OT: NBA to Resume Playoffs, Establish Social Justice Initiatives
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29759939/nba-announces-playoffs-resume-saturday
the NBA and its players will work together on several initiatives to promote voting access and combat social justice, racial inequality and police reform.
...
-- The immediate establishment of a social justice coalition, including representatives among players, coaches and team owners, that will cover a wide array of issues including increased voting access, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for "meaningful police and criminal justice reform."
-- Specifically on the voting front, in every NBA city where the league's franchise owns and controls its arena property, owners will work with local officials to turn those arenas into voting locations for the 2020 general election, giving constituents a way to vote in person during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. And, if that isn't possible, there will be an effort to still use those facilities in other ways, including potentially being a place to register voters and receive ballots.
Some NBA teams -- including the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Charlotte Hornets and Utah Jazz -- have already announced that their arenas will be available to be used as voting locations in November.
-- The NBA agreed to work with both the players and its broadcast partners to create advertising that will appear during each NBA playoff game to promote greater civic engagement in national and local elections, and to raise awareness around voting access.
August 28th, 2020 at 1:51 PM ^
How soon do you think until Silver allows women to play?
August 28th, 2020 at 1:53 PM ^
Becky Hammon v. Steph Curry would be pretty badass
August 28th, 2020 at 2:08 PM ^
Right after he gets the ok from Beijing.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:13 AM ^
WolverineDevotee...STFU.
You have a million things that you use every day that are made in China and support communism more than things the NBA is or is not doing.
You "what about China" people kill me tweeting and posting that shit from you $800 iPhones.
You know how much money China makes off of YOU?!
Hypocrites. Keyboard activists.
But whatever, I already know...you were "just joking." Carry on.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:09 PM ^
Is this a bad effort at a joke?
Women are allowed to play in the NBA. Lusia Harris was drafted by the Jazz in 1977 but didn't make the team. Ann Meyers tried out for the pacers in 1979 but was also cut.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:29 PM ^
There were talks of Brittney Griner getting a summer league invite from the Mavs a few years back.
August 28th, 2020 at 9:54 PM ^
Any of you who think that ANY woman could play in the NBA, any college level or even a good HS team are smoking too much of the good stuff. Nothing but publicly stunts, including women coaches. It’s a totally different game.
August 28th, 2020 at 7:07 PM ^
Unfortunately no, I wasn't joking. . .
And when you have Pete Maravich on the team you can afford to waste a pick on a publicity stunt.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:27 PM ^
Am I a bad person for laughing at this (or the WNBA's exaggerated sense of importance)?
August 28th, 2020 at 1:54 PM ^
It looks like more than lip service. Good.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:52 PM ^
I actually kind of disagree. I was hoping it’d be something a bit more tangible than some advertisements to vote and a couple of extra polling stations.
For instance, Lebron James’ I Promise school has widely been considered to be a success and in my mind is the level at which real change could be made. Players and owners joining together to open one in every NBA city would have a substantially greater impact. James’ current school has an enrollment of 250 kids. That would be like 7,500 kids every year that would have their lives substantially improved.
Wearing tee shirts, painting black lives matter on the court, and chanting in the streets is great and all but I wish more people would focus on actual solutions.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:17 AM ^
Considering they had less than 24 hours...I'd say this is a pretty doggone good start.
Getting billionaires who support people who work hard to get people to NOT vote...to open up their arenas so people can vote isn't going to go over well at the next dinner party.
September 1st, 2020 at 5:57 AM ^
What is wrong with what I said?
August 28th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
They're combating social justice?
August 28th, 2020 at 3:05 PM ^
Meanwhile King James just pocketed yet another paycheck built off the backs (and quite possibly the lives) of Children in China.
Nike - Just Do It for the Money
Hypocrites.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^
Everybody does bad things at some point in their lives, often every day. Therefore anybody that ever does any good deed is by definition a hypocrite.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:43 PM ^
People are negging this but James silence in regards to China is rank hypocrisy.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” King didn’t specify that he *only* meant the United States.
Lebron is far from unique of course. The amount of people capable of seeing and denouncing all the injustice in the world is incredibly small. Most are like Lebron. Only aware of injustice that either impacts them personally or that received a lot of attention.
August 28th, 2020 at 4:37 PM ^
No one will ever call China on the carpet. Ever.
August 28th, 2020 at 9:09 PM ^
CUMONG PEOPLE THE MOST OBVIOUS USER NAME CHECKS OUT EVER RIGHT HERE
August 28th, 2020 at 4:17 PM ^
Exactly..... Get at me when he starts putting his money where his mouth is with all this. I'm a guy who thinks he's undoubtedly the best of all time cause how much better NBA is nowadays with the flood of foreign talent but he's a total hypocrite with saying he cares so much about social justice issues and then shuts up about China.
What's going on with Hong Kong is truly sad and the fact he says nothing about either big issue over there is disgusting despite supposedly caring so much about social justice issues.
August 28th, 2020 at 4:23 PM ^
oh come on now..... no one really expect that to happen, do they?
August 28th, 2020 at 6:03 PM ^
What the hell!!! You bitch about his activism on the American front and bitch about him not taking up China and Hong Kong. Just go look in the mirror and shut the hell up about hypocrisy. You are the the problem here.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:22 AM ^
"ExAcTlY....."
