It is far beyond any other league in protocols, responding to social issues, empowering players, and just being a wonderful product as a fan.

Credit to Adam Silver and the NBPA. Incredible year.

team sports

in terms of a bubble league because they have far fewer players than football and even fewer than baseball.

It’s entertaining, and the players and league do appear to have a more diplomatic
relationship than other leagues. However, there is this big fat elephant in the room: CHINA. No other league is in bed with China

The league sent a memo to players stating that players were not allowed
to put phrases on their jerseys that showed support for Hong Kong while in the bubble. And no player made any statements regarding the civil unrest that is taking place there.
It’s a tremendously bad look and it is very hypocritical.

The organization is constantly professing that the nba platform will also be used to fight against social injustice and police brutality, but it does business with a semi-communistic government who is committing those very same crimes that they are allegedly fighting against. The NBA as a whole has turned a blind eye in order to maintain the enormous revenue that it gets from China.

They are basically saying that money and business relations are more important than the human rights of all people. The NBA is a league consisting of players who come from many different parts of the world.

And what does that say about the players, and their constant talk about equality and human rights? They scream about striking and boycotting, and not supporting organizations or businesses who support the police or who support trump. However, they continue to do business with China and play in a league that does business with China.

If Muhammad Ali were a NBA basketball player, he would not stand for it.

So yes the league is very entertaining....but they have some serious issues - that are veiled - that other leagues don’t have.

The average american HAD TO go back to work...or face eviction, etc...

IMO, professional athletes furthered the idea that COVID wasn't that big of a deal

If I'm worth millions of dollars
and I make a living based on my physical abilities

Yeah, FOH playing professional sports during this crisis.

MFers shoulda boycotted

^^

gave me something positive to look forward to with all the negativity going on.

It was nice to come home and sit on my couch with a bottle of wine and the TV and zone out...

>The average american HAD TO go back to work...or face
>eviction, etc...
>
>IMO, professional athletes furthered the idea that COVID
>wasn't that big of a deal
>
>If I'm worth millions of dollars
>and I make a living based on my physical abilities
>
>Yeah, FOH playing professional sports during this crisis.
>
>MFers shoulda boycotted

The way the CBA is setup if they didn't finish the season it would void the CBA and future guaranteed contracts. Dudes will 9 figures on the books were not giving that money up.

Did those players still get their full salary?

Sure...something something CBA...

There's a f'n pandemic going on...I would ASSume those extenuating circumstances would have factored in

IMO, it feels more like lack of consensus

If all the players agreed that they didn't want to risk their health...for some abridged season

You think the NBA retaliates by voiding ALL of their contracts

...or renegotiates something more reasonable during a global health crisis...

+1, w/o sports you would have found something else to distract you.

its been discussed on these board I don't feel like going into all of it again.

Bottom like everything came down to money like always.

It easy to count other folks pockets and say what they should've done when you're not in that position.

Like I said, that excuse holds for average Joe

For gazillionare professional athletes...FOH

They can afford to sit out.

Cool, rip up the CBA

We were also kicking around the idea of forming a league independent of the NBA

Let's say...they all agreed to sit out

Having already received their salary...for what...3/4s of the season

You think the NBA brings scabs into the bubble and these dudes go bankrupt having lost 1/4 of their salary for the year?

New Zealand has a pro bball league

discussed.

And I actually agree that it isn't fair to the players to ask them to play as the pandemic is happening. Also in light that the NBA used a number of tests when regular people weren't as fortunate to get that access.

That being said, it worked out well enough. Yes, it was a cash grab but the NBA made the working situation as safe as humanly possible. (more safe than any place in the United States)

It brought awareness to vitally important social issues throughout, culminating in one of the most impactful social justice moments in recent memory.

Many people outside the bubble had a sense of normalcy and had something fun to do. Something really important as it seems the world is seemingly coming apart at the seems. For as important as it is to stay engaged, without some release valve, its easy to get burned down and fall out altogether and to some degree sports helps with that.

Also, if the players had the CBA torn up, there was a real chance that their cut of the BRI would decrease, maybe substantially.

It's a game but the NBA is a multi-billion dollar business. While the NBA could have just closed, at least they made the situation for them as comfortable as it could be both physically and culturally.

Then they woulda been on their own. Sonit was actually safer for them to play.

?

