Jump to content

Milwaukee Bucks boycotting Game 5 in protest of the Jacob Blake shooting

shadow_operative

By shadow_operative
in Basketball

 Share

Recommended Posts

Brothahorn

Brothahorn 10087

Posted
Posted
Quote

 

Players and coaches held an all hands on deck meeting late on Wednesday night, and players spoke privately amongst themselves as well. On Thursday morning, the league's board of governors will convene for a special meeting of their own, according to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski. 

As of now, there are no plans in place for Thursday's games, though it's likely that those contests will be postponed, according to a report from Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated. He added that he's heard from multiple players that they want to go beyond simply sitting out one game. Furthermore, the players are demanding concrete action from the owners, and if they don't get something meaningful, the season could be in jeopardy.

 

Don't think we are going to see anymore basketball this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Replies 505
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

hobbes2702
hobbes2702

I’m sure this thread is gonna attract a ton of actual nba fans lol. Good for the Bucks. Hopefully some other teams follow suit

HtownHorn
HtownHorn

No charges? Oh my gosh, a wanted felon had a physical altercation with the police that were called because he was doing something illegal, and might have had a weapon on him at the time. They tried un

Wally Pryor
Wally Pryor

Guessing James was especially pissed that the Bucks boycotted before the Lakers could.   If anyone is enjoying this chase for martyrdom it's been the self-annointed King.  Feel terrible for him.

Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19152

Posted
Posted (edited)
39 minutes ago, ztejas said:

LeBron James said "Dammit I'm LeBron"

Aside - is LeBron the most powerful athlete in American sports history? In terms of influence on the league? 

Yes. Platform, meets social consciousness, meets a majority? Plurality? A shit load of people at least willing to listen. 
as proof of that power we ain’t having a season if he doesn’t sign off on it. That’s more power than any athlete has ever wielded imo. 

Edited by Wulaw Horn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19152

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Skipper said:

Exactly, I get the sentiment but nobody has a plan.  It's almost like the NBA can't unilaterally cure systemic racism and police abuse.

And the players haven’t (apparently) presented any concrete steps that they (owners) can do. Or if they have it hasn’t been reported yet. It’s still early- maybe they do have a proposal in mind. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19152

Posted
Posted

When I was a kid I remember watching a movie about a kid that refused to play little league until the US and USSR got rid of their nukes. Then, the cause got taken up by Major League Baseball players. Every pro athlete boycotted until the nines were removed. Does anyone remember this movie or the name of it?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wulaw Horn

Wulaw Horn 19152

Posted
Posted

Thanks dudes. So, that movie, while absurd in its premise- at lest had a tangible and measurable goal for what it would take to get Chuck back to playing little league. What’s the end game here?  
If it’s just- hey- there’s bad shit going on out there- we aren’t going to entertain you while our brothers are dying in the street I totally get that. And support the idea. It’s not the conclusion I think I’d draw but I’m not them.  I’m not going to knock that choice. 
If there’s something tangible they are looking to accomplish I don’t understand what that is. I’m willing to be persuaded. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Brothahorn

Brothahorn 10087

Posted
Posted (edited)

Would love to have a bug in that meeting. 

I'm sure they will have some ideas of what they want the owners to do. Just not sure the owners have the ability to do them. Just like the phone call with the Governor, earlier. I'm sure they had some sensible demand. But that may not have been something that he can just do. 

I'm sure a few 100 million will be offered up to a foundation. We'll see if it's enough.

 

Edited by Brothahorn
Link to comment
Share on other sites
d2o

d2o 1602

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Newdoc said:

Are the NBA owners in charge of police reform?

No but they have the ear of decision makers.    If they can hold a city hostage to get millions of dollars for stadiums maybe they can exert pressure on city/local leaders to at least commit to working on this.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32429

Posted
Posted

https://www.theringer.com/nba/2020/8/27/21403744/nba-milwaukee-bucks-strike-jacob-blake

 

Quote

Acts of protest are improbable by definition: They all seem small, in their way, as even a crowd of hundreds of thousands would in the shadow of the establishment, or as any idea would against the weight of history. That a protest might fail in its goals is what makes it so urgent. The precarity is the point—that there is something so crucial at stake that it absolutely cannot wait, least of all for the fight to feel manageable.

