NBA playoffs will be coming back, but with more social justice
I have had a difficult time enjoying the playoffs as much as I would like to since the NBA decided that they were going to be so political but since I love the sport I managed to turn a blind eye to all of that and just try to enjoy the spirit of competition. Between the kneeling for the national anthem, the political statements on the floor, and the silly political messages on the back of jerseys where a player's name would normally be, I would argue that not only was the NBA doing "enough," they were doing too much.
After the players refused to play a game this past week and threatened to cancel the entire season unless, I dunno, something, changed, they had some meetings and now will be coming back.
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For me and many other sports fans, the NBA and other leagues were a getaway for us. Politics and social justice have gotten out of control (in my opinion) in the past 3 years or so and this, combined with Covid restrictions have made life in a general sense a lot less fun. I used to get annoyed how there was so much advertising in sports and that is still something that annoys me, but now it is the constant lecturing about social issues that the NBA is going to lecture me on, even if it is indirectly.
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I feel as though there is a time and place for everything and even the correct person to be talking about it. The main thing that got under my skin as far as the NBA players being spokespeople for the cause is that for the most part, every single one of these guys lives a life of opulence that you and I can only dream of. Ever watched an episode of Ballers? Well this is what these folks get to deal with on a yearly basis. They also don't have the greatest track record for being upstanding citizens off the court and this is true of other leagues as well. So these are the people that are going to lecture us on the downtrodden members of society? What's next, billionaires talking about what it is like to be poor? How about dictators advising us on the importance of voting.
The NBA faced an uphill battle in making this season profitable anyway because of no crowds and a rapidly diminishing online and TV fanbase. This action on their part will almost certainly result in more people tuning out. I am on the fence myself. We got a group of people lecturing us about the dangers of racism and then one of the people that is part of that group doing the talking actually says something very racist on the court on national television.
With the assistance of all media and the spin doctors over at NBA they very quickly buried this interaction and moved on to something else. Doncic also hit the game winning shot with a buzzer beater in the very next game.
Andre Iguodala likened his participation in the NBA to "being chained." Likening his being involved in playing one of the most lucrative sports on the planet to slavery. I think his annual salary (before endorsements) of $12.3 million kind of presents a different image than that of being enslaved.
The games are meant to restart on Saturday but with additional social justice measures that the Players' Association demanded in their negotiations. What this entails has not yet been revealed. I honestly can't imagine what else they could possibly do to lecture us more but I can all but guarantee it is going to be more talking down to us mere peons that don't make millions of dollars a year to play a sport.