If you're old enough to remember back to Feb

NBA players were some of the first people in the US to get tested at all

That is...while the homies are contracting this virus at Walmart, instacarting, ERs, etc...

The NBA appears to have access to resources that every US citizen does not

That f'n pisses me off.

...unless you think we should prioritize protections based on income...

But they're all exploitative. None of them give a shit about social issues or their employees. They are all driven entirely by profit and nothing else.

They're capitalist like everything else. No need to give them credit that's not due.

but yeah, i'm standing in this line and bentagain's line.

and should put their own head in a toilet.

after shitting in that toilet.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

https://www.google.com/amp/s/sports.yahoo.com/amphtml/the-nba-china-and-racial-justice-how-to-untangle-the-leagues-messy-relationship-with-human-rights-165906175.html

which is something. but not really enough to applaud.

Otherwise, ownership is the least bad, but still bad.

There were a lot of games I watched and kind of cringed at and seldom did it really have the feel that the normal playoffs do.

The NHL also did a bubble with zero incident or hint of an incident and while the play wasn't razor sharp (lots of penalties overall) it was much closer to the feel of a standard playoff. It also had a lot of crazy developments within series.

The social justice stuff was a bust to me in all leagues. Very performative. The NBA players in particular had leverage like never before and they chucked it aside quickly. Not surprisingly it was the master of squandering leverage, the DNC, that led them to shift their platform toward the most milquetoast and non-controversial goal possible.

https://hoopshype.com/salaries/players/

If they didn't play and the owners were allowed to tear up the CBA most of the guys at the top of that list are not going to see that money.

I know these tough-typing, pocket-watchers on here will probably say "so!" but when you're talking about giving up generational wealth for your family its a tough call...

But agreed 100% on the DNC style benign goals re: social justice.

the quality of play was extremely high

the bit about nba players chucking away leverage is weird because I'm not exactly sure what they were going to get

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

which is disappointing for a few reasons:

1) the implication is "vote for Democrats" who almost never stand up to police unions or pass significant reform... and they wonder why progressives aren't excited to keep voting for them!

2) the other implication, whether intended or not, is that voting is the most important action one could take. not only does that leave people feeling rudderless after each November, but also more direct actions (such as mass protests) have a much better track record for change than voting.

3) we already have a voting drive on every channel, show, website, app etc. i've tried to stop the facebook notifications about a thousand times and they keep fucking popping up. i think people have gotten the message.

4) to your point: their leverage was money. if the players go on strike a lot of people would've lost a lot of money, and fucking with money is one of the greatest ways to bring about change. i don't think the players have a responsibility to strike or anything, BUT i can't help but be disappointed in the end result. i think they were pretty serious about ending the season and got talked out of it by very powerful people who had a lot of money at stake.

the quality of basketball was incredible though. i don't understand CC's point there. not nearly as sloppy as i was expecting. there were some amazing games and we had new stars made.

>which is disappointing for a few reasons:
>
>1) the implication is "vote for Democrats" who almost never
>stand up to police unions or pass significant reform... and
>they wonder why progressives aren't excited to keep voting for
>them!
>
>2) the other implication, whether intended or not, is that
>voting is the most important action one could take. not only
>does that leave people feeling rudderless after each November,
>but also more direct actions (such as mass protests) have a
>much better track record for change than voting.
>
>3) we already have a voting drive on every channel, show,
>website, app etc. i've tried to stop the facebook
>notifications about a thousand times and they keep fucking
>popping up. i think people have gotten the message.

The real issue is that rightly are wrongly the way this country is setup police are controlled at the the local level and there's not a lot that can be done at the national level. Eric Garner and Mike Brown happened when Obama was in office. Seeing some of the things the current administration has done with its limited power in some regards makes me glad that they don't control local police.

When it comes to politics most folks focus on the president but really need to play closer attention their local city, county and state elections. That's what should be emphasized but for whatever reason its not.


>4) to your point: their leverage was money. if the players go
>on strike a lot of people would've lost a lot of money, and
>fucking with money is one of the greatest ways to bring about
>change. i don't think the players have a responsibility to
>strike or anything, BUT i can't help but be disappointed in
>the end result. i think they were pretty serious about ending
>the season and got talked out of it by very powerful people
>who had a lot of money at stake.

NBA players have guaranteed contracts. If they didn't finish the season they would've forfeited those contracts and that's a lot of money for everybody.

