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Messages - bodiddley

Pages: 1 ... 163 164 [165] 166 167 ... 436
2461
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 28, 2020, 03:08:11 AM »
It's good to see a young guy like Jaylen Brown at 22 become a leading voice.  Usually in the NBPA the vets have the clout and control the agenda.  The guys on rook contracts are the future of the NBA and need to be involved, and need a voice.  Kudos to Brown for stepping up.


Otherwise this is a very good and interesting example of how it helps to have a billionaire and major corporation backing up your position.  When the Bucks were in the lockerroom deciding not to play:

Quote
Inside the locker room, Bucks players were on a Zoom call with Wisconsin lieutenant governor Mandela Barnes and attorney general Josh Kaul, which had been facilitated by team owner Marc Lasry and senior vice president Alex Lasry.

Individually or even as a group the Bucks players would be extremely unlikely to get a conference call with the Lt. Gov and AG, let alone at a moment's notice (perhaps Giannis could, but he's not an American citizen).  The Bucks players were able to discuss with two of the state's top leaders, for over an hour, ways in which they could enact change in WI.  With part of the focus on the police reform bill the Guv is pushing and the GOP legislature is blocking, which likely most of the players were not aware of.  And now there is a channel open between the Bucks players, Bucks ownership and the top state leaders of WI.

The clout and influence and connections of NBA owners can be beneficial to the players in effecting change.  If say the Knix players wanted to have a discussion with Jared Kushner, I'm pretty sure Dolan could arrange that.  It could even be worthwhile.  Weird but perhaps worthwhile.  Reportedly, Jared is going to reach out to LeBron James, and I'd love to hear that discussion.  Perhaps LeBJ should insist it be a public discussion anybody can patch into and listen to (or maybe after 30 mins of private chat).

2462
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 28, 2020, 02:49:04 AM »
Jordan and Doc Rivers made the same case I did that NBA players have the biggest platform while they are playing.  Chris Paul (and no doubt the owners) made sure the players understood the financial costs, including a potential large hit next season (even a threat to the CBA).  CJ McCollum and Jaylen Brown were concerned that players would end the season, disperse and most would just return home, wouldn't work for change and their voices disappear.  The NBA players ultimately agreed it was best to take concerted action backed by NBA resources.   Everyone agreed Les is an asshole.
All of which I argued in advocating for the season to continue.
Nearly all of that can be found in this good longish article.

2463
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 28, 2020, 02:12:00 AM »
bambu is the "PMA...positive mental attitude guru

Hilarious ...

2464
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 27, 2020, 04:31:03 PM »
Why do you want to breathe a concoction of pollutants?

2465
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 04:27:53 PM »
My point was that I got mocked and branded some sort of racist for advocating the same policy and basic viewpoint the majority of NBA players just adopted.

Note that only one person here is employing ugly old-fashioned racial slurs.
Les is an asshole, it's his MO here for whatever reason. 

2466
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 03:27:15 PM »
Gee, the players decided to continue the playoffs, what a surprise ...

2467
Basketball / Assholic
« on: August 27, 2020, 12:48:17 PM »
So did Les just use the term junglebunnies and in such a way as to attribute it to a paraphrase of me?

Why yes, Les is being a bigger asshole than usual.
Stop attributing racist shit related to slavery and racial slurs to me.

2468
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 12:15:34 PM »
No they aren't.
If they were, why wouldn't they just cut out the NBA and the owners -- old white billionaires mostly-- and stage their own games and make all the money instead of just half?

When the games are being played, the NBA and its players have the highest profile and most media attention.  That seems obvious and factual to me.  I'd use that megaphone while its turned on.

Also, in case you haven't noticed there are white players in the NBA.  Roughly 20%.

2469
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 10:48:54 AM »
Team and NBA support is much more likely and dedicated while the players are working and making money for the owners/league.

Teams and players in the Bubble are getting a lot more time and attention to their views than any NBA players not participating.

It would be nice to see the NBA force Dolan's hand and see him sponsor some BLM/anti-racism rallies and such.

2470
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 10:12:29 AM »
I'd come up with an NBA wide strategy to affect change, with the players and teams participating, instead of all the players dispersing and mostly doing things on their own.  The visibility of both playing and speaking out I believe has more voice than ending the playoffs which will get huge attention for at most a week, and thereafter much harder for NBA players to make news and get their message out.

