NBAPA Lawyer: Double standard exists regarding age limit for black basketball players and white athletes in other sports

[JMac1]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0DN7ws-8_Q[/youtube]

[JMac1]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdSsBYO1oNI[/youtube]



Anyone can find violent video of anyone behaving like animals.

[eagereyez]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFTfR6WycA[/youtube]

[SlovenianDragon]

How come just black basketball players? Why not all basketball players?

Is this lawyer just trying to use the race card?

[baubo]

Incredibly late to this topic, but this isn't a race issue. It's a “can you get away with it” issue. NBA (as well as NFL and to lesser extent MLB) can get away with it. Most professional sports organizations cannot. Even if the player race distribution in the NBA is 80% white, it would still try to screw high schoolers and college players during each CBA negotiations. Business people are not racists. They only care about the color green.

[cold_cowboy]

Serious question - everyone is talking about white privilege and black disadvantage. What about everything that falls in between (asian, hispanic, etc.)?

I know this is a stupid question probably, but even say back during segregation when there were black and white schools, which school would asians and Hispanics and other ethnicities go to?

Everyone is effected by Systematic white supremacy. It so happens that there is one melanated group that is targeted far more and hated as well as owed far more than anyone else. I could create a list of how it effects different groups and even subgroups within their structure. This term privilege and disadvantage is disingenuous. That would mean I can as a Black person be privilege to all that white supremacy has to offer as a benefit when clearly that isn't the case if I am the richest Black man or the poorest. I have had privilege upbringing and I am still be affected by white supremacy. Let's call it what it is. This play nice with words is pussyfooting from the truth. Do not be cowardice as a man but do not be hardheaded either.

There wasn't that many Hispanics or Asians outside of a few states. I would have to research that.

In my case im half asian and half white (I look like an asian guy though). Would that mean I benefit from white privilege or am disadvantaged by it or neither?

if advantages are gauged by a persons finances then we can surely admit that asian-americans including indians are amongst the wealthiest in this country and have surely taken advantage of the structure that europeans and western culture has built.

then again, the bulk of this discussion is about social issues.

i feel like the people who are fixated on historical tragedies are victims of circular reasoning in which they only consume time and energy in rationalizing as to why they are in their crap conditions, often concluding that their lack of success is a result of injustices outside the realm of their control. that's not to say that history doesn't offer us valuable social lessons and may even conclude that the injustices may be true, however, it is a weak and impersonal tool that does not combat their positions in life. no matter how long my time has been spent in the united states, i will never understand this victim complex that people manifest considering this country has been proven to develop the most intelligent and successful people on the planet of all racial backgrounds.

whatever the original discussion was about the NBAPA lawyer and his claims of racism is just another sound bite to raise an issue in an attempt to divert profits from one organization to another.

[jc23]

there is alot of racism in this country but this isnt a very good example. This is about money. And as a fan i would prefer to not have an 18 year old on my squad, just too many uncertainties.

If it does happen my guess is the owners will ask for lower rookie salaries and a team option in the 2nd year of a 1st round draft picks contract.

[ldnk]

I agree with Mr. Kohlman. The NBA age limit is inherently racist. You can even point to other sports like tennis and golf where there are teenagers playing on the professional tour and nobody bats an eye. But when talented black athletes want to turn pro after graduating from high school in basketball, everybody goes nuts. The age limit is completely ludicrous.

And yet Football makes you go to College or at least be out of high school for 3 years. So I don't buy this whole racist argument. It had a lot more to do with owners/GMs wanting guys coming into the league more NBA ready. While there are certainly a lot of good players who came directly out of high school there are also a lot of guys who get drafted out of high school and take many years to get adjusted.

Personally I don't really care one way or the other but to frame this as racism is a straw man argument.

It should also be pointed out that while MLB and the NHL draft players at 18, the vast majority of those players continue to play either junior non-professional hockey or spend many years through a long development process in the minors. It's not really the same thing as the NBA that really doesn't have an effective development league yet.

[xRapHeadx]

How come just black basketball players? Why not all basketball players?

Is this lawyer just trying to use the race card?

The rule affect black people disproportionately, but you know this and are willing to remain ignorant. I'll leave you to it.

[xRapHeadx]

I can't believe how surprised I am that there are so many bigots that like the NBA. i wonder how they rationalize it?

[xRapHeadx]

I guess I don't dwell that much on what happened to my ancestors or my ancestor's ancestors. I live in the here and now. Easy to say I guess when I don't have a history of repression in my gene pool. We can't forget it but we can't let it continue to shape our outlook or we never will get past it.

