Rockets GREAT Photographer Bill Baptist slurs Kamala on Facebook

The power disparity between a freelance photographer and a general manager, a coach, or a player could not be more stark. Baptist does not in any way impact the image of the NBA. But, he is very easy to fire. They're dicks for canning him for his political speech.

 

But to be fair, I am concerned that the NBA culture has become so overtly a wing of liberalism/Democrat machine that even a non-offensive criticism of Harris might lead to a NBA employee being kicked out. This is an assumption but NBA players and staff don't really hold or express differing opinions like in the NFL or MLB.

Obviously with my post history everyone here knows I support BLM but I do believe if a NBA player comes out and says they don't support BLM, they will be shunned out of the league. There are current MLB and NFL players that have expressed their disagreement with BLM and haven't faced repercussions which I think is the right thing. I disagree with those MLB and NFL players that speak out against BLM, but that's a political opinion. Now if they say something offensive about "Black culture" or something along those lines, then I understand if there is a movement to kick then out of the league. But mere expression of disagreement of a political movement shouldn't result in being fired.

I'm afraid the NBA might head in that direction due to how singular the messaging is from the NBA which can be a good and bad thing. It's good because I agree the message about BLM needs to be spread. It's bad because it makes players and staff not have any leeway in expressing even slight disagreement.

 

Very valid point but it wasn't mere political speech. He was calling a woman a ho and he wasn't bright enough to say that with an anonymous account.

I don't think he should be permanently fired. I think a sincere apology and a renewed contract is sufficient.

 

I don't think its even about the optics or people outside the NBA

It's the people who are part of the NBA..

 

Thanks appreciate the compliments.

Addressing several posters. As said I agree he should've known better, I also agree his apology is half-assed and doesn't sound sincere. As I said this isn't a First Amendment issue and the NBA as a private business has the right to fire him under the basis that such comments might harm their business in regard to fans and sponsors. What I'm troubled by is the overall zero tolerance one strike you're out attitude regarding things like this. I'm sure we've all done stuff we're not proud of especially in our younger days. I'm glad that cell phone cameras and social media weren't a thing when I was a teenager and an undergrad in college. With something like this though where it's more than just someone saying or posting something stupid is that it is political. A lot of us, myself included, say some pretty unflattering things about our political leaders to me though that shouldn't just be tolerated it is necessary to a functioning democracy.

None of that means such speech shouldn't be called out or challenged but I am one of those who believes that speech should be countered by speech rather than silencing. The problem I see with situations like this is that the only real lesson here is that you should be silent. If you feel like you can't express yourself out of fear of the consequences that's not necessarily opening minds. If anything it leads to harboring more extreme thoughts and to the mess we have now with things like Reddit and 4chan. Where people who feel that they can't speak honestly out of fear just go and spew anonymously.

 

How does any of that make it better?

Did he not know that his job was dependent on working with employees and organizations who would want to have nothing to do with him after posting this?

Actions have consequences, we are not talking about a teemager here, how could most players in the NBA WNBA or any pro sports work with him?

He is a free lance photog if the work is good people will buy it, yes he deserved to lose his career being an NBA photog, read the room.

 

Modern hip hop?

 

How was this handled?

How would you have handled it?

Do you think he could have continued to interact with players?

 

The problem is that someone knew he worked for the Rockets. The second problem is that this someone was Sheryl Swoopes, who is a WNBA legend. The third problem is that Sheryl Swoopes screenshot the image and sent it out for the rest of the world to see, thus the NBA was brought into the picture (considering that she tagged it).

I understand some of the arguments being made here by yourself, @rocketsjudoka @durvasa , but my point is that if you want to have the right to be immoral and be an ******* of an individual outside of the workplace, then don't say stupid **** that someone can pick up that knows you and **** up your career. You know, I myself use to think the cancel culture was stupid, but then I started further analyzing the issue at hand and well, the issue is that there are a lot of immoral assholes in this world that pretend to be one thing in public (or workplace) but are a completely disgusting individual in their private life.

Personally, if I owned a business, I would prefer not to be associated with any such individual. These individuals, they can choose to remain anonymous, but once you are posting on social media, you are at risk of being ousted as a terrible individual IF you post disgusting things. Hell, when I post on Facebook (and I do tend to get involved in some back and forths with strangers) I am incredibly careful how I post stuff. I'm incredibly careful how I say things and how I may express myself towards any individual or party. Quite frankly, no lie, it has made me a better person.

I reflect back on my childhood and how I was raised in a mexican household and even within my own family there was a ton of immoral **** that I considered "normal" until I ****ing got educated and realized how I could potentially hurt other people. Sure, we kept it within the family, but I can't tell you how many times, some of my family members expressed themselves negatively towards certain races. I remember coming up to an intersection and seeing a black homeless person asking for money and my uncle would lock my door, then sadly I replicated that behavior later on during my ignorant years. I remember multiple family members saying the word "N*****" to express themselves towards a black person and I thought it was funny. Dude, I love my family and many have passed away already, but looking back, they could of done a better job raising me without all the racial prejudice. I vowed to do a better job at raising my kids. I also vow to teach my kids how this type of expression is not acceptable.

