OT: NBA to Resume Playoffs, Establish Social Justice Initiatives
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/29759939/nba-announces-playoffs-res…
the NBA and its players will work together on several initiatives to promote voting access and combat social justice, racial inequality and police reform.
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-- 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 4:44 PM ^
I bet if they would just come right out and tell white cops to stop shooting unarmed blacks this would just all go away. If I am correct, there were 14 unarmed blacks killed by all cops last year. More police were killed, go figure.
August 28th, 2020 at 6:10 PM ^
I bet the first thing that social justice commission does is call to light all the human rights violations in China.
August 28th, 2020 at 9:05 PM ^
20% of the league registered to vote. That means a good percentage of them didn't even vote for Obama. Puppets
August 29th, 2020 at 10:57 AM ^
Keep your politics off my sports. I don't want to be lectured by a bunch of athletes, even if I agree with them, and I sure don't want the monetization of my interest in the game supporting a political cause, even if I'm deeply sympathetic with it. You might think it's great if it's a cause you agree with, but what if they decide to do other causes that you don't like? Best policy: keep entertainment and politics as separated as possible. We've got enough politics and need a refuge, not corporate executives taking sides. What if an NBA player decided to put "Black Babies Matter" on his jersey because he opposes abortion? Once you start down this road it becomes about establishing an orthodoxy and not about freedom or equality. You want further division of an already polarized country? Take away the one thing (sports) that offers a sense of community and unity. I'm done with the NBA.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:29 AM ^
Shut, the fuck, up with that bullshit.
When the PRESIDENT calls athletes "sons of bitches" politics is in sports.
Where do champions get invited?
Politics have ALWAYS been in sports. Because the people who play sports are HUMAN BEINGS who do more than just play sports.
Also they are not YOUR sports, asshole.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:40 AM ^
Same thing goes for the President: keep your politics off my sports. Get rid of the national anthem. Stop inviting winning teams to the White House. Stop the military flyovers. Stop it all.
The athletes (as human beings) are welcome to save the world on their own time, but once you start politicizing the game itself it can only further divide people, a point you've just proven with what can only be described as an irrational and intemperate response.
Doctors are human beings, but I don't want my doctor taking political stands in his or her office.
You and I might agree materially with what the NBA is doing, but it is formally a bad path to go down. Take a political position you strongly disagree with and ask yourself if you would be OK with Michigan Football or a professional sports league strongly advocating for that position and using institutional and financial resources to advance that cause. If you say "yes, I'd be ok with that" you're either unusually magnanimous or a liar.
August 29th, 2020 at 11:53 AM ^
Not news to me. Just because they've done it for awhile doesn't make it a good idea. "Americans have mixed religion and politics for longer than you think" is a true statement, but it doesn't make it a good idea.
August 29th, 2020 at 10:44 PM ^
You said, "once we go down that road," - we've already been down that road and back, many, many, many, many (many) times. I didn't comment on whether it was a good idea or not, I am refuting your incorrect assertion that we aren't already waaaaaay down that path.
August 30th, 2020 at 9:41 AM ^
Fair enough. I'll amend "once we go down that road" to something like "rather than going farther down that road we should be retreating." It does seem to me, however, that what the NBA is doing is not simply a difference in degree but a difference in kind. I can't recall a professional sports league endorsing a particular political association (other than the military, which I also oppose) and its slogans.
Remember those Northwestern uniforms in the 2013 game? I did not approve.
August 29th, 2020 at 9:47 PM ^
I have come to realize just how much I watch sports to get away from the daily bullshit, especially politics, but all the daily bullshit. Now it's all intertwined.
The NBA is completely dead to me as well as MLB (which was already hard to watch) and if the NFL does all this bullshit, then them too.
They will all lose a ton of fans because they are supporting a Marxist organization that promotes defunding police, reparations, and of course anti-capitalism among other anti-American ideals.
The athletes, especially NBA and NFL have a warped perception of how important they are and who is really listening to them. Most of America does not turn to pro athletes for their political opinion because they are grossly uneducated if you listen to them speak about important issues. They don't even know basic facts and certainly not important details. It's all just emotion.
They live in a bubble for Christ sake.
September 1st, 2020 at 6:06 AM ^
It's always been intertwined. You just accepted it before when it didn't threaten what YOU believe.