Mephariel wrote:13th Man wrote:Mephariel wrote:
Politics is part of life. In today's arena, players have voices that can reach far beyond any normal person with Twitter, Facebook, etc. There will always be politics in sports because it is human nature to want to speak out on certain things. The NFL is a good example why I don't get why you are all bothered by it. The players protest for 10 minutes during the singing of the anthem. It is not like they are protesting half the game. But people are complaining as if the players got on to their knees after every scrimmage.
Again, I don't see how you can ban political discussion or discourage discussion without getting a enormous amount of backlash. Speaking out for a cause is not a bad thing and yes, it will lead to a firestorm one day. But the NBA will need to learn how to put it out.
Because where is it going to stop? You say that nobody should be bothered by players kneeling. Then they start to bash political figures that they don't like. Then they start talking about people sharing public restrooms. Then they talk about China. See my point? Where do you draw the line? Many of these are controversial topics backed by political agenda, just because you are ok with them doesn't mean that others aren't. And because there is no line, the NBA now look like hypocrites because they backed on SJW issue but not another. What happens is when you give people an inch, they eventually want to take a mile.
It's easy, just put policies in place, corporations do this all the time. Nobody is saying that they can't have an opinion or cannot speak their minds. How about doing it on your own time and not use your employer's time and platform for it? Why is that so hard to abide by?
How often do they do that? 90%+ of the time, you turned on the football game, you see people playing football. You turned on a basketball game, you see basketball. How often do you hear about those topics in the middle of the game? Almost never. If you hear about the political issues, it is because you want to read about it online. So I don't see how this affects the product. If you don't like the politics, don't click on twitter links or read articles. But the fact that you do should tell you why politics is a part of life and you can't just get rid of it. It is human nature to be curious about what others are saying and it is human nature to say it. You keep saying where it is going to stop as if players are not playing the game anymore. They are, but they are also public figures that will voice their opinions.
As for putting policies in place, unless they ban the use of Twitter, facebook, etc, how are they going to stop it? NBA players have multiple platforms they can use outside of work hours. And why stop it? Social commentary is part of the reason the players have followers and it increase popularity of the NBA's reach.
Again, If you've been following my argument, nowhere did I suggest that they stop using OTHER platforms to voice their concerns. The Morey case is different because the Chinese took great exception to it in any case, they consider his words a representation of the Houston Rockets and the NBA.
When I go watch a game or watch an ESPN broadcast, I don't want to hear peeps try to push their political agenda onto me. I watch sports as an escape from all of this. You're ok with it because those things align with your ideologies, what if they pushed a different agenda in which you don't agree with? It starts off with race, then transforms into LGTBQ rights, then onto bashing Trump, then onto who knows what else? We're already being pushed extreme biased views by 90% of the mainstream media, sports was an outlet in which I would be free of this. Also notice that all of the SJW issues pushed are left leaning, this is a fact I'm sure you cannot be that blind not to see this.
The movie industry has already been tainted, cable news outlets, the press, the comedy industry, and now sports entertainment. There is basically nothing left that is sacred in its purest form and you're ok with that? Look what happened to Dave Chappelle not too long ago, he got 17% on Rotten tomatoes while getting a 99% rating from the real public audience.
Can we not have just one source of entertainment to leave politics alone?