>
>The real issue is that rightly are wrongly the way this
>country is setup police are controlled at the the local level
>and there's not a lot that can be done at the national level.
>Eric Garner and Mike Brown happened when Obama was in office.
>Seeing some of the things the current administration has done
>with its limited power in some regards makes me glad that they
>don't control local police.
>
>When it comes to politics most folks focus on the president
>but really need to play closer attention their local city,
>county and state elections. That's what should be emphasized
>but for whatever reason its not.

I wasn’t just addressing national politics though. On the national AND local level Dems like Eric Garcetti, Bill DeBlasio, etc. are completely ineffective against police unions. Voting isn’t going to solve this issue, which is why it’s disappointing to me that when the league came back the movement was almost entirely focused on voting as a solution. Even replacing current shitty Dems with more progressive ones can only do so much. For instance, the current DA for LA is a Dem but is insanely cop-friendly, however the other Dem on the ballot doesn’t seem much better, so regardless of who wins people need to keep fighting it in other ways than their ballot.

>
>NBA players have guaranteed contracts. If they didn't finish
>the season they would've forfeited those contracts and that's
>a lot of money for everybody.
>

I know, however I think the owners are wise enough to not rip up everyone’s contracts due to a social justice protest. Would’ve been a terrible look for a league that says they care and they’re listening. Regardless... as I said, the players don’t have a responsibility to strike or anything, I’m just pointing out how effective it would’ve been. You can see how much the idea of a strike freaked everyone out because Obama intervened.

-->

2020 NBA finals ratings are historically bad, and the ratings have been descending every year for the past few years.

In that case - Keeping up w/ the Kardashians must be the greatest show on earth.

But ratings for virtually all sports (including even the NFL) have dropped - so you can't just single out the NBA.

NFL ratings have dropped as well - but not quite as dramatically. So according to your logic, the NFL is the greatest league in sports?

-->

Numbers don’t lie. Ratings, revenue, and sponsorship are dominated by the NFL, and it doesn’t depend on any foreign element for it to flourish. A lot of the NBA’s revenue come from overseas, specifically China. This is why the league was highly pressed when China banned the TV distribution of NBA games in its country.

My favorite sports are actual soccer and baseball, but I enjoy football and basketball as well. Actually, my huge viewership of football and basketball is for fantasy and betting purposes.

Basketball is the most intimate sport, and the players have a greater connection with its fans, and the league APPEARS to be concerned with social and community issues more than any other league. However, Football is a religion, where it is basically worshipped all weekend when in season. Only other sport greater than that is soccer, and that’s overseas.


One of the main problems with the NBA is that teams are handicapped because of the star system. Stern focked up the league in a way by marketing players over marketing teams, so if a team doesn’t have star players, no one will watch the team.

Football will never have that issue, because fans follow teams and not players ...You’re proof of that, because you follow a player and not a team...which keeps the league down.

That has always been the case. The NFL has always ruled since the creation of the super bowl and the merger of the AFL and NFL. Before that, baseball ruled.

Basketball has never ruled in America. Stern brought in the billions for basketball through Magic, Bird and Michael, and that made basketball must watch TV, but it still couldn’t compete with the NFL. But the problem with that is once they left, the fans left with them, until the rise of the next great superstar. And it still hasn’t been the same. Why? They were magic, Larry and Jordan fans. Not fans of the team.

After Kobe left the Lakers, nobody wanted to watch the lakers. Same thing with my bulls, once Jordan retired for good, attendance plummeted. Drose came, and attendance went back up. He left, and the shit dropped again, and it’s been dead ever since. The NBA system is a terrible system.

Every weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, from the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, it’s football all day all long. Commercials, games, news. Etc. No other sport has that power in this country.

tomorrow

Football has always dominated viewership over basketball, and it’s not even close. And it has nothing to do with Trump. Trump even called for a boycott of football at one point. And Trump is the same guy who sued the NFL during the USFL days and lost, tanking the USFL.

Here is some more proof for you. We are in a Fucking pandemic, and when the NBA western conference semifinals game 7 was going on, people barely watched it. They were too busy watching a REGULAR season football games.

“Nuggets-Clippers game drew just 1.3 million viewers on ESPN. It was a huge game in that if the Nuggets came out on top, they would have forced a Game 7. As it is, Denver ultimately took the series on Tuesday.

