GutUNC wrote:Negrodamus wrote:GutUNC wrote:Are ratings down because of Ben Simmons?
No, were ratings down because we were tanking? Did Jerry/Bryan Colangelo fix that solution?GutUNC wrote:Do you think the union is going to have Ben Simmons fake mental issues as a sticking point in the next CBA?
I think owners will point to this as being a large amount of exposure for something that is considered an extremely complex issue. Can't dismiss players with mental issues since the stigma exists, but players can certainly utilize it to be paid millions and not play for a franchise they don't like.... you know, kind of like what is *allegedly* occurring right now. With multiple players being open about their issues with mental health, it's becoming commonplace to talk about these issues, which is absolutely great. But there are also players like Kawhi, James Harden, Ben, Jimmy, who have tried to push their way out in the past 5 years with some even exaggerating injuries so they would be paid while holding out. Mental health issues becomes this umbrella issue that owners can't touch. Even now, many in the media are calling out Morey for trying to intervene with his treatment.
Imagine if this goes into next summer? Silver is not going to tolerate that. This is the league that vetoed the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers because they didn't like it.
The problem with tanking was idiots in the media like Wilbon acting like it was a new thing and ripping the team for doing it. That actually did bring negative attention to the league, unlike this Simmons situation. Nationally, no one cares about this as anything other then a soap opera topic.
David Stern veoted the Paul trade. He's dead now. That's not a Silver move.
This is has a bigger interest than any moment during our tanking seasons.
You're right, Stern is gone, now we have a guy who has intervened in team personnel at least as much as Stern in his short time as commissioner, including removed an owner from his team. To say he wouldn't intervene in something like this is really not looking at Silver's body of work.
Here's a comment by Marc Stein back in Sept:
"There is likewise great curiosity about the NBA's potential reaction. Would Commissioner Adam Silver go beyond exerting mere backchannel pressure on Simmons to report and step in to sanction him if he doesn’t? Several league insiders think so, but I’m not so sure. While true that the NBA dreads the idea of training camp holdouts coming back into vogue, like we saw in the early 1990s before the advent of rookie-scale contracts, intervention from the league is not always instant when discipline can come from the team first. The onus will be on the Sixers first to impose fines or a suspension."
At a certain point, this is going to distract from the season and Silver is going to be annoyed by it. He probably already is.