 

 

Quote

On Wednesday afternoon, the players of the NBA-leading Milwaukee Bucks refused to take the court for their playoff game against the Orlando Magic. Through their absence, they stood against the senseless shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which is to say they stood against 400 years of targeted violence and institutional prejudice against Black people. American racism is so calcified that to escape it would mean deconstructing nearly every pillar of modern life. A group of 17 basketball players furthered that effort by turning their attention to Kenosha, a lakeside town not 40 miles south of their home arena.

 

Quote

“We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demanding the officers be held accountable,” said Bucks guard George Hill, who read from a prepared statement on behalf of his teammates. Hill grew up hard in Indianapolis, where he lost a cousin to gun violence and police negligence. When a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of George Floyd earlier this year, asphyxiating him in front of witnesses in broad daylight, Hill lamented that his talent for basketball may have been the only thing to save him from a similar fate. “For this to occur,” Hill continued with the team’s statement, “it is imperative for the Wisconsin state Legislature to reconvene after months of inaction, and take up meaningful measures to address police accountability, brutality, and criminal justice reform.”

 

Quote

Standing beside him was Sterling Brown, a victim of that very brutality. In 2018, a group of Milwaukee police officers assaulted and Tasered Brown because he had double-parked in a Walgreens parking lot. One officer put his knee to Brown’s neck. The incident became a source of public embarrassment for city officials, but only because Brown—himself the son of a police officer—had played his way out of a small town in Illinois, earned a scholarship to SMU, and beat the odds to make the NBA as a second-round draft pick. A contract with the Bucks was the only thing that separated Brown from any other Black man in a hoodie. The city attorney’s office offered Brown $400,000 in an attempt to settle his civil suit. Brown refused, though that total would have added to the nearly $30 million in public funds that police brutality settlements have cost Milwaukee since 1958.

 

Spoiler

The Bucks made their statement on Wednesday not only with the clout of the NBA’s top team this season, but the authority of one based in the most segregated city in the United States. Blake’s shooting struck too close to home, particularly for players who were promised that they could use the game itself to promote change from inside the bubble. None has come. Most of the nation-wide legislative measures taken since Floyd’s death have been insultingly superficial, despite the efforts of the NBA’s players and the powerful demonstrations of activists around the country. Every trivial budget cut and incremental restructuring of a police department is an admission of how little our cities value Black lives. The complete failure of imagination in governance comes with its own body count.

Blake was shot seven times in the back at point-blank range, but he was as much a victim of the designs of American policing as he was the officer in question. The same underlying force pulled the trigger that killed 18-year-old Ty’Rese West in nearby Racine, pursued by officers because he rode his bicycle without a light. It empowered an officer in a Milwaukee suburb to kill 17-year-old Alvin Cole, his third shooting victim of color in five years. The Bucks know that they don’t have the power to redeem an entire culture of law enforcement. But they can start by seeking justice for Blake, and with a phone call to Wisconsin’s attorney general from their locker room.

Within hours of the Bucks’ protest, an entire day of NBA games had been called off in anticipation of player strikes—games featuring big-ticket superstars such as LeBron James, James Harden, and Chris Paul. The league itself was dragged toward something closer to real advocacy, after weeks of letting players wear one of 29 preapproved slogans on their jerseys and calling it social justice. Athletes and teams across the sporting world announced that they would sit out their own games in protest, from the neighboring Milwaukee Brewers to tennis sensation Naomi Osaka. Kenny Smith left his seat on Inside the NBA as a show of solidarity. By the day’s end, two especially meaningful developments had transpired: in a meeting of every NBA player in the bubble, the Lakers and Clippers—the two best teams in the Western Conference—reportedly voted to leave the Orlando bubble and sit out the remainder of the playoffs; and, more crucially, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an investigation into the shooting of Jacob Blake.

