(08-26-2020, 11:12 PM)haveitall Wrote: You can have any political view or be of any color but how can you not be outrage over this? No one not one person in the nba except Jonathan Isaac has denounced this.
https://mynorthwest.com/2114190/rantz-ri...aled-door/
(08-26-2020, 06:28 PM)mtrot Wrote: My biggest concern is that the most famous and outspoken player in the league, who seems to have a wide swath of our population believing his comments, seems to be either be not very bright, or just deliberately disingenuous. Lebron is just continually inflaming things and making things worse and worse. He comments on situations immediately after they occur and before all the facts come out. And he pretends that the few horrible incidents that have occurred, and yes there have been such incidents, represent an epidemic of such events in the US, while in reality they are extremely rare.
In comparison to the number of these travesties, how many black lives have been saved by having the police presence in the US? It could be argued that hundreds of innocent black lives in Chicago would have been saved if they had MORE police on the ground. I just wish Lebron would be more circumspect and look at the actual facts before making unfounded and presumptuous pronouncements about specific incidents and police in general in the US.
To me there are two things going on:
1. Problems with the police and their bias/corruption. This is an important issue and should be addressed otherwise you turn into Russia where people prepare money when stopped by the police. Defunding them will actually make things worse as honest cops will be squeezed out.
2. Socialism and civil unrest, aka angry burning mob. Here is basically a group of people who don't have much don't have jobs and are angry and ready to take it out on anyone.
The country is a powder keg and the corporations (such as the nba) are selling out to the socialists.
This is a problem when the sports leagues double also as political organizations officially backing positions that are being actively debated and litigated in the wider community.
The problem is the NBA is not organized to facilitate debate on multiple sides of an issue. It is one thing for individual players to express their viewpoints as citizens. They clearly have bigger platforms than most of us to speak from. Good for them.
Its an entirely different thing when the NBA as an entertainment sports entity takes official and active positions on political and moral issues that are controversial. Now fans that come together to enjoy and discuss the sports cannot come together for that common enjoyment without having positions pushed at them. The positions are pushed in a social environment where differing viewpoints are not really welcome, so these organizations emerge from private meetings with their own plans and platforms for political action.
The NBA is almost by definition now no longer a sports entertainment entity but a political entity empowered by its entertainment value.
Rational points deserve debate, research and examination among the public and their elected representatives. More than one side of an issue must be addressed or the suppressed viewpoints can only end up surfacing in violent outbursts from sides that don't feel they are being heard any other way.