The NFL games on CBS and Fox during the same time slot drew a combined 27 million viewers. That’s an average of 12-plus million more viewers than the NBA game.
Given that we’re talking about the NBA Playoffs compared to the NFL regular season, this isn’t great for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Co.”

27 million people were watching football, compared to 1 million people watching basketball.

Where do colleges get the majority of their sports revenue from? Football

Why do you think Notre Dame is coveted by every damn conference?

Football revenue

As recent as 2017, the NFL generated 14 billion dollars.

The NBA generated 7.4 billion dollars

You can check all the the years prior that, way before Trump. The NFL’s revenue,ratings and popularity have always been higher.

And NBA teams have 100 plus games a season vs the NFL teams having 16 games a season, and the nfl does not have a global presence like the NBA.

And which league leaned into the concept of social justice?

Makes you wonder about the demographics of all those extra people supporting the former.

I think that is a better summary of how I feel today

100s of thousands died needlessly

Our resources went to things like...basketball

whose whole job it is to be prepared and handle shit like this

idk why you have to make this about the NBA like they've done something wrong here by running their business safely in a pandemic.

to preserve life.

They spent a quarter of a Billion dollars to create a bubble for the purpose of entertainment and money. You don’t think that money could have been used to help communities?

The NBA did a great job of saving itself. The NBA is no different than our government.

And even those are motivated by $$$

>They spent a quarter of a Billion dollars to create a bubble for the purpose of entertainment and money. You don’t think that money could have been used to help communities?

That's part of what's so frustrating about how all this went down. If we would have done a proper shutdown in the Spring like most other countries did, we would have saved thousands and thousands of lives AND we would have been able to preserve our economy by being able to open it up in a way that actually makes sense. Kids could have been safely back to school, with parents able to safely go back to work. But because we never actually shut it down, here we are...

>That's part of what's so frustrating about how all this went
>down. If we would have done a proper shutdown in the Spring
>like most other countries did, we would have saved thousands
>and thousands of lives AND we would have been able to preserve
>our economy by being able to open it up in a way that actually
>makes sense. Kids could have been safely back to school, with
>parents able to safely go back to work. But because we never
>actually shut it down, here we are...

The sad thing is that the league may have to form another bubble in the late fall/early winter whenever the next season starts up since numbers are still moderately high in several states.

I do wonder how much of a profit the league and team owners are making from this arrangement. Not that it's important, but I'm sure a ton of team owners will lose a grip of money due to tickets for games and food/beer not being sold. The players will probably stand to make a killing from their salaries and shared TV rights, while the team owners will have to bit the bullet, unless new arrangements are made between the players and owners.

Maybe for the playoffs, not forthe whole year. Especially when other leagues are doing it without a bubble.

>Maybe for the playoffs, not forthe whole year. Especially
>when other leagues are doing it without a bubble.

some of these "broke" owners would bust if so.

they gonna figure out a way to get 50% in there.

The NBA as an organization chose to be it's resources into creating a bubble. It's not like they took resources away from the states.

Florida's response to COVID wasn't putrid because of the NBA. It was putrid because DeSantis is a Drumf flunkie and didn't want to pay out state unemployment benefits so he pretended like this whole thing isn't happening.

It's not the NBA's fault that there still isn't a federal plan of action and red state refuse to get their shit together.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

of the tools to fight Covid?

and wearable vital trackers

...and that is the tragedy here...

People seem content that the NBA has had access to resources the general population has not...from the beginning

IDK how people aren't angered by those facts.

Alot of people aren't even able to practice social distancing, hand sanitizing, or mask wearing...because of socioeconomics

We've known how to stop the spread from for over 6 months now

The NBA proved that

Yet, people are still dying by the 100s every day

...what are you defending...am I missing something...?

Are you being tested for COVID multiple times per week, with same day results and wearing a vital tracker for symptoms?

>
>...what are you defending...am I missing something...?

I haven't defended anything.
>
>Are you being tested for COVID multiple times per week, with
>same day results and wearing a vital tracker for symptoms?

Why would I need to be tested multiple times per week? I barely leave my home. I work from my basement and I'm around the same 4 people, for the most part. When I do go anywhere, I mask up and get my ass back home. I'm not participating in a basketball league where I make frequent, close contact with large groups of humans.

