Lakers are so god damn lucky. We better be facing Lebron. Having said that, those who debated with me in the past know what kind of person I am. F*ck the owners, make them bleed till they give up on the NBA. The only language they understand is money. It became clear this season that the owners have less to do with the success of the NBA than players or fans. All owners can really do is hurt their team or do nothing at all. We want to watch players, and players want to watch us. That's what this game is, everything else is ancillary including ownership. The ownership of shares should acknowledge that the most important parties are the players and fans, rather than the financier at the top of the pyramid. Most owners make a great enough profit margin with an excellent long term track record with profits. Any lender would lend to that team, and any team would outperform their interest payments. A team can be more than 50% owned by its players and employees. A team can have more than half its voting shares be assigned equally to those actually working in the entity (rather than some billionaire's kid that sits courtside). These are not hypotheticals. These are examples working in major countries and major companies. Open a D&D thread if you'd like to know more. Please don't bring up individual examples, everyone knows there are good examples of owners. There is a clear pattern, a sample bigger than the 2-3 owners you're thinking about. There is no better business than the NBA that suits being a co-operative. I hope the NBAPA goes this direction, America needs a working example of its infinite potential under the right incentive structure. Corporations are like Blackberries - it was nice and needed while it lasted, I don't need to hear your schpiel about physical keyboard and bbm, it's not even a discussion worth having. Good luck. Americans are showing bravery these days, you should be proud. There was a lot of cowardice for 15 or so years. These days I commonly tell my Middle Eastern friends to look at what bravery looks like. Bravery is going out in the streets to protest an entity that gathers intelligence, demonstrably engages in undercover war games against its citizens, hoards weapons and obviously abuses its authority. Well done guys and I hope it sustains. It would be a nice cinderella story if America unexpectedly returned to being one of the leaders in radical, progressive government reform.
It’s not about the cash. Republicans buy sneakers too. Doesn’t stop LeBron and others from supporting Democrat
How playing or not playing basketball can resolve this situation (police brutality)? And what owners and Silver should do according to the players?
He should donate ALL of his Chinese contract money to aid causes preventing human suffering ....both domestically and internationally imo.
I care about all people. Human suffering is human suffering. Collecting Chinese millions and pretending it doesn't exist is wrong. More power to the cause to end racial injustice in America but it's a bad look for LBJ Internationally
I just don't understand. Like the floyd death, where is the evidence that the shootings/kneeing are due to systemic racism or even if that individual has racist intentions? Bad things happen when you resist arrests no matter what the race. Period. Could it be untrained or incompetent police not knowing how to deescalate? In the floyd case could it just be that that cop is just an evil person? Why are people assuming race is a major factor in shootings with ZERO evidence? Can we wait for more evidence until people judge please? Can of worms opened. Please educate me. I need my Rockets now!
"Democrats and Republicans" are both responsible for this. That blue/red game is almost entirely created by about 60 American billionaire families and the biggest companies they own. They can see that the issue is agreed across race, state, income. They have to create a division in that group so that they don't all show up on the streets together. Stop fighting each other over this stuff. It is theatre. It's a sitcom. NBA owners are more powerful than 99% of politicians. Easy way to cut the pressure in half. Don't fall for it. It just doesn't matter guys. 80% blame on one side, 20% on the other? Doesn't matter. 50-50%? Doesn't matter. Even if the other side is 100% to blame, it doesn't matter. You are not talking about or engaging the problem you claim you want to solve. Democratic and Republican party leaders have been the gatekeepers of this discrimination, they have bounced your problem between each other for 80 years now and keep shrugging and saying "I tried!" while their bank accounts or campaign accounts grow. Both are part of the problem, and even if you came to an agreement with everyone about how to describe them, it won't solve this. What has worked best in human history is a lot of people peacefully refusing to produce or consume anything until something is done. That's the check-mate move that every large scale criminal has been preparing their whole life for because they know it's the #1 threat. Hence the red/blue theatre, that's already a 50% blow to those chances.
Why only focus on the Chinese millions? Why not the millions from other major NBA markets like India, Brazil, and Australia? Every country has its problems and I don't think it is unreasonable for LeBron to focus on the systemic racism in his own country that has enslaved and killed his fellow African Americans for 400+ years.
Can someone tell me what not playing accomplishes? If they're not playing because they're going to capitol hill, or the streets, or wherever to enact change then I get it. But if we're talking about simply not playing just as a gesture. What does that do? Genuinely asking, but ready for the hate.
You are reply 636 in this thread which is hours old. It gets people talking. It makes people take notice.
Some people would rather LeBron keep his mouth shut and do nothing now, just because of what happened last year. You know who has really done nothing? James Harden. Not a tweet, not joining a protest, not doing anything for this cause. I'm not judging him, he's a black man who grew up in Compton with a father in and out of prison, he can do whatever the hell he wants and I am in no place to question or judge. But, it sounds like people prefer his strategy - doing nothing on anything and staying completely apolitical - rather than LeBron's - not being perfect on every single cause in the world, but making a real, direct change in the ones he picks. That's just stupid. SOME help is better than none. The people who don't care and are happy with James Harden being silent on ALL issues (including apologising to China by the way) but are now using China to discredit LeBron's passion on black causes, are telling on themselves.
I think he looks up to Russ and follows him quietly. You have a point there, he is too quiet. We did not even got word on his Covid situation.
