[Poll] Bubble trouble - is the season over?

This was always the end conclusion. If you understood the logistical challenges they faced: already lost revenue from China, lost revenue from Covid, would be In violation of CBA, would need to transition to activism which they aren’t experts in, future cap implications and would need Owners to be ok with season ending.

All this while they weren’t yet unified as a union. Easy to see this conclusion.

 

It just never made any sense to cancel the season. The players, league, and everyone involved could make more of an impact and more progress towards their goal by continuing to play, not by refusing to play. The league/Silver, the owners, the players, they're all on the same team here. They have all cooperated every step of the way to put this message front and center of every broadcast, it's on the court, it's on the jerseys, every commentating crew is talking about it, it's being talked about in every interview, it's being talked about on ESPN/FS1/whatever else you like to watch. If their goal was to make an impact for their cause, cancelling the season would have been counterproductive. And now they are apparently talking about MORE ways they can help, more things they can do. Like I said, everyone is on the same team here, the league and the owners are willing to do what the players want.

Not to mention the money at stake, I'm not talking about just the owners and advertisers, but the journeymen and end of bench guys who really need this money. I'm sure it's easy for the guys with 9 figure contracts to say they don't need the money but a lot of these guys have a short window to capitalize on their basketball ability and need to make the most of it. A lot of these guys are taking care of their entire extended families, their friends, they need this money.

It never made sense on any level for the entire season to be shut down.

 

There's a joke in the movie The Other Guys where the two detectives go to interrogate a suspect, instead of answering the detectives' questions, the suspect just distracts them by giving them cucumber water and tickets to Knicks' games and Broadway musicals. The NBA is the suspect and the players are the detectives. The players are given opportunities to make ultimately useless statements in lieu of the NBA actually doing something significant.

Here's part of the scene:

:

 

when emotions are fresh, things can go in all types of directions and everything reported was acting on that. Especially when were dealing with incredibly sensitive and volatile issues. everything mentioned in your post was a question going into the bubble. Only this time covid isn't the actual issue. These issues are extremely personal considering the NBA consists of the majority people of color and that many have gone through the things they're upset with

 

All LeBron cared about was Morey ****ing with his money. All he cared about last night is this boycott ****ing with his money and his legacy (chance to get one more ring closer to Jordan's six and other players trying to take his Ali role).

 

Lebron wanted to cancel the rest of the season it sounds like. It was said he was leading the Lakers and Clippers out of the meeting after the rest of the players voted to continue the season.

I think @durvasa is right though. Morey isn't making that tweet if he knew the firestorm it caused. So I don't want to pretend that Morey is this brave activist that was ready to fall on his sword because he was not. He didn't expect the Chinese government to try to cancel the NBA because of his comments and we can't fault Lebron for being more interested in American issues than Chinese issues.

 

I personally think he was just grandstanding and was never really going to walk out. As far as him being hypocritical; it appears to be either Chinese $ > Hong Kong lives and freedom, a "it's not my country, so I don't care" mindset, or he cares more about Black lives than any other lives. Not that I'm insulting or being negative to that last option, he may very well believe this for one of many reasons.

No media member will ever ask him about this though, so it's all going to be speculation.

Edit: Walk out of playing the rest of the season, I know he literally did walk out of a meeting.

 

Alright. When I try to look at it from his perspective, before passing judgment on his character, I can see where he is coming from.

 

facts not emotions

everyone wants justice
nobody wants to lose paychecks

 

Lebron is a black American so it makes sense that he cares more about what's happening to here to people who have more in common with him than the people of Hong Kong.

Not saying it's right but the situations aren't exactly analogous.

 

Whether the season continues or not I personally am not that bothered by it. I'm not happy not being able to see the basketball but given how weird this season already was shutting it down doesn't seem like that big of a loss. Honestly I don;t think the NBA or the players can change a lot but not playing is the one power they really have on society. If they feel it's worth it and are willing to take loss I have no problem with it.

 

I still stand with Morey

 

I think we're saying the same thing, friend.

 

No, from some Tweet that was posted several times here, he was upset that the Bucks didn't tell anyone him. He was upset that they took a stand that makes his "stands" weak by comparison. And he wasn't ready to cancel the rest of the season. He just through a fit at the meeting and walked out. Which is par for the course for him when it comes to displaying leadership in high-pressure situations.

Morey knew the firestorm it would cause. I'm still not sure what his true intentions were, but he definitely knew the type of **** it would stir here. I mean, he learned a lot about China from Yao and the close relationship he brought the Rockets to China. I fault LeBron for telling everyone to shut up about China and for refusing to speak up on China because he didn't know enough about it. He certainly doesn't know much about politics and he still is willing to talk about politics whenever he's asked or even when he's not.

 

no where does it say Lebron

 

Not sure which tweet you are referring to. What was reported was the Lakers wanted to cancel the season, and that means LeBron wanted to cancel it. He may have been upset that the Bucks made a decision, spur of the moment, without discussing it with all the players so everyone is unified and on the same page. That makes total sense to me.

I highly doubt that.

 

Morey wished he could tweet about BLM.... not saying it's totally the wrong cause. But boy he had to shut up now in times like these in his own country.

What an own goal.

 

I didn't hear about the first part, if true then yeah Lebron is selfish. My thoughts on Lebron is that he wants to be politically active but sometimes doesn't know what he's talking about. He does a lot more than most players though, for that I respect him.

As for the 2nd part, I'm just not going to tear Lebron down for that. I feel like so many people do this. So many people bought diamonds that were blood diamonds or apple phones made by children, so many people in America knowingly and unknowingly encouraged terrible things around the world or turn a blind eye towards it. I think it's natural though for people to be more concerned with their own welfare than that of people they see as 'others' around the world.

I still don't think Morey expected that. Maybe he expected China to comment on it or try to get him fired but their response to it was an extreme overreaction, canceling NBA games on their TV and doing a complete 180 on the NBA and threatening to end the NBAs revenue stream for the NBA...yeah, I can't see Morey expecting that, especially since it hurt his franchise he works for so much. It would be saying that Morey was ready to sink a large revenue stream for the Rockets.

I don't know, I really don't feel like he was going out on his shield on this one. Especially since he was brought in so quickly on this one. I mean he deleted the tweet right away and made his apology and said nothing more about it. If he wanted to cause that chaos why would he end there?

He didn't even have much to lose, American people were behind him. Sure he'd get fired from the NBA but he's an MIT guy...he'd get a new job with maybe higher pay within the week.

 

No one will outright say it was LeBron most upset about the Bucks doing what they did, but it was reported that players were upset about it. I believe he was the most upset because of certain beliefs he holds of himself (mainly, that he is the modern Muhammed Ali -just take a look at the murals at the I Promise school-), he was upset at the meeting and was the first one to leave, and he did essentially threaten to take his ball and go home. I will always admit to a bias against LeBron, but I don't think it is unfounded and baseless.

 

And he did shut up about it. That's why I don't think he really meant to cause that chaos. Plus the players reaction, a lot of them were angry at him...not a good look for a GM trying to get players on your team.

I'm surprised Morey still has a job but soooo much has happened its hard to believe the whole china thing was last year...personally, that feels like it was 3 years ago lol.