This is leadership. We should know it when we see it, if only because by now, we are so intimately familiar with its absence. Players around the league tried to maintain their message on social justice as scrimmages turned to seeding games turned to playoff series. Yet there was as much coverage of whether the fish were biting in the lakes of the Walt Disney World Resort as of the fight to find justice for Breonna Taylor. The public discussion had shifted from what it would mean to defund the police to what it might take to trade for Ben Simmons. Sports fans at large have a tendency to follow the ball. So the Bucks, moved by a righteous anger, left it on the rack where it belongs.

Every day in the bubble costs the NBA money and time, complicating what was already a delicately scheduled endeavor. This is how a single team mobilized the entire NBA board of governors, the league’s billionaire class, into an emergency meeting reportedly scheduled for Thursday morning. The Bucks are done with hollow corporate messaging. Either the real work begins, or the playoffs will come to the kind of an end that exposes the league itself.

These 17 players had millions of reasons to go about their business, compartmentalize their frustrations, and wrap up their first-round series against the Magic. Inertia is the most dangerous human instinct—it’s what compels us, with the slightest doubt, to ease back into the drumbeat of our daily lives. Bringing about lasting police reform is an undertaking too massive and complex to fully understand. Racist, complicit systems have been a part of the American experiment since its inception. They go so far beyond the shooting of an unarmed Black man or the honorable protest of a playoff game. And they go beyond a room of basketball players, which is exactly what the Bucks are trying to tell us.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted (edited)
36 minutes ago, d2o said:

No but they have the ear of decision makers.    If they can hold a city hostage to get millions of dollars for stadiums maybe they can exert pressure on city/local leaders to at least commit to working on this.

Precisely.  If I can shake a Municipality down for $500mm to build a new arena...and if my 41 homes games plus preseason and playoff games (totaling 60 dates plus the 100 dates "MY" arena now provides for concerts and other sports) are the greatest generator of overtime police work in terms of total man hours, then you can sure as shit bet I have the ear of the Mayor and Police Chief of these cities.  think about how many police work one NBA game or concert, not just inside as security but outside as traffic control plus how many extra patrols on the outskirts of the venue ready to pop people for DUI or just illegal turns to avoid traffic?  I bet the average NBA arena requires 50 additional police starting an overtime shift 2 hours before the game, 2.5 hours of the game, and 1.5 hours after the game for a total of 6 hours overtime per officer.  That's 300 man hours at 1.5x overtime pay.  That's 450 overtime man hours.  Call it 500 for maths 'cause it's early and I ain't had coffee yet.  150 total nights of programming at that arena.  

75,000 overtime man hours in the average NBA city just revolving around that team and arena.  Maybe as much as 100,000 in larger cities.  Google says average hourly salary is $30.  So let's call overtime, time and a half.  By 30 NBA cities/arenas.  We're talking about $100mm in police compensation nationwide solely because of the NBA and their arenas.  That might grab some attention.

NBA Owners:  "Hey, can y'all quit killing unarmed black men so we can get back to playing out our season?"
Police Union:  "Nope, we gotta make it home tonight to our families."  

NBA Owners:  "We're cancelling overtime for all arenas and games nationwide until you do." 

Police Union:  "Uh, fuck Chauvin.  We promise to behave, I don't even like my wife anyways.  We'll have parking lot barricades setup at 5:00p as per usual.  Thank you."  

Edited by Lobo
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mileslong

Mileslong 4728

Posted
Posted
No charges? Oh my gosh, a wanted felon had a physical altercation with the police that were called because he was doing something illegal, and might have had a weapon on him at the time. They tried unsuccessfully to end the conflict with non lethal means, but couldn't. Then the police immediately called for emergency services while tending to his injuries. What exactly should they be charged with, Doc. If you walked into your house with Blake sexually assaulting your wife or daughters, what the fuck would you do?