Posted from iPhone.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:21 AM ^
You're just as much of a hypocrite.
Guarantee you posted this from a device made in China.
You support Chinese communism just like damn near everyone else. Hypocrite.
If you have an iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, AirPods...etc.
Where the fuck you think that shit is made?
You people drive me crazy calling out the NBA and LeBron...it's so ass backwards and you're telling on yourselves every. single. time.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:00 PM ^
Whoa, I like this a lot. Good for these guys.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:12 PM ^
I was mesmerized by the player that snaps to his feet, until I saw the slap. Always funny when you get that “I’m a dumbass” feeling.
At least I did’t get slapped.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:23 PM ^
A great result. I understand that a lot of those guys wanted to send a message that what’s happening is bigger than sports. Playing under these circumstances is the most effective message they can send.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:28 PM ^
Opening up the arenas for voting is a big deal, though I'm sure various (biased) state regulations about polling stations in certain areas (looking at your Wisconsin) might resist a bit. Still, this is more than lip service and hope this gains traction and encourages other sports to follow similar paths.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:30 PM ^
Hopefully this doesn’t turn into “hey your polling place was 1/2 mile from your house in a neighborhood church, school, or community center" to "now go drive to the busiest part of town and wait with 10,000 other shmucks in line"
August 28th, 2020 at 8:04 PM ^
Yeah, my hope is these are used to supplement, not replace, but I'm too cynical to assume this won't be a used to some degree.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:40 PM ^
Hmm, let's cram as many people as we can into an enclosed space in the middle of a pandemic in early November. What's the worst that could happen?
August 28th, 2020 at 2:49 PM ^
An earthquake.
August 28th, 2020 at 3:51 PM ^
4 more years.
August 28th, 2020 at 7:14 PM ^
Dudes ripping a lot of ass and not wearing their "shreddies" or other fart pants.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:24 AM ^
Huh?
The whole point is so people can social distance since polling places are going to be long with all of the social distancing measures.
A big arena may make up for some of that.
August 28th, 2020 at 2:52 PM ^
Awesome, surely some people will spin this into a negative
August 28th, 2020 at 2:56 PM ^
Ya got me, pro sports boycotting has completely changed my mind and my whole outlook. I've had a revelation.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:25 AM ^
So what...you didn't see the tangible things that came from it? Or are you just being ignorant because you think it's cool?
August 28th, 2020 at 3:28 PM ^
So what exactly are they protesting?
August 28th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
They're not protesting per se. They're trying to leverage their platform to promote more active citizenship.
August 28th, 2020 at 4:47 PM ^
Exactly leveling which platform?. I’d love to see them bring awareness to the families who lost their businesses to rioters..something people are forgetting or doesn’t fall on their platform
August 29th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
Leveraging.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:35 AM ^
And LEVERAGING their platform has nothing to do with WHAT they're talking about, lol.
LEVERAGING your platform means using your status, voice and/or position in society to reach more people than you would if you did not have that platform.
In this instance their platform is being an NBA player. That's all that means.
They could be leveraging it to get Chick-fil-A to open on Sundays...it's not about the content.
And yes, your album sucked.
August 28th, 2020 at 5:22 PM ^
Your last album. It was atrocious!
August 28th, 2020 at 6:00 PM ^
I make nothing but hits!
August 28th, 2020 at 3:52 PM ^
This is awesome.
Lots of people have asked "what does this solve?" with respect to protests, boycotts, civil disobedience, etc. The fact is that it should almost never be the responsibility of the protesters/oppressed to actually fix the issue, the point is to call attention to it.
It's not the players' responsibility to fix this issue or have an actionable set of demands. The fact that they have them and were able to extract an agreement from the people that can put them into place is incredible and impressive.
August 28th, 2020 at 4:29 PM ^
But what exactly was their goal with all this, what results were they actually expecting? The standard of this never happening again sounds great in all but is totally unachievable. So are they saying they are going to boycott every time this happens?
Expecting this to never happen again is extremely unrealistic because well human beings. Add in the fact this is the most highly volitale profession in our country and many times interactions aren't with our best citizens.
August 28th, 2020 at 5:04 PM ^
You're clearly missing my point on purpose because you're asking the exact question I answered. To make it perfectly clear: the players (or protesters in general) aren't responsible for describing fully formed solutions they want to see enacted.
In this case, they came up with some specifics and actually got them to be accepted, which is above and beyond their responsibility.
Protests bring attention to issues. They are about communicating to the rest of the country or world, who may not be aware, that something they disagree with is happening. They are about showing leadership that more than just the few that call or write letters actually care about the issue. They are about finding solidarity with others who care about the same issues enough to join them.
I'm not a public policy or law expert. I don't know enough to propose specific policy goals that would prevent police officers from murdering black citizens with no repercussions. That doesn't mean I won't march with or clearly state that Black Lives Matter.
As for your last point: of course it will still happen. We need consequences for officers when it does happen. Also, the idea that policing is so highly volatile isn't exactly true. It's not as dangerous as logging, commercial fishing, roofing, etc. (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/27/the-10-most-dangerous-jobs-in-america-according-to-bls-data.html) so I don't see why we can't also expect police officers to not shoot/choke/assault people without facing consequences.