Aug 27, 2020 23:31:58 GMT UT said:

Aug 27, 2020 23:26:00 GMT RT said:

Add the NHL into the mix. All games tonight and tomorrow cancelled.

Apparently the Vancouver Canucks reached out to Ryan Reaves and that's what started it all.

Now that one surprises me.

Me too. They went from the players not even kneeling to cancelling games in the span of two weeks.

Black players stepped up huge since the playoffs started. Matt Dumba and Evander Kane started a group called The Hockey Diversity Alliance and all the players voiced their support...eventually...then didn't kneel with him when he did. They stood in a circle like morons.

After last night, Dumba and Kane called players out hard.

Aug 27, 2020 20:48:18 GMT mikec said:

Aug 27, 2020 20:15:33 GMT Blindy said:

Players run the league, and it's on the commish for letting the agents and entourage of these stars to pull the league like this. Players using the power that they've evoked. They can do what they want, I just don't think of them as some sort of heroes or inspirations for doing this. They are businessmen and women and are looking out for their best interests in a business that can and will chew them up and find someone else fresher when they have a bad year or injury or something. They feel what is going on is wrong(Which it is) and are trying to show what they are able to, I just think money talks at the end of the day for plenty of them(Understandably). 

Until the commissioner can do something interesting enough for millions of people to want to watch him, go to arenas to see him, and buy merch for him he’s at the mercy of the players. This era has just figured that out better than prior ones.

The superteams and guys wanting out after 3-4 years if a team can't put it together has really killed the product for me and I am sure tons others. I know the Knicks suck which has been half the reason but having free agents just join one another and not go to a team no matter the money and with the lotto setup for teams to go up to get that superstar cost controlled early in the draft(Which hasn't been NYK) has killed the NBA for me. The Decision fiasco was the beginning of the end.

Oh and Rob Manfred wanted the Mets to leave the field at 7:10 and come back an hour later as a publicity stunt for the betterment of the league shows how awful of a commish he is. By far the WORST commish in all 4 major sports. Awful.

Aug 28, 2020 2:01:18 GMT Blindy said:

Oh and Rob Manfred wanted the Mets to leave the field at 7:10 and come back an hour later as a publicity stunt for the betterment of the league shows how awful of a commish he is. By far the WORST commish in all 4 major sports. Awful.

Wait is that for real? He’s using a serious social justice issue to employ a publicity stunt?

Mets GM had to apologize immediately was probably told off by Jeff Wilpon who sucks as an owner.

Aug 28, 2020 2:00:32 GMT Blindy said:

Aug 27, 2020 20:48:18 GMT mikec said:

Until the commissioner can do something interesting enough for millions of people to want to watch him, go to arenas to see him, and buy merch for him he’s at the mercy of the players. This era has just figured that out better than prior ones.

The superteams and guys wanting out after 3-4 years if a team can't put it together has really killed the product for me and I am sure tons others. I know the Knicks suck which has been half the reason but having free agents just join one another and not go to a team no matter the money and with the lotto setup for teams to go up to get that superstar cost controlled early in the draft(Which hasn't been NYK) has killed the NBA for me. The Decision fiasco was the beginning of the end.

None of which is the commissioner’s fault. Super teams have existed forever though. It used to be thanks to cheap ownership/stupid management that let it happen but it is not like the 80’s Lakers and Celtics had significant competition, the glory era of the 90’s had two champions in 8 years, etc. You root for the Yankees, you’ve had no problem with super team hoarding superstars before, it’s just that they aren’t going to the poorly run Knicks.

Aug 28, 2020 13:36:22 GMT mikec said:

Aug 28, 2020 2:00:32 GMT Blindy said:

The superteams and guys wanting out after 3-4 years if a team can't put it together has really killed the product for me and I am sure tons others. I know the Knicks suck which has been half the reason but having free agents just join one another and not go to a team no matter the money and with the lotto setup for teams to go up to get that superstar cost controlled early in the draft(Which hasn't been NYK) has killed the NBA for me. The Decision fiasco was the beginning of the end.

None of which is the commissioner’s fault. Super teams have existed forever though. It used to be thanks to cheap ownership/stupid management that let it happen but it is not like the 80’s Lakers and Celtics had significant competition, the glory era of the 90’s had two champions in 8 years, etc. You root for the Yankees, you’ve had no problem with super team hoarding superstars before, it’s just that they aren’t going to the poorly run Knicks.

MLB has no cap, NBA does though so it isn't a situation you can just spend money on if a player doesn't work out due to injuries or laziness or whatever. Becomes a bigger pill to swallow in MLB, especially back then(Now there's a new threshold). In this instance, owners like Loria back then for the Marlins should be spending some kind of money to get the team right. Most players go for top dollar in baseball, you had the Miami Heat big 3 work it out with Riley on a shared percentage of money to make it work.

Knicks haven't had a top 2 pick since Ewing, and it's not just because they traded their 1st round pick a couple of times. It is the commish fault for still going on with a lotto with the assumption that teams blatantly go out there and tank. NFL nor MLB conducts this garbage and there is more parity in those leagues than the NBA ever can get as of late. That is all on the commish, both Stern & Silver.

If the Browns stink, they should at least get 1st crack at a draft and get the Myles Garrett's and Baker Mayfield's of the draft. Knicks? No Zion, not even Ja Morant!

Beverley is a trash talker and a disrespectful dum-dum. A lot of players need the salary and you just wanna be a condescending POS over it.

