QRich3 wrote:
Me being a moderator has zero to do with my opinion in this debate, if you have an issue with the content of my post, you can report it, and I assure you I won't be the one dealing with it, but the other moderators. And I think you know them enough to trust they're not gonna be partial against either of us.
Sorry if I offended you, but like I've been saying, this is a highly delicate situation with big ramifications and lots of nuances, many of which most of us don't even know about. You can't pressure me into expanding my opinion, and then at the first turn where I make you consider our position in it, ask me to recluse myself. I mean, you can, but it's not fair to the conversation.
However, this being a basketball forum, and it already having a section where politics and world affairs are discussed, I'm good with leaving it right here, and apologizing if I offended anyone.
I accept your apology because this
If you want Chinese blood to satisfy your American 1st world power status, I think you're being selfish and hypocritical
IS offensive, both its nasty slander that I want "Chinese blood" and the personal attack and accusation of hypocrisy. Way out of line, sir.
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And it's not a delicate situation at all. It's a tsunami. Even the usual SJW suspects like Bill Plaschke and the LA Times can't talk LeBron out of this one.
Column: For LeBron James, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … except in Chinahttps://www.latimes.com/sports/lakers/story/2019-10-15/lebron-james-nba-china-daryl-morey-tweet-plaschkeIn tapping his inner mercenary, James revealed that even the sports world’s leading social equality warrior has his limits.
Sure, he said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere … except in China, because that’s where he sells truckloads of jerseys and shoes.
So freedom of speech is OK as long as it doesn’t inconvenience anyone? Yet back in 2012, on the afternoon of a game, James orchestrated one of his most powerful demonstrations when he and his Miami Heat teammates posed for a picture wearing hooded sweatshirts with heads bowed and faces hidden to protest the killing of teen Trayvon Martin.
Wow. Laker Nation never quite fell in love with LeBron during his injury-riddled first season and subsequent missing of the playoffs [again]. I wonder if success on the court this year can heal the hurt.
Probably, but the Lakers fans have surprised me before, sticking by their team through what was easily the worst 5-year span since they arrived in LA. I hated them as frontrunners--and some were--but the Lakes continued to sell out regularly and the TV ratings remained high, still better than the Clippers while they were piling up 50-win seasons and the Lakers were piling up 50- and even 60-loss campaigns.
The fact is, King James isn't all that loveable to begin with, and after this, it's hard to say there's really a decent guy underneath. I wonder what will happen now as the battle for the hearts of LA unfolds.
As for Adam Silver and HIS hypocrisy about "no politics" and his lame and ultimately insincere defense of Morey's "freedom of speech," Plaschke didn't spare the rod on him either.
To be fair, James isn’t the only one who’s been acting like a Chinese footstool. At the sight of the first Beijing frown, the NBA quickly rolled over and begged for forgiveness.
Morey deleted the tweet and modified his comments. Commissioner Adam Silver issued a public love note to China that sounded so much like an apology, American lawmakers criticized him for it. The NBA allowed the Chinese to not only cancel all media availability with the Lakers and Nets, but even cancel Silver’s news conference, selling out not just their values, but their actual freedom of speech. Think about that message. Even when the politically tinged Olympics were held in Beijing in 2008, the athletes were not silenced.
By treating the Chinese government like its most influential owner, the NBA was shameful in ways that betrayed the league’s well-earned image of inclusion and tolerance and social awareness. Once the Chinese began to take punitive actions, Silver should have ordered the Lakers and Nets to immediately return home without ever playing a game there. The decision to allow them to essentially become pawns in a showcase of Chinese indignation felt, well, uneducated.
Now the only question is whether NBA fans will continue the protest at games or at least outside the arenas. I hope they won't give Silver and the league a pass on this, and will dare him to throw them out for expressing the same freedom of speech that the NBA has so freely exercised.