Lotta things can be done:
- Playoff shares can go to the families of victims of police brutality.
- Extend playoff halftimes by 5 minutes in which an NBA player or one guy from each team playing int hat game is featured discussing race issues and some of the victims of racism.
- get out the vote campaigns can be undertaken by NBA players
- plenty more that didn't just come to my head in 2 minutes of thought

LeBron has a platform and the name recognition, reputation and money to carry out whatever he wants to do.  But most NBA players can't manage that much without support from their teams (backed by billionaire owners).

Share your views and talent can happen.

2471
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 27, 2020, 09:06:05 AM »
"Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?"
- Tucker Carlson

Except of course, they didn't.
Unsurprisingly heavily armed right wing vigilantes attending BLM protests accelerated to murder.

Which was clearly coming.
Dodged a bullet at the Michigan statehouse.
Took some bullets in Kenosha.


As it turns out it's illegal for a 17 year old to carry a gun in public.  Gotta be 18 to menace folks.  Maybe instead of the cops tossing out water bottles and thanking vigilantes for their support, they could have been checking ID's so they'd know who was there armed and potentially dangerous, and might have picked up that the 17 year old was illegally carrying before he killed anyone.

2472
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 27, 2020, 05:52:15 AM »
I thought Carlson's explanation was completely bizarre.
I presume he wants to downplay racism and assert the Dems are anti-middle-class simply to help Trump get more votes.  And then this nonsense theory will just be dropped and forgotten.


Not sure how this is playing out in Americaland, but I would assume the police execution of a black man in WI and the major hurricane crashing into Louisiana has distracted from the RNC.  Seems like bad timing.  And then when there's violence and death at a BLM protest it's the result of a pro-Trump, pro-police, gun fanatic right-wing vigilante teen.  Just the way the whole year has gone for Trump.

2473
Basketball / Re: Knicks
« on: August 27, 2020, 05:03:27 AM »
My guess is that since the players are already there, they'll finish things out.
One or two more games and another 5 teams will be heading home anyway.
Will be down to 8 teams then.

Let's say they call it quits and exit the bubble.
The post-season never gets finished.
How many of those players on the remaining 8 playoff teams are actually going to engage in public protests or take any meaningful actions?

Not sure how much money is at stake right now.
But might as well play things out, and both the players and league take some of their earnings and set up a foundation to organize folks to vote, to learn non-violent protest tactics, to spread news/info, and hire lawyers to represent those abused by police at the margins (homeless folks and indigents).

2474
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 27, 2020, 04:10:33 AM »
With schools closed in many districts, it won't take long before the next Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold decide they'll conduct a mass massacre at a political protest/rally.  You can't bring your arsenal openly into a school, but you can go to a BLM protest and just hang around the periphery with your weaponry on display and in hand.  Two or three shooters could do a lot of deadly damage.  Might even be able to blend in with the chaos or perhaps other gun aficionados and just walk away as the Kenosha killer did.

2475
Previous Administration / Re: Trump Administration
« on: August 27, 2020, 04:03:34 AM »
Tucker Carlson has it all figured out:

Quote
“Our leaders want us to believe this is all a racial conflict, they’re always telling us it is. But they’re lying. It is not a racial conflict. At its deepest level the chaos they have unleashed has very little to do with race. Most Americans are not bigots. Unlike CNN, they’re not fixated on skin color, they don’t really care, most of them.

What you watch is more sinister than that. What you are watching is an effort by the academic left funded by big business, to crush the last remaining resistance to their control of the country and that resistance is an independent American middle class. That’s who they really hate. This is not a race war. This is a class war.”

So the Left is protesting police brutality and racism in order to destroy their real enemy the middle class.  Because the Left supports more inequality and wants more poor people.  With academics and big business pulling all the strings.  Got it.

Does this make any kind of sense?

At least in his worldview, race isn't really an issue or problem, just a smokescreen the cynical, middle-class hating, big business loving academics use to manipulate us.

It's like Carlson knows this all must be a sham, that white people never really care about black people, so he's trying to piece together the hidden conspiracy.  Trying to figure out how to scare middle class white folks into voting for Trump regardless of whatever reality exists.


And a 17 year old running around in public with a huge weapon?
Well, that's the fault of the protesters and the gov't response.
Nothing to do with ridiculous gun laws that legalize such insanity.

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