Hong Kong vs NBA

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

It's comical to me that the uneducated LeBron James is the one telling the media that a MIT graduate and successful executive in a multi-billion dollar brand is the one that's supposedly misinformed. Daryl Morey is undoubtedly a more intelligent human being than LeBron James is and while every person's opinion holds some weight to a degree, LeBron downplaying Morey's intelligence on any issue besides basketball and charity work is a complete joke.

I have lost a lot of respect for LeBron over the way this has played out.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Just watched Lebron's comments...yeah I agree he dumped on Morey despite basically claiming. Doesn't know enough to really comment on the situation. Not a good look.

Meanwhile do I blame the NBA and even LeBron for basically hoping this all goes away. To some extent no. Why? I don't think they have the influence to make a difference especially what it would cost them. Should they have supported Morey more? Yes I think so even if I think it was very tricky. LeBron could have said Something along the lines of what he did Later in his talk with the media that Morey didn't think of the consequences etc but not say the guy was basically misinformed. That was pretty brutal even though he tried to clarify it in a tweet later.

Other times the NBA (and in some cases other entities) have stood up for causes because...they thought their power influence and $$$$$ could make a difference. I don't think even if they went bonkers and severed all ties with China it would make a difference in the outcome in that country although it would probably give some hope. Does that make it right? No but again there are battles to be fought and it makes sense to choose battles. A few posters have brought up a number of things to consider both here in this country as well as in others. Some more historical context has been added. It's worth remembering Silver works for the owners and obviously much more now (Especially compared to when David Stern was commish) the players as well. I think many here have outlined how they think all those entities reacted...they want to keep their money. I'm sure there are some who want to take a stronger stand but the majority wants to make this go away and wants to not lose a bunch money money...which would include players. If the cap drops every player is going to lose some Real money. Let's look at it this way. Would you want to risk losing some money because of an international situation you didn't Ben know about a couple days ago because someone tweeted out something? Maybe you would do the work to figure it out. Id hope I would also. This did Kinda come out of nowhere. I'm not suggesting we feel sorry for these players owners etc but I try and figure out why people do the things they do. I feel more bad for Morey who was tweeting like a human being but...he probably should have considered the consequences (Which I don't think he did)...that's part of the trade off of being a high profile person. But yes being told to shut up and dribble...not cool. Hopefully there is something we can take from this in our own lives.

At the same time, how many millions do you need in this world? He's worth $450 million (probably more) and the salary cap hit would be like $10-20 million per team if we abandoned China now based on the current revenue they add to the league. That's the difference between 27 million, 30 million or 33 million a year as a first year salary. Is a 6 million dollar gap when you are making 27 million that much money that you throw your morals out the window? We're talking tens of millions of dollars and losing only single digits of that in salary because of this situation. How greedy can these people be? It's just not relatable for most walks of life to compare to to say another person is taking money out of my wallet when my wallet has a couple hundred million in it and I only lose out on maybe 24 million total because of it. Grow a spine, get a conscience and suck up a couple million in losses for human rights. That doesn't seem like a big ask.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

To be fair, there are plenty of others that could step up here as well. For example, how about the owners? They are the ones that essentially run the league. Not a peep (unless I missed something).

I think it's easy to target folks like LeBron and Kerr that have not previously held back from taking strong political stances in the U.S. So they deserve people's ire, but there are other very powerful voices that have kept their head down on this one.

[TAFKASP]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lebron-james-jersey-hong-kong-protesters-burn-today-comments-on-daryl-morey-tweet-2019-10-15/?fbclid=IwAR2aR-z--ELKU8sNTh-gTttdW-B1Du5QVf9bQ1EnowtOiEh1cJaMqXS7Ivk

HK protestors burning LeBron's jersey! Love it!

[AbeVigodaLive]

It's comical to me that the uneducated LeBron James is the one telling the media that a MIT graduate and successful executive in a multi-billion dollar brand is the one that's supposedly misinformed. Daryl Morey is undoubtedly a more intelligent human being than LeBron James is and while every person's opinion holds some weight to a degree, LeBron downplaying Morey's intelligence on any issue besides basketball and charity work is a complete joke.

I have lost a lot of respect for LeBron over the way this has played out.

Not a fan of James. Not a fan of his comments. Obviously.

But the degree stuff is largely irrelevant.

[ItsJustSoSab]

Politics even reaching this forum. But that's sorta the point of this China standoff, right?

Sometimes, we can't pretend it's not a real thing... especially when it's right in front of us.

Even if it makes feel uncomfortable... or potentially costs us money. Ahem, ahem, Right, Mr. Silver? Steve Kerr? Others...

Sigh. I guess it was bound to happen, it did sort of surface last year on this board. As someone who works in politics I was hoping it wouldn't pop up again, but it's the NBA's fault here. As many people have already pointed out, the sheer hypocrisy of the entire NBA (not just LeBron and the players) is astounding. This is reallllyyyyy bad optics, they'll all just end up deflecting I assume until the Chinese games are all over and everybody moves on. The HK situation will continue, but the NBA can put distance between them and the situation. Well, until next year

And hey. The Wolves are gonna suck again. Might as well talk about something other than Wiggins' chucking up longgggggggggg 2's again

[Coolbreeze44]

It's comical to me that the uneducated LeBron James is the one telling the media that a MIT graduate and successful executive in a multi-billion dollar brand is the one that's supposedly misinformed. Daryl Morey is undoubtedly a more intelligent human being than LeBron James is and while every person's opinion holds some weight to a degree, LeBron downplaying Morey's intelligence on any issue besides basketball and charity work is a complete joke.

I have lost a lot of respect for LeBron over the way this has played out.

Not a fan of James. Not a fan of his comments. Obviously.

But the degree stuff is largely irrelevant.

Do you understand what it takes to be successful at MIT?

[AbeVigodaLive]

It's comical to me that the uneducated LeBron James is the one telling the media that a MIT graduate and successful executive in a multi-billion dollar brand is the one that's supposedly misinformed. Daryl Morey is undoubtedly a more intelligent human being than LeBron James is and while every person's opinion holds some weight to a degree, LeBron downplaying Morey's intelligence on any issue besides basketball and charity work is a complete joke.

I have lost a lot of respect for LeBron over the way this has played out.

Not a fan of James. Not a fan of his comments. Obviously.

But the degree stuff is largely irrelevant.

Do you understand what it takes to be successful at MIT?

I'm not saying it doesn't take intelligence to get a degree from MIT. But I'm just cautioning against us playing a "but look at those degrees" take on a cursory level as a sign of being smart on every issue. It's a dangerous slide...

Being smart goes way beyond what you learn at college/university.



[Note: Again, this is not endorsing James in any way.]

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I love this board (been reading longer than I've been writing) and it's kinda cool to hear people's opinions on things that happen off the basketball court too. I'm not a fan of Kerr, popovich and Lebron and this whole thing obviously didn't change that. You can't compare what's going on there with what's going on here. NBA looks terrible... only stand up for stuff when there's nothing to lose. I like watching basketball and talking basketball, but I place no value on anything they have to say.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I just have to say, I'm proud of the posters on this forum in regard to this issue. A lot of well informed people here not afraid to tell it like it is. Well done guys.

Exactly, I'm really impressed with about six posts in a row that I just read (each by different posters). It's refreshing to see people using logic and being objective