bbalnation wrote:Duke4life831 wrote:bbalnation wrote:
Watch Kaps Netflix show if you haven't already? I see where you're coming from and generally agree, there does need to be a structure that promotes competition. But that structure needs to consider the very real history that exists within slavery & sport. Right now, it doesnt, but it does more so than it did 10, 20, 50 years ago, etc.
To say "there is nothing racist about this situation" is very black and white/all or nothing thinking. We live in racist and sexist systems, that were part of. So its natural that there will be pieces of it in different places. To denounce it authoritatively and with confidence, when the history is there and the structure isn't currently adequately set up...?
This is what I cant stand with this stuff. I cant stand when people look for undertones and things between the lines, when there really is nothing there. Ya I saw parts of Kaepernicks show and thought it was laughably bad. Him trying to draw connections between the NFL combine and a slave auction. Guess what the combine is, its a job interview. Guess what the job is for, an athletic game. Guess what is very important for a professional athletic game, athletic measurements. Guess what is the best way to get get those, to measure their athletic abilities. I also love how the NFL went from being racist for blackballing him, to now the NFL itself is a racist system...
Also the very real history that exists within slavery and sport? Ya back in the days only whites were allowed to play professional sports. But now there is a slavery connection to the basic structure of sports? That makes zero sense. How is the basic structure of the NBA (like playing for a team) have racist undertones when there were no black players in the NBA for the first 4 years of it? Or were the people that created the NBA just so forward thinking that they knew decades down the line the NBA was going to be a majority of black players, so they decided to make a connection between how they created the structure for the league and slavery...
There is nothing racist about a basic contract. Again there is nothing in NBA contract that says a white player can go choose his team whenever he wants but a black player cant. I dont recall people talking about the racist structures of the NBA when JJ Redick came out and was pissed that he asked for a trade and didnt get one, and he wanted to play up in New York and by the time he did get traded it was down to Texas.
Kids of all races and from all over the world dream about being professional athletes. They dream about playing in the NBA or the NFL or whatever league. There are countless stories of players talking about how they were heart broken because they didnt get invited to the NFL combine. These arent racist structures.
You don't (yet) see the racism in these structures, Duke4life831.
It doesn't mean that they aren't there, since systems we live in are inherently designed to benefit a few over the rest, and were building systems on top of said flawed systems (before improving or recreating them).
I thought people would rock with the Kap show, noted that its not for everyone.
When we look back on history, we'll see the facts about these contracts:
We'll see that 50% of NBA profits have gone to 30 NBA owners, and over 75% of those owners are White Males.
What fans are paying to see are the players themselves (lets say 75% Black)
These are relevant facts and stats because we see that race exists in this population, even if you choose to close your eyes to it.
The way we evaluate value add now is different than it will be in... 30-50 years. Im not quite sure what value add these owners have brought beyond dollars, and right now, the league is healthy enough to sustain itself (thus CBA negotiations are gonna be interesting)
You may be inclined to explain why owners are important. I'm saying, in x years, I think that **** will be seen as meaningless, and people will be saying that billionaires/owners are just people who sit around and make money off of peoples backs all day.
You are again overlooking that these "racist structures" were created with white players in mind. The NBA was created in 1946, it didnt have a black player until 1950. MLB first season was 1876, Jackie Robinson didnt play until 1947. The NFL was created in 1920, it had 1 black player in it. Then once he was gone the owners had an agreement to not allow anymore black players. They didnt have another black player until 1946.
So these racist structures that youre talking about having slavery connections. Were not created with black players in mind, in fact quite the opposite. The majority of them were created with the idea of not allowing black players.
Just because these leagues became really popular and many would then end up having a black majority. Doesnt mean that the structures that built these leagues were built with the idea of treating players like slaves, because the majority of owners are white and at this current day the majority of players are black.
Again youre connecting dots that arent there. You're creating a false narrative to fit your narrative. I dont see the racism in these structures, because these structures arent racist. You have to purposely be ignorant and not look at how these leagues were created, to believe these leagues were built with a slavery inspired structure so white men can take advantage of black athletes.