I don't want to assume...so, I won't...but, it seems like you are placing the responsibility of solving Covid on the NBA...as opposed to our actual government. I don't feel the same way. It's not on Adam Silver to do. It's was on our President and he didn't do the job.

I'm pissed that people are still dying

From a virus that, as proven by the NBA, could have been stopped

But yeah...you keep on doing you.

Impeach Adam Silver (c) FOH

.

The nba did their fucking job

restaurants, and any other entity that doesn't suck as much as Trump and his bum ass administration.

-->

were using trash bags as PPE

While the brilliant minds of JR Smith and Dion Waiters are given the latest and greatest so they can watch LeBron play basketball

...but don’t let me stop ya’ll kee kee’n...

Now that the season is over...there is a conversation to be had.

When you have the president actively working against everything that would have stopped the spread of the virus, and GOP governors backing him, along with so many people ignoring recommendations from scientists and not following social distancing guidelines, the resources of private companies like the NBA would not have mattered.

Isn't FL a R state?

the go ahead for FULL capacity at their stadium. Not enough that they already had 13k or so in attendance...nope...you guys can go for the full 65k.

as seen in the Bubble.

The money was there, too.
Unfortunately, the motherfuckers we got "running" the states and the federal government...


The motherfuckers that are those people's constituents....

all up and down the post. I'm being sincere as I can, right now. No OKS jokey shit. Why do you think no one is upset about Covid, simply because we're saying it's not the NBA's responsibility. Doc Claw said what we've all been saying...if the NBA was able to do it, our LEADERS could have, as well. I've personally lost five people to Covid...not several degrees separated, either. FIVE human beings, who were close to me. The last was a friend of mine since high school. My dude was 47, fit, avid hooper, weightlifter, all around good man and father of three daughters. This shit hits HARD. It's fucked up.

NBA bubble really only proves whose lives are more valuable here.

A teacher would never receive this kind of care.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30080882/mlb-players-now-33-days-positive-test-coronavirus

but you didn't post this because you wanted to talk about things that exist.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Glad the bubble worked but shit....was it luck?

Why can't the rest of the u.s. of a figure out something...anything that keeps folks safe?

that said "HELLUVA JOB MITCH!" after Mitch Kupchak signed Timofey Mosgov and Loul Deng for $136mil 4 years ago. I think we're still paying Deng.

Said it after the 2011 offseason with Fish and Barnes.

This one MAY have been posted in some post chip euphoria with a few drinks in me but I’d never have said that after THOSE signings.

at some of the exchanges between Lakers' fans when Moz got signed:
https://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2552955&mesg_id=2552955&listing_type=search#2552995

>It is far beyond any other league in protocols, responding to
>social issues, empowering players, and just being a wonderful
>product as a fan.
>
>Credit to Adam Silver and the NBPA. Incredible year.

They did a good job to put down the money for the bubble, come up with a logical-enough plan, be reasonably transparent with the general public, and get through the season with limited player endangerment. It was a sacrifice of the players to stay there until they were out and there was several good stories and games to sink into. It was heavy emotionally too. All of the interviews and comments. IE: Doc going in during that post-game. The stoppage and whatever conversations had to occur to get folks back on the court.

They at least figured out how to put on a show of care for 'social issues'. It is easy to sit online and shit on 'big corporations', but hell...the meathead mofos in the NFL can't even figure out how to fake care cuz the owners are more worried about getting teased on the golf course about their out of line knee grow employees. And the Maga whites all up in the league don't want to look bad to the goofballs they associate with during the offseason.

The NBA salary structure is still a mess. Guaranteed money is good. And the best players tend to get they ones but the incompleteness of so many of the teams is jarring. So many PB no J-having teams out there. I don't know what the right answer is tho, but it is crazy to see so many cobbled together teams trying to make up some shit to win. It is better than the past where everyone was stuck.

and the NBA is plowing through a return to "normal" like every other league

please don't be quick to give these fuckers credit for anything

i dont think any player was going to agree to a bubble 2.0 for 72 games

they still aint allowing fans in the arenas like i see in college basketball/football and NFL games

i anticipate more games being cancelled or postponed throughout the season

but with 72 games thats expected and i dont think it'll impact the season like it did the NFL


____________

DALLAS LAKERICKS LETS GO!!

https://youtu.be/GXE_n2q08Yw