays NBA was flawed product without them refusing to play

 

A massive platform with no real initiatives to enact change is just lipstick on a pig. The league has the clout and connections to push these type of changes. Sure, no employer would do that unless their labor force made them. Maybe that’s what the players are trying to do. We’ve seen the league put more real political pressure around getting owners new arenas than we have on police brutality that impacts their players. The platform they let the players use was done to get players to play in a bubble to make them $$. Maybe that wasn’t enough. The $$ is what they care about, hence their meeting this morning.

I agree with your comments that players can also do more with their $$ to push those type of changes.

 

The problem isn't a lack of connections - the movement has support all across the board in many states and cities. The problem is that no one is really sure of the solution - that's includes the players, that includes reformers, that includes everyone. It's easy to say "this is wrong" - most of the country is on board with that. It's harder to say what you do to solve it. Remember, in the 1990's, everyone united around what they thought was the right solution to help stop crime and fix black communities, and the solution ended up making things so much worse. Simple solutions like defunding or shifting funds around sound good, but there's limited evidence that it's actually a real solution. If you want to do it right, it's going to take time and research.

Beyond that, I think you overestimate the power of throwing money around here. The league has already committed $1B to this - but that doesn't do anything when it's unclear where or how to use it. When it comes to crime and law enforcement issues, money isn't the driving factor - similar to gun control, where tons of money has been spent with little to no impact.

 

Very curious to see how this Board of Governors financial meeting goes...

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2017/11/07/photos-fertittas-houston-police-foundation.html

Not sure if the image below is real or a scene from Get Out 2.



Maybe a good place to start would be to stop raising money FOR the police? LULZ

 

That image includes many players, including the head of NBAPA. Again, it's just an example of how much more complicated this issue is than simple fund or defund the police.

 

They're there because the boss told them to be. And that used to mean something. It shouldn't. They wont be there next Gala.

 

"Why/what am I doing here?"

 

MLKJ had "zero leverage" over the people he influenced, too. Protests can be powerful. Especially those that are as high visibility as this one.

Plus, all the rich, racist, old-money billionaires that own these teams certainly have a lot of pull.