Agreed.

One thing you must understand is that the plight of Black people in America is truly, truly unique.

There is no real precendence.

After slavery, we never left this place; perhaps we should have.

There is a lot of stuff stacked up against blacks in America like the judicial system, racism, the police and the war on drugs etc, but the biggest disadvantage is the Black American culture, This culture, which I believe has been implemented instead of naturally formed, is self destructive. The first problem is that a big part of the culture is having a huge percent of African American households with a single mother. Without another parent each household has a big disadvantage for their kid. They are more likely to remain in poverty and also commit a crime. To compound this, the 2nd issue is that the culture in the inner city often times idolizes the rap ganster culture, which promotes violence and other bad values. Where I work I see many people from around the world. When I see a black family from overseas they almost always have a father. When I see an African American family usually there is no father as a part of their family. These 2 issues are severe disadvantages not faced by Blacks in many other parts of the world.

What the African American community should do is throw the idiot rapper celebrities away that are fixtures of the African American culture. These morons promote violence and materialism with their songs.

Ok. I'll bite.

Single motherhood is not a precursor for poverty or crime. Poverty is a precursor for poverty or crime. It makes little sense that two poor people marrying would add more stability.

On rap music: You obviously don't listen to rap, as the general culture of it has gone far far away from "gangster" culture, but anyway. It's a medium of entertainment. I don't many blaming Breaking Bad for the popularization of meth usage in the United States(whites use drugs at a higher rate, but black people are arrested for it at a higher rate). People don't blame Breaking Bad and other crime glorifying television because it's dumb to do.

[Dyabolikal]

Quick question . . . was the age limit imposed unilaterally by the NBA or was it collectively bargained by both sides? If it was the latter then the NBAPA did their membership a serious disservice (I'm aware there was a regime change in leadership) by allowing it to stay on the table and it was voted on by a majority of the players. That doesn't preclude it from being racist on some level, but if should never get near the final proposal of a contract if the players truly feel this strongly about it.

[Pointgod]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdSsBYO1oNI[/youtube]



Anyone can find violent video of anyone behaving like animals.

This is brilliant but I won't be surprised if it goes above the heads of 90% of the posters in this thread.

[ishoy123]

I might be wrong, but wasn't it the NBAPA who wanted to raise the age limit previously to protect players who were already in the league?

[Prokorov]

when white basketball players can turn pro at 15 and black players cant he will have quite a case. until then he needs to STFU and GTFO with the race card

[madmaxmedia]

Can someone tell me how my situation is any different from an NBA prospects?

The summer after my senior year in high school I worked an unpaid internship for a software development firm. I did well at my internship so they put me into a 4 year scholarship program where I continued to work as an unpaid intern, while they paid for my college education.

By the time I was a sophomore it was clear that I was qualified for my job, but I needed a degree before they could put me on salary. So I stuck it out for 3 more years and was officially hired the day after my graduation.

Are these unpaid internships racist against while folks? Just trying to keep the white man down? No that's ridiculous, just like this conversation is.

Your example is very different. That particular company may not want to hire you unless you have a degree, but you could pursue a job somewhere else, work freelance, etc. It was also your choice to take an unpaid internship, keep in mind that you could find a paying job as a software developer while pursuing a degree and eventual full-time career in software development.

If you were a 'superstar' developer and developed something really great, of course there is also nothing preventing you from selling your idea, starting a company, etc. while you went to college.

A basketball player who wants to play basketball as a career can't do many of those things. There even used to be stringent rules about whether they could get part-time jobs of any kind, while attending college as a student-athlete.

Here's another reason why your experience is different. Is your company generating large profits from your work there? But now we are getting away from NBA rules and going into NCAA which is another can of worms.

The NBAPA lawyer did not say the age limit was racist, he said it was a double-standard, which I agree with.

[wigglestrue]

The NBAPA lawyer did not say the age limit was racist, he said it was a double-standard, which I agree with.

Racial double standards = racism.
NBAPA lawyer was explicit enough.

''If they were white and hockey players they would be out there playing. If they were white and baseball players they would be out there playing,'' Kohlman said. ''Because most of them are actually African-American and are in a sport and precluded from doing it, they have to go into this absurd world of playing for one year.