He would go find a referee to whine to saying Kawhi Leonard got fouled....
Link to comment
Share on other sites
LTtxfan

LTtxfan 49356

Posted
Posted (edited)

Yes things need to improve in the US.

Covid-19 has been a burden to many.

Also seems like lots of NBA players are tired of playing this season "In the Bubble"

(Paul George just admitted to being in a dark place because of the Bubble)

 

 

Edited by LTtxfan
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
hobbes2702

hobbes2702 13074

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, LTtxfan said:

Yes things need to improve in the US.

Covid-19 has been a burden to many.

Also seems like lots of NBA players are tired of playing this season "In the Bubble"

(Paul George just admitted to being in a dark place because of the Bubble)

 

 

Except only two teams said they didn’t want to continue to play. Maybe they are human beings and would actually like for people to stop being murdered by the state.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10527

Posted
Posted

I’ll respect their decision if the players decide to boycott the remainder of the season and hope that it does some good. However, I don’t want to hear the players bitching when the salary cap plunges in upcoming years. They’ll have to pay the price of progress. 

  • Hook 'Em 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingleberryswitzer

dingleberryswitzer 2724

Posted
Posted

A guy in the radio this morning made a good point.  He said if they all quit 'merica will probably forget about the NBA and their protest in less than a week. If they keep playing, then the players will at least have the countries attention for another month or so. 

My idea: An easy thing to do would be to keep playing, but ask the networks to allow players to speak during the broadcast instead of the PxP announcer.  Let them use the game as their platform.  Guys would already be in the bubble and can talk on their off days, or guys can talk via phone or even pre record stuff.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
aggie08

aggie08 21532

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

A guy in the radio this morning made a good point.  He said if they all quit 'merica will probably forget about the NBA and their protest in less than a week. If they keep playing, then the players will at least have the countries attention for another month or so. 

What got players in the bubble in the first place was the league promising players that they could use the bubble as a platform post George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. They got to wear their jerseys with pre-approved messages and talk about what their hats meant in post game press conferences. But, let's face it, once playoffs games started, all we really cared about was LeBron and Donovan Mitchell and "The Process" and Luca and Playoff P.

If they follow through and essentially walk out on the most important part of their season, I don't think people will forget.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TonyTexas

TonyTexas 10527

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

What got players in the bubble in the first place was the league promising players that they could use the bubble as a platform post George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. They got to wear their jerseys with pre-approved messages and talk about what their hats meant in post game press conferences. But, let's face it, once playoffs games started, all we really cared about was LeBron and Donovan Mitchell and "The Process" and Luca and Playoff P.

If they follow through and essentially walk out on the most important part of their season, I don't think people will forget.

Here’s what got players in the bubble. 

$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Edited by TonyTexas
Link to comment
Share on other sites
d2o

d2o 1602

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

A guy in the radio this morning made a good point.  He said if they all quit 'merica will probably forget about the NBA and their protest in less than a week. If they keep playing, then the players will at least have the countries attention for another month or so. 

My idea: An easy thing to do would be to keep playing, but ask the networks to allow players to speak during the broadcast instead of the PxP announcer.  Let them use the game as their platform.  Guys would already be in the bubble and can talk on their off days, or guys can talk via phone or even pre record stuff.  

Considering how many said "we need sports to help cope with the world" and how essential it was for games to be played, I dont think they will forget so easily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingleberryswitzer

dingleberryswitzer 2724

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, d2o said:

Considering how many said "we need sports to help cope with the world" and how essential it was for games to be played, I dont think they will forget so easily.

 

39 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

 

If they follow through and essentially walk out on the most important part of their season, I don't think people will forget.

I think you over estimate the attention span of the average American, especially the average sports fan.  (Of course non NBA fans don't give a shit either way)  If it's not on ESPN/TNT or Woj isn't tweeting about stuff they will forget.  NFL (allegedly) is starting soon... You know the most popular sport in the country.  

