It feels filthy to be on the same side as Tucker Carlson and the shut-up and kneel crowd but is this anything but disgraceful?
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In a shocking turn of events, a man with a high school degree who bounces a ball for a living shits the bed when asked a political question that is loaded.
Not his fault - the fault is in people thinking his opinion on the topic has any more value than a pig farmer from Assknuckle Arkansas. Itās like asking me a question about the way to structure a zone defense in the NBA - how the fuck would I know, and why would anyone care what I think about the topic.
MM MD
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LBJ comes off bad because he just wanted Morey to wait to say anything until they were home. It makes him look pretty tone deaf, because a whole lot of peopleās lives are affected by this, and he basically seems more worried about his āPRā than anything else.
The other thing is that if anyone should be taking heat itās the NBA for wanting the complicated relationship (every person asked about this is essentially an employee of the NBA and it puts them all in a bad spot). But they knew whatās been going on there way before they entered a partnership. As always, itās about money.
And I know itās hard to believe, but a lot of the consumerism thatās been going on for years in China may lead to a different outcome in China than whatās expected based on past behavior. No matter what anyone says, China doesnāt want to be thought of as āthe bad guysā based on how much theyāve embraced western consumerism in the abstract (even if not completely in practice). That movie Red Corner is probably the closest allegory to whatās going on today, even though itās not particularly relevant in comparison.
Listen to the Kerr clip too, Iām sorry but thatās a horrible answer that wipes out ~80% of his credibility speaking about other issues. Nobody in China asks him about AR 15s? This is some Jordan Peterson clean your own room before you voice one criticism of the world style bullshit.
I mean Kerr literally pulled a Jack Ritter here:
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I agree. I donāt understand why itās so hard to just say something like āItās a very unfortunate situation and I hope that it can all be worked outā. Useless bland nonsense is sometimes the best answer.
MM MD
Even āItās an extremely complicated issue I donāt fully understand, and not something I feel comfortable weighing in onā is an acceptable response.
Iām not really sure why anyone thinks athletes/coaches should be completely ready to answer really heavy policy questions almost no one in the public eye wants to answer period, in the spur of the moment.
Lebron knows exactly what heās doing. No offense hobbes but heās a very savvy operator who has absolutely revolutionized making money as a basketball player.
As to anyone who is saying heās going to lose money on thisā¦ yeah not a chance. Heās about to sell a metric fuck ton of sneakers in China. Heās basically bulletproof with fans here and is giving the NBA cover by taking heat while simultaneously helping Nike out in China.
Heās usually a pretty good guy, but this was probably a number followed by a lot of zeroes that he can just claim ignorance on later if it goes really sideways.
Thereās zero chance he hasnāt been preparing a China answer with his small army of personally loyal advisors (because he hires competent people from good schools at the start of their career so that they are utterly dependent on him) since this whole thing started. That high school grad who bounces a basketball for a living is a basketball mogul with a professionalized organization who has been insanely famous/rich/powerful for a very long time. And he basically hasnāt made a single misstep that I can spot so heās probably just done the optimal thing again.
Remember that at basketball and running his own career the man is a fucking genius. Thereās almost no chance heās wrong here. He might lose out, but thatāll be variance not because it was the wrong move.
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Weāll disagree then. Iām not hypnotized by the fact that someone who is good at playing basketball is a political wizard, any more than Iām going to take Jenny McCarthyās advice on vaccination policy. The number of celebrity fuckwits running off at the mouth about shit they know nothing about is limitless, and the fact that he has handlers telling him what to say means fuck all, if he takes it into his head to spout off. Steve Kerr, who is a VERY bright guy, didnāt do much better than Labron, and Iād guess itās because no matter how sharp you are or how many shrewd handlers you have, answering questions on the fly can be tricky.
And, it isnāt like he handled the whole ātaking my talentās to South Beachā all that well, either - but since people have the attention span of a cloud of gnats meant it blew over after a while, because heās somewhat likable. So Iām not buying the Wiley Coyote super-genius narrative. Heāll likely be fine with it in terms of his personal situation, but he would have been better off dodging the issue. And I donāt even know what the variance comment is supposed to mean - but Iāll chalk that off to this being a refugee colony from the old plane.
MM MD
Has exactly nothing to do with politics and everything to do with business. And heās right on that front. The China comments by Morey were definitely bad for the NBA. They wanted no part of any of this. They (like all our entertainment businesses) wanted that sweet Chinese money. Lebron wants to sell sneakers in China and talking about HK is pretty bad for that.
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I agree with you 100% on this post, and Morey fucked up.
Perfect example, too, about how anyone with an IQ above room temperature should treat Twitter like a live grenade. (Trump, of course, has no worries on this count)
MM MD
My main issue with this fiasco is that the Chinese State wants to participate in the world stage, be linked into pop culture, video games etc, but they donāt want anyone to be able to talk any shit about them. Thatās not how this works. People shit on the USA all the time. Get over it and grow up.
Blizzard Activision for example makes approximately 10% of their revenue in Asia and wants to bend over sideways for a country they donāt even make a significant amount of money in. WTFā¦
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Their thinking: 10% now, 80% in 10 years
Itās like asking me a question about the way to structure a zone defense in the NBA - how the fuck would I know, and why would anyone care what I think about the topic.
What about the amoeba defense? Know anything about that?
This whole thing looks absolutely pathetic. Have to consider all of the leagueās progressive virtue signaling fake as fuck now. Don Sterling was a business decision.
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Not NBA, but more blizzard news. Blizzard canceled a launch party for Overwatch for the Nintendo Switch because of continuing backlash.
Also a large boycott is scheduled for the upcoming BlizzCon.
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You should have been doing that already. Indeed, going forward you should assume that every public-minded statement from any company, politician or celebrity has ~zero evidentiary weight about their values unless itās unpopular.
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Iām not really talking about actual held values (because I know the owners have none) but more like ones they are quasi-bound to through business decisions. The NBA rides its goodwill on social justice hard as a profitable intangible asset, so (some of) their profit motive is aligned with actually championing those causes. It gives them access to markets, partnerships, favorable media coverage, etc., that the NFL couldnāt get. Obviously it blocks them from some of those things too. My point is that kowtowing to China should incinerate that goodwill. I donāt think they really understand it given how dumb the responses have been. Theyāre gonna try to play both sides and Iām saying āYou donāt give a fuck about [black] peopleā is the correct pressure to apply domestically.
Suddenly, the tables were turned: The NBA, a new-media darling for its social justice advocacy, played the soulless corporate spin machine, while the NFL enjoyed ever-massive ratings, continuing its quiet getaway from the years of bad press incurred by its crackdown on the Colin Kaepernick-inspired national anthem protests.
But itās not surprising that those most disappointed by Silverās fumbling on the China issue are the NBAās die-hard fans. Since he took over the league in 2014, the new commissioner has built its virtuous reputation to the point where the New York Times ā Bari Weiss was able to justifiably needle āThe Worldās Wokest Sports Leagueā this week for its obsequiousness to an authoritarian, borderline-genocidal regime.
What the NBAās demoralized boosters have largely overlooked, however, is a critical truth about its reinvention: Its liberal attitude isnāt just good for its fansā consciences, itās good for business.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/10/12/nba-china-hong-kong-229848
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Yeah saw this as well. Same type of both sidesing. No one is surprised that the corporate masters are greedy. Itās not understanding that this would cause huge backlash and negative PR thatās the oh_wow.gif.
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