I get that you guys want to defend these individuals, not because you agree with them, but probably because you believe this "cancel culture" has gone way too far. As I expressed myself previously, I am glad this is exposing people. The consequences suck, but hell it's a valuable lesson for the many individuals that would like to keep their job or not be ousted by their friends and family. Rather than be outraged how far this is going, may be we need to reflect and understand how we need to be better individuals. I know I can be better and I think as our world moves forward, we can perhaps educate our future generation to be better individuals by demonstrating that freedom of expression also has a price. Freedom of expression gives you the right to say whatever the **** you want and the majority of the time, no one will bat an eye, however, there are times that you may catch someone's attention, whether a respected individual, the president of your company, etc etc and that may have consequences. At least it will allow individuals to pause and ask themselves, should I really be expressing myself this way?

Even if this "cancel culture" only reaches 10% of those ugly individuals, that's still a hell of an improvement moving forward.

I apologize for the long rant.

 

Let's remove the external forces at play for a second. What happens when players (whom he photographs) start making a stink to mgmt about what he posted on the internet?

 

@rocketsjudoka

 

Are we sure he wasn't fired for being for being openly Baptist?

 

Wait what?

So what about the other employees besides this guy?

How do you justify this the NBA players.

What does the disparity between the jobs have to do with what this guy did, Baptist most definitely impacts the image of the NBA how the hell could he not, what type of shitstorm do you think would happen if he continued to be employed.

I am out on CC as anyone but people are fired everyday for much less it was not only political speech but sexist as well.

Not impact the image of the NBA? Really.

 

As said I understand why the NBA fired him and I understand why he might have trouble. If it came to suing the NBA for his job back I would say he doesn't have much of a chance. What I'm criticizing is the overall problem we have a culture. The NBA didn't create this but they sure seem to go along with this.

Consider how many people complain about how the NBA treated Daryl Morey over his tweet about HK. While that tweet wasn't offensive the logic of the NBA still applies. This makes it difficult to deal with a major market they were expanding into. As it turns out in the US making a sexist comment isn't as tolerated as criticizing the PRC and Daryl Morey is a bigger name than Bill Baptist.. In both cases though the NBA is acting out of protecting financial interest.

If the Rockets fired Morey over his HK Tweet I would say the exact same thing. It isn't a First Amendment issue but even though it might hurt their bottom line it would be an extreme one strike your out policy that isn't good.

Also to note given how Lebron has acted Daryl Morey's tweet does make it awkward to interact with players.

 

the NBA should kick out the players who frequent strip clubs. just sayin'

 

Seems unfair and hypocritical when a candidate for POTUS can brag about shooting people and grabbing you-know-what and still be elected to the top job in the country but a mere photographer with no public presence whatsoever gets canned for calling a politician a hoe. To me the two words "politician" and "prostitute" are almost synonymous. Lol.
The bill dude only signed up to be photographer for NBA. He didn't sign up to be NBA's PR person or to suddenly keep mum about his political views. The only reason, I could see this as a fireable offense is if he said something that would be deemed taboo by both conservatives and liberals. Otherwise, this is just more of a tribal agenda that goes against *current* American values (if not directly against 1st amendment)

Maybe if NBA was a political organization, then this would be justified.

 

Eh I'm sure conservatives would be pretty iffy on calling women hoes. In fact a couple of right wing posters said as much in this very thread.

 

I agree that it is troubling. We've never had to deal with people's private lives entering into the public sphere and back into the workplace.

What worries me is that all we are doing is teaching people that what you say matters more than what you think. It's ok to be a sexist, just don't make sexist comments. When the real issue isn't just words as sexist, but views.

The other issue I have is that most people are left on their own to understand what is appropriate and not for twitter. I doubt this guy had any idea that what he tweeted could result in him getting fired. There really should be training on this - that anything you put out into the ether can come back to haunt you in a big way.

 

The NBA did not fire him he was under contract do you know if they did not fulfill those financial obligations?

Do you know what language was in the contract?

Do you know if this was a one strike thing?

You are assuming an awful lot and have yet to address why after doing something so stupid and offensive he should still be in the bubble, what about the other employees of the NBA, this guy should be spared at thier exspense?

What about the culture that made him think this would be ok to post this on a public forum under his own name?

This IMO has jack and **** to do with Morey and I think Morey was also incredibly stupid to post that tweet (risk/reward).

This policy is not extreme at all what other contract employee do you think would survive this in this climate.

I agree that Cancel Culture is was out of hand but this guy is no way a victim.

 

Should he be fired if he posted "All Lives Matter" or "Blue Lives Matter" on Facebook? Or what if he just said he plans to vote for Trump? I'm sure many NBA players would be offended by that too.