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dingleberryswitzer

dingleberryswitzer 2724

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

I will always rep this on sight

Haha, me too.  Wonder what this dude is thinking right now.  Has he ever had an opinion on anything in his life?  He probably think "please please please cancel the season my allegedly degenerative leg condition was about to flare up after playing all these games!!"

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Billy Pilgrim

Billy Pilgrim 1984

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just anecdotally- my interest (and the interest of my immediate group of friends/family) was Luke warm at best for the restart of basketball (and hockey and baseball for that matter). I guess the sense was that these championships would have an asterisk by them and wouldn’t really be legitimate (like we think about aggy’s championship from the 1930’s). I don’t even watch any other games if the mavs aren’t playing and even then I only tune in to the second half. I don’t know that a boycott of what little season is left will have much of a lasting impact. If they want to boycott next season, that’s a real sacrifice and will definitely get people’s attention.

These guys absolutely have the right to walk out in protest and I don’t have a problem with it. I do think there will be consequences associated with it in future seasons like Tony said above. I think Gen X and younger generations with come back to basketball when it returns but I do think the boycotts will turn off a lot of older fans that will be much slower to return.

Edited by Billy Pilgrim
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BradInATX

BradInATX 9208

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Haha, me too.  Wonder what this dude is thinking right now.  Has he ever had an opinion on anything in his life?  He probably think "please please please cancel the season my allegedly degenerative leg condition was about to flare up after playing all these games!!"

spacer.png

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Haha, me too.  Wonder what this dude is thinking right now.  Has he ever had an opinion on anything in his life?  He probably think "please please please cancel the season my allegedly degenerative leg condition was about to flare up after playing all these games!!"

He's not thinking. He leaves that up to uncle Dennis.

Fuck Kawhi.

  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Skipper

Skipper 6200

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

 

My idea: An easy thing to do would be to keep playing, but ask the networks to allow players to speak during the broadcast instead of the PxP announcer.  Let them use the game as their platform.  Guys would already be in the bubble and can talk on their off days, or guys can talk via phone or even pre record stuff.  

You plan is for a bunch of guys with zero broadcasting experience talk about social justice issues while a game is being played?  Like half play by play half BLM?   LOL.   Brilliant.

  • Hook 'Em 1
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Don Johnson

Don Johnson 4755

Posted
Posted (edited)
44 minutes ago, d2o said:

Considering how many said "we need sports to help cope with the world" and how essential it was for games to be played, I dont think they will forget so easily.

People did say that.  But the reality is that they aren't tuning in.  There's a bunch of reasons for that.  I've been watching since the playoffs started but honestly the whole thing has a weird feel to it, and there's an unspoken asterisk that will be placed next to the champ no matter what.  I honestly don't think anyone will care if the season is called off and it will be "yesterday's news" within a week.

IMO, the NFL and CFB aren't going to be the ratings boon some expect either.  The NFL has fantasy, which will help it a lot but CFB is going to be as weird as the NBA.  

Edited by Don Johnson
  • Hook 'Em 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
immortal13

immortal13 4059

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Kermit said:

Wait, so the Lakers and the Clippers are pulling out and neither one is going to win a championship this season? The fuck did I do to deserve this?

Looks like ol Bron is abandoning his quest to eclipse the legacy of Michael Jordan. Smart move since that wasn't going to happen anyway.

  • Hook 'Em 2
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Skipper

Skipper 6200

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

it would be bad ass if nfl teams did this too. that would reach the demographic that needs to hear the message as well.  but the owners are too powerful there. the jerruhs of the world are still mad a kaep and have their thumbs on the screws too much 

The vast, vast majority of NFL players have extremely short playing careers and want/need their game checks.  It's the reason why their union is by far the weakest of all major sports.  I absolutely think there is a significant contingent of the NBA that feels the same way but NBA is way more star driven.   On one hand I respect Lebron for taking a stand, something many iconic sports figures have failed to do, but he's not really risking anything financially whatsoever.  Hell, this may end up helping his endorsement income.  But the last 3-4 off the bench that will never have a shoe deal and know every season might be their last (or only season) have a little more at stake if they shut things down.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...