Well, not just people on the internet. It’s practically a right wing talking point that rich people should shut up and play ball.
Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and senior adviser, offered an equally dismissive take.
“Look, I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they’re able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially so they have that luxury which is great,” Kushner said on CNBC.
Yet another example of:
“Black people should protest peacefully.”
[black people protest peacefully]
[Angrily] “NO! Not like that!”
They’re uppity.
4 Years old and still relevant.
Here’s the thing though. They’re asking for police to stop killing Black people and as a protest, they’re taking away a few of your basketball games. Think about which one people get more upset about?
Within 24 hours of the Bucks game that didn’t happen, Trump is throwing a tantrum about it. He’s been president for just about 4 years and I have yet to see him get as angry or frustrated about police killing Black people as he has about missed basketball games, a few people taking a knee at football games or Bubba Wallace not apologizing for finding a noose in his garage.
I don’t think they’re skipping anything, just pushing the schedule back. It’s still a best of 7 series. You can’t really skip a game.
Technically, Bubba Wallace didn’t apologize for someone else finding a noose in his garage. The scoundrel.
Good commentary in Slate about the strike.
A defining feature of American sports is that a predominantly white management class and consumer base is dependent on the labor and talent of a workforce that is disproportionately Black… It’s a worldview that grants Black people the right to work and entertain, to “shut up and play,” but not to be full human beings or coequal members of the populace.
Maybe ponder on that a bit when you’re complaining that the players need to dance to your tune, and fuck whatever’s important to them.
Frankly, I think all the NBA players (and every other sport) should refuse to play until the problem is addressed.
That’s what I’m saying. After we (Bubba included) found out the noose had been there since before it was even his garage, Trump wanted him to apologize, which he didn’t, which made Trump mad. Keeping in mind, Trump was likely much angrier that Bubba didn’t apologize than he was about the noose.
Nice! Good job, y’all!
14 MLB teams in all - the Athletics, Rangers, Phillies, Nationals, Twins, Tigers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Orioles, Rays, Mets, and Marlins elected to postpone tonight’s games.
You know, I saw this thread title and I said to myself, “Self - who do you suppose has opened this thread?” What do you know - I was right.
Good for all of these athletes to use their clout to protest. Systemic racism and police violence have got to end.
I wish that ignoring a poster would also result in ignoring that poster’s threads.
Hockey has delayed today’s and tomorrow’s games as well. Good for them!
Tennis player Naomi Osaka (2 time grand slam winner and former 1) announced she would forfeit her semi-final match on Wednesday in solidarity with the protests. The tournament later decided to pause all play for the day and then presumably convinced her to play on Friday.
For a tennis player to forfeit a match, especially in a single elimination tournament (as almost all tennis tournaments are) can have a serious impact on them. Tennis players don’t belong to a team or draw a salary, so not playing a match means less income. There are usually ranking points on the line to, which determines where in the draw of future tournaments they will end up. And, given the lack of play this year, missing any match leading up to the US Open will impact your chances at succeeding there. So although, it did not end up being a loss for Osaka because the tournament (which is not her employer) decided to postpone a day for everyone, I still commend her for making the gesture.
//i\\
I’m not a sports person but I’m impressed. The athletes and sports organizations have finally found a way to hit the stereotypical Trump fan where it hurts. They ignore the peaceful marches and rallies because who cares about “those people.” The protests that turn violent are just more proof that “those people” are bad and President God should just wipe them out. When it was just some guys kneeling during the national anthem they could make a big show of burning their NFL souvenirs and saying they’d never watch football again. But the games still got played and I’d bet you those guys all kept right on watching football the whole time.
Now the games are getting taken away and it’s whole teams boycotting with the leagues’ blessings. They can’t ignore it anymore and it’s pissing them off. It’s so funny watching grown men acting like kids whose favorite cartoon just got canceled because they can’t watch sports for one night.
Naomi Osaka is just 22 years old.
That’s some moral bravery right there.
LOL.
Not for someone like Naomi Osaka it doesn’t. Osaka made $37 million last year, which was the highest income for any female athlete ever. The vast majority of which was NOT from actually winning tennis games; it was from endorsements, including a Nike deal that paid her more than $10 million just last year, and that runs through 2025.
Even if the rest of the tournament had not been postponed, I doubt that one forfeit like this would have any noticeable impact on Osaka’s chances in the major tournaments (especially given her status as a past winner, which also counts in the rankings and seedings), and I doubt it affected her earning potential at all. Hell, this sort of gesture might make her even more attractive to companies like Nike, which have been pushing their political wokeness over the past few years.
I still think it was an admirable thing for Osaka to do, but let’s not go overboard about the possible consequences.
I agree that for her particular case it is not going to have a significant impact financially, but you are incorrect in your statement about what counts for rankings and seeding (my bold above). Rankings and seeding are based on your performance during the last 12 months (though they have decided to make it 24 months because of COVID this year). It does not matter how much she has won in the past, if she hasn’t won anything recently then her ranking will go down and no tournament is going to make her a higher seed simply because she won something in the past. With less tournaments available to play in, every tournament becomes more important.
//i\\
She was ranked 3rd in the world at the end of 2019. With the paucity of tennis recently, there is no way in hell that this will change very much over the next few months, no matter what she does or doesn’t do in one tournament.
I’ll concede the possibility that forfeiting out of a tournament might affect her rankings to the extent that she ends up dropping a couple of seeds in an upcoming tournament, and she might end up having to play against a slightly higher seeded player in the third or fourth round, or in the quarter and semi-finals as a result, but the material effect on her career of a single forfeit, especially for someone as talented as Osaka, is going to be so close to zero as to be irrelevant.
So, fine, nitpick the “past winner” aspect of my post if you like (I was mistaking tennis for golf, where past victories at a particular major can give a player automatic entry), but it doesn’t change the fact that your whole earlier post, that this one forfeit would have a “serious impact” on her, is basically hogwash.