And, he's wrong. The number of 18-year-olds playing at any time in the MLB and NHL is almost always zero. The hundreds of high school graduates drafted to play baseball are seasoned for years in the minor leagues. When one finally does make the big leagues, only then does a six-year clock begin ticking on the team's control. Almost all of those draftees fail. I don't know what percentage of the majority who fail go on to enroll in college. If most of them were black, we would probably/certainly know that statistic by now. Not only is the double standard not racial, not only is there no double standard privileging baseball draftees, it's the opposite double standard if it's anything at all. MLB draftees out of HS are vastly more screwed than would-be NBA high school draftees have ever been. The NBAPA is utterly full of ****.

[Notanoob]

Quick question . . . was the age limit imposed unilaterally by the NBA or was it collectively bargained by both sides? If it was the latter then the NBAPA did their membership a serious disservice (I'm aware there was a regime change in leadership) by allowing it to stay on the table and it was voted on by a majority of the players. That doesn't preclude it from being racist on some level, but if should never get near the final proposal of a contract if the players truly feel this strongly about it.

It's to the benefit of older players that there is an age limit. Fewer young guys to come in and kick them out of a job. The NBAPA does this sort of thing. It's like how the max contract rule benefits the non-superstar talents because LeBron can't take up 80% of the cap.

[nbhadja]

Agreed.

One thing you must understand is that the plight of Black people in America is truly, truly unique.

There is no real precendence.

After slavery, we never left this place; perhaps we should have.

There is a lot of stuff stacked up against blacks in America like the judicial system, racism, the police and the war on drugs etc, but the biggest disadvantage is the Black American culture, This culture, which I believe has been implemented instead of naturally formed, is self destructive. The first problem is that a big part of the culture is having a huge percent of African American households with a single mother. Without another parent each household has a big disadvantage for their kid. They are more likely to remain in poverty and also commit a crime. To compound this, the 2nd issue is that the culture in the inner city often times idolizes the rap ganster culture, which promotes violence and other bad values. Where I work I see many people from around the world. When I see a black family from overseas they almost always have a father. When I see an African American family usually there is no father as a part of their family. These 2 issues are severe disadvantages not faced by Blacks in many other parts of the world.

What the African American community should do is throw the idiot rapper celebrities away that are fixtures of the African American culture. These morons promote violence and materialism with their songs.

Ok. I'll bite.

Single motherhood is not a precursor for poverty or crime. Poverty is a precursor for poverty or crime. It makes little sense that two poor people marrying would add more stability.

On rap music: You obviously don't listen to rap, as the general culture of it has gone far far away from "gangster" culture, but anyway. It's a medium of entertainment. I don't many blaming Breaking Bad for the popularization of meth usage in the United States(whites use drugs at a higher rate, but black people are arrested for it at a higher rate). People don't blame Breaking Bad and other crime glorifying television because it's dumb to do.

Single motherhood is a big part of poverty. 2 poor people working is twice the income. 20 vs 40 thousand a year is a big difference. Also it has been proven over and over again that a child growing up in a single family household has a disavantage in many areas is is more likely to commit a crime.

As for rap music I have listened to it. It's trash. Most of the popular rappers are bragging about "being hard", "getting shot 9 times", and most of the popular songs are about violence, materialism, and sex. It have a huge affect on people. It's dumb to ignore this. It's not just a medium for entertainment. People base their desires, personalities, and views on it. It shapes them.

Meth has been a common drug way before the recent tv show breaking bad existed. The comparison is not valid at all. The African American culture before the modern rap culture was much different than it is now. It was only when this ganster rap trash culture took over did it the culture change.

Like I said in my previous post there is a reason why blacks in other modern countries are better off than blacks in America....they don't have single parent households dominate their demographics nor do they have this rap culture affecting them.

[madmaxmedia]

The NBAPA lawyer did not say the age limit was racist, he said it was a double-standard, which I agree with.

Racial double standards = racism.
NBAPA lawyer was explicit enough.

I think there's a difference between 'racist' and 'discriminatory', which is how I personally view his statements.

racist- having or showing the belief that a particular race is superior to another.
discriminatory- making or showing an unfair or prejudicial distinction between different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

As far as your other statement goes, yes most minor leaguers never make the majors. But that's a decision that's afforded to each baseball player. They actually have that option to pursue a professional career instead of college, and those that are highly regarded sign pretty big contracts right out of high school.

Are you in support of the age limit in the NBA? I don't think it's an all-or-nothing issue. The reason it exists has more to do with the 'college sports industry' than anything else. I think NBA revenue and popularity is now big enough to support a development system like baseball, and that would be the best scenario. College would still be an option for players who want to simultaneously pursue a degree, as it is for college baseball players.