NBA Season Part 2: Life In The Orlando Bubble

Someone send these posts to Dwight!

 

a valid argument for both sides

 

I'm beginning to lose interest in the NBA with this long covid stoppage, and might lose interest completely with a lost season after almost a decade of Laker mediocrity... sigh, classic UFC has kept me sane during the lockdown

 

ehhhh i'm not so sure he's praising lebron. we all know he's a troll on and off the court

to me it sounds more like "i know there's a lot of you who don't want the season to restart but because lebron wants to play, then we're gonna play"

 

Hey Kareem if / when the bubble gets burst and players start getting infected again during the playoffs and the season winds up having to be SHUT DOWN anyway after all this ..... it has still been an awesome season. IMO. My Lakers" fandom was certainly appreciative and thankful for it and what a joy to basically go wire to wire again in 1st place in the freaking West. And we were gelling at the right time. Go pound sand all the "ring is the only thing" people out there. Again .... IMO.

 

If we don’t win the championship, it’s a wasted season.

— Kobe

 

I don't think I will support the players who choose not to play. Anyone who doesn't play on the Lakers team should be let go or traded. Sorry, but I am having a hard time with it. This started as a Covid response and is turning into the mega-Colin response. I have personally learned so much about the racial divide in this country by listening to NBA players like Kareem, Lebron, etc. What they are doing now, I fear is going to actually set everything way back. They have a chance to teach and educate. Using it as a simple quest to punish and protest everyone else is going to eventually lead to more problems.

Real equality will come when everyone chooses to live together in the same communities. For that to happen, crime has to be dealt with on a real and personal basis across all ethnicities. If our society invests in down trodden areas, we have to keep the people who live there, lift them up and then have others want to move in with them. Otherwise the people there will just be displaced by others who are more wealthy. It's going to take a long long time and if the response by all ethnic communities is to stop and protest until everything is equal, well it is not going to work. Other people are not going to respond positively to this.

I want to learn, I want to be a better person, but I don't want to be punished for the sins of my great great grandparents, I wouldn't have liked them myself and I don't want to carry their sins to my grave. What's next?? You know that retribution for the poor treatment of the American Indians is coming next right? Where will this end? Sorry, not trying to be rude, if you want to remove this, then do it. I'm a bit burned out by this whole thing.

 

The solution is not uncomplicated. I’m not sure what a satisfactory result is right now, but it kind of makes me wish Adam Silver was in charge. Much better head on his shoulders than our incumbent chief.

 

Do you mean David Stern?

 

The players who don't want to play are free to do so . The season will resume .

Good luck dealing with your franchise and teammates after that

 

If this was strictly about COVID-19 restrictions, I think a lot of the players who sit out could expect some blowback from the teams and teammates. But some of the more reluctant players seem to be genuinely caught up in the moment, which is about police murdering people of color with impunity. I just don't see teammates and franchises giving these guys a lot of grief for sticking to their guns and feeling like they are abandoning that cause if they whisk themselves way to Disneyworld to play sports. It's pretty forgivable in my book, even if I'd personally be disappointed to see our ring chances diminish.

 

I think they are going to lose some fans, just saying. My comment to the players is, use the access. You have the microphone, you have the media access, use it to state your case! Do it eloquently. Do it peacefully. Become Jabbar, become MLK, people are listening, they are responding to reason in an unprecedented way. The opportunity is now. The blow back for over doing it and ruining things, is not going to be good. Screw the league, screw the CBA, the results for all the players and the reaction from your fans are not going to be good. Do it the right way, make it a positive, not a negative. Give people the chance to embrace you.

 

I agree with most of this. The players gained their platform through basketball and that's where they can continue to use it. These guys are going to have microphones crammed in their faces after every practice, after every game, and after every late-night trip to the John to take a p***. They could be a lot more effective traveling with their teams and finishing out the season. I just don't see much blowback if they choose not to. Their hearts are in the right place.

 

I don’t see how they show up with a straight face for 20-21 season workouts just 2 or 3 months later? If this is all about their social stance.