Aug 27, 2020 19:06:34 GMT Todd said:

Aug 27, 2020 16:33:16 GMT Blindy said:

I think the agents probably spoke a vast majority of these guys and told them the money that would be lost and the non-Lebron's AKA the ones who don't have the financial luxury want to continue and earn whatever they can.

EDIT: Good on LeBron upon that following post by pduh . 

Yeah. And fuck anyone that criticises the players for this. It's not the job of basketball players to fix racism. Does it make their gesture empty? Maybe, but they drew attention to it, and that was the ultimate aim.

They came to their senses.   Picking up their ball and going home would have done nothing but piss people off AT THEM.   And they would give up their biggest platform for speaking out.   Not to mention the players that's aren't supermax level would be taking a bigger hit than the rest.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they probably never intended on this lasting more than a few days. I think they always knew how fucked they would be if they just quit playing, or at least the non-LeBrons of the league did.

This was a shot across the bow. Like a "hey, we're not fucking around anymore."

Aug 29, 2020 2:14:41 GMT RT said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say they probably never intended on this lasting more than a few days. I think they always knew how fucked they would be if they just quit playing, or at least the non-LeBrons of the league did.

This was a shot across the bow. Like a "hey, we're not fucking around anymore."

A lot of the info coming out seems to suggest there was no real plan, and at least one Bucks player was intent on just going home when they boycott the first game.

For the super team stuff sport statistics have become huge. In grad school we did some money ball style stuff as it was a good way to show how multivariate statistics work. The teams that get the best quant guys early will have huge gains if they have a good model.

For this strike, sounds like the players got some steep concessions from it. After the talk with Obama players were advised to make reasonable demands then return to play. And they got their demands at least on paper. Voter outreach will be done via the NBA and when possible, the arenas will be used during the election for registration, ballot collection or polling.

My take is it was meant to be a long strike, but after they talked with Obama they realized that it was unlikely a strike or huge list of demands would do anything, so a small targeted list and returning to play would give them the most power to actually make change.

Aug 29, 2020 18:41:07 GMT c said:

For the super team stuff sport statistics have become huge. In grad school we did some money ball style stuff as it was a good way to show how multivariate statistics work. The teams that get the best quant guys early will have huge gains if they have a good model.

For this strike, sounds like the players got some steep concessions from it. After the talk with Obama players were advised to make reasonable demands then return to play. And they got their demands at least on paper. Voter outreach will be done via the NBA and when possible, the arenas will be used during the election for registration, ballot collection or polling.

My take is it was meant to be a long strike, but after they talked with Obama they realized that it was unlikely a strike or huge list of demands would do anything, so a small targeted list and returning to play would give them the most power to actually make change.

Obama or Trump? Need to double-check we're talking about the correct president here.

This is insane and pointless.
Did anyone see the footage of the BLM protestors screaming in a ladies face trying to make her raise her fist in solidarity?

nypost.com/2020/08/25/blm-protesters-harass-white-diners-for-not-raising-fists-in-dc/

That was not helpful for furthering the case of BLM.
Neither is this sort of pressure where players and team now have to walk off the field or they will just be Racist by default.
It is all so pointless...
These players are worth a fortune.
They could play and pledge to donate their 1/52 of their salary for each week they choose to underprivileged black communities.

All of this is the reason why BLM support is falling.
A bunch of white woke kids burning down Democrat cities is not helping black people.

any time a movement gets this big there are going to be idiots. It's like when a fanbase is so big that the loud dummies with bad takes suddenly become the narrative because they get all the attention.

Don't let morons yelling at some lady and insane demands take away from the basic message.

Aug 30, 2020 17:22:36 GMT RT said:

any time a movement gets this big there are going to be idiots. It's like when a fanbase is so big that the loud dummies with bad takes suddenly become the narrative because they get all the attention.

Don't let morons yelling at some lady and insane demands take away from the basic message.

Yeah that's the point mate, the ones screaming at the lady are the ones close to this issue.
BLM has very little to do with policing and a lot to do with Marxism.
That's part of what makes millionaire athletes going out in protest so ironic.

I really like iNCY's idea.

Why DON'T pro athletes and even other celebrity types just give away some portion of their excess income to make some actual tangible difference in people's lives?

Aug 31, 2020 2:44:49 GMT 🤯 said:

I really like iNCY's idea.

Why DON'T pro athletes and even other celebrity types just give away some portion of their excess income to make some actual tangible difference in people's lives?

Many of them do.

Aug 31, 2020 4:25:49 GMT RT said:

Aug 31, 2020 2:44:49 GMT 🤯 said:

I really like iNCY 's idea.

Why DON'T pro athletes and even other celebrity types just give away some portion of their excess income to make some actual tangible difference in people's lives?

Many of them do.

Yeah, I don't even follow this particularly closely and I know that Patty Mills and Jrue Holliday donated their entire salary's from the bubble period to BLM charities & causes. 

A few white dudes on the internet being sceptical about how much this actually means to these guys, and how they should be doing more is laughable. There is clear change being created by the actions of athletes in America. Acting like they aren't making a difference is just being contrarian. 

Aug 31, 2020 4:33:48 GMT @admin said:

Aug 31, 2020 4:25:49 GMT RT said:

Many of them do.

Yeah, I don't even follow this particularly closely and I know that Patty Mills and Jrue Holliday donated their entire salary's from the bubble period to BLM charities & causes. 

A few white dudes on the internet being sceptical about how much this actually means to these guys, and how they should be doing more is laughable. There is clear change being created by the actions of athletes in America. Acting like they aren't making a difference is just being contrarian. 

Or LeBron opening a school and creating free housing for the poor kids in his hometown.

Practically all pro athletes that are doing financially well have foundations that give of their money.