The Milwaukee Bucks forfeited their playoff game today vs. the Orlando Magic, an act that was followed by the rest of the NBA's playoff teams as well.

Here is story from Sterling Brown about racial injustice:

Quote:The city of Milwaukee wanted to give me $400,000 to be quiet after cops kneeled on my neck, stood on my ankle, and tased me in a parking lot.

But here’s the thing: I can’t be quiet.

I rejected the offer because I have a responsibility to be a voice and help change the narrative for my people. In order to do so I have to tell my story, so dialogue and conversations about police brutality can help influence and change a corrupt system. It goes deeper than me just illegally parking.

A lot deeper.

So here’s my story.

On January 26, 2018, I was on my way home from a friend’s place when I ran into Walgreens for three minutes. When I did, I parked across two handicapped spots. I could have parked in one spot but it was late at night and the parking lot was empty. I figured, I’m just running inside. What’s the worst that could happen?

When I came out and headed back to my car, a police officer was approaching at the same time and I didn’t see him at first. He asked me if I had a driver’s license.

As I tried to open the door he shoved me back and I moved his hand off me. At that point I knew things might escalate and it wouldn’t just be a simple ticket.

After the initial standoff, the officer said, “I own this.” He must’ve thought that was gonna intimidate me. I said, “You don’t own me.” Then after a few words back and forth he called for backup and six more squad cars pulled up.

While he was calling them, I was standing there thinking, What are we doing? Give me a ticket so I can be on my way.

Milwaukee Police Department/AP ImagesThen all of these officers arrive. Some of them surrounded me and a few of the others started looking inside of my car. After 20 minutes of standing outside in the rain and cold, one of them told me to take my hands out of my pocket after having them in there for 20 minutes. Somehow the officers must have felt “threatened” because next thing I knew they started punching, kneeing, and trying to get me to the ground.

That was when my whole mindset changed. I knew I had a choice: Get free or give in.

One of the officers had a knee on my neck. Another stood on my ankle. The cop who tased me had initially pulled his gun.

The whole time I was on the ground, I was just wondering how we had gotten to that point. All I was focused on was getting back to my family and my job. I thought about fighting back, but it was just an unnecessary attempt for them to show power. I could have gotten them off of me, but it was six guns to none. I had no protection and they had the protection of the badge.

I could hear a few of the officers making jokes about the Bucks. In the body cam videos that were later released, one officer jokes about how it will blow up in the media because I’m an NBA player and how they’ll be accused of being racist.

Eventually they put me in the back of the cop car and took me to the police station, where I was thrown in a cell for a few hours. For what? Because I was a Black man with a nice car in the hood. But while I was in there I had time to think and reflect. I had time to turn my anger into fuel.
The whole time I was on the ground, I was just wondering how we had gotten to that point.

This happens every single day to Black people all across America. Even in the short time while I was in custody, another Black man came in, his eye bleeding, telling everyone he was in there for a traffic stop.

When I was finally released the next morning, I went right to shootaround. We had a game that night, and I decided that the best thing I could do was to win.

Some of you may already be familiar with my story. It happened 2½ years ago, but it wasn’t until the body cam footage came out that people started to believe me. Aside from a few people who were on the fence, most people assumed I was just another Black man who got aggressive with the police.

But once the video came out, people started to speak up in support of me. With the video it was impossible to deny that the police were in the wrong.

But how many times does something like this happen when there isn’t a camera recording? How many times does it happen to someone who isn’t an NBA player and who doesn’t have the platform I have to make people stop and listen?

Without the video of George Floyd, I guarantee the majority of the world would not have noticed or cared. They would have said, “Oh, it’s just another Black man in the neighborhood who made a fraudulent transaction who resisted arrest so he got what he deserved.” But when you see the video, when you see the lack of sympathy from the officer leaning on George Floyd’s neck as he begs for his mother and for air, then you can’t deny who is wrong.

Without the video no one would have believed me. Without the video of George Floyd, only the ones who have to deal with the possibility of being stopped and harassed daily would be demanding justice in the streets.

But now we have to take advantage of the momentum and demand respect!

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/...-injustice

I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

(08-27-2020 09:30 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

Cancel culture at its finest...

(08-27-2020 09:41 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:30 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

Cancel culture at its finest...

Oh, they can keep their jobs...I guess you are saying I HAVE to watch?

I wonder what difference you see between NBA players refusing to play unless some principle is addressed and me refusing to watch unless some principle is addressed?

Please enlighten us.

(08-27-2020 09:43 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:41 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:30 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

Cancel culture at its finest...

Oh, they can keep their jobs...I guess you are saying I HAVE to watch?

I wonder what difference you see between NBA players refusing to play unless some principle is addressed and me refusing to watch unless some principle is addressed?

Please enlighten us.

Lad? Lad? Where did he go?

When the NBA laid prostrate to Beijing is when I stopped giving a rat's ass about the NBA.

NBA season will continue apparently to the news. That's what Xi said.

From my perspective.

People will commit crime, and become criminals.

Criminals will continue to resisting arrest.

In some instances, at least some officers will continue to use force to arrest criminals.

Police officers will continue to use greater force to arrest people resisting arrest.

Sometimes that force will be deadly.

All of the above will continue to occur, no matter what Lebron James and other athletes demand.

So, given the above, will the NBA shut down in every instance a white police officer (or officers) uses deadly force against a black criminal? Or against a black criminal resisting arrest?

If the answer is yes, the NBA isnt sustainable.

This isnt even going into the NBA being Xi's hand maiden.

I think the NBA is buying into/promulgating a myth.

If the goal to achieve a country where black people are never arrested, I think that is unobtainable at this time.

if the goal is to label the USA as an oppressive country, they are not selling that to me, even with th help- of leading Democrats.

I would like to see the NBA cancel the rest of this season and every future season as a protest. Not play another game until we have justice in ths country.

I think to meet this goal, the players should be keen to give up all the money owed them by their contracts.

When principles meet their own money, then we will see about their principles.

Actually, my boycott extends to any athletic contest in which the athletes do not stand for the Anthem/flag, including Rice contests.

Where's Lad?

(08-27-2020 01:08 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I would like to see the NBA cancel the rest of this season and every future season as a protest. Not play another game until we have justice in ths country.

As to the above, and to the 'we are going to cancel our team's playoffs' ---- the self-boycott is the stupidest version of a boycott.

As with you, if they are so down with this course, have all the teams cancel the rest of their games. No skin off my back.

It would be like me saying 'I am so fed up with systemic {pick your 0-2 adjectives here} {pick your 1 societal trait here}' that I am going to refuse to practice ANY law for the next 4 months.' Lolz.

By the way on a note similar to your boycott of any sports where the participants dont stand for the national anthem:

Last night a gentleman name Madison Cawthorn gave a speech at the RNC. He is the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, is 25 years old and is paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident as a teenager. At the end of his speech two people came out to him and placed a walker in front of his wheelchair. Cawthorn then rose from his wheelchair and stood, with the assistance of his aides and the walker. He urged Americans to not “cower to a mob,” and to “kneel before God but stand for our flag.”

So, some jacktard PBS correspondent then tweeted this: "Madison Cawthorn made it a point to stand, suggesting that all Americans to should stand during the pledge of allegiance & national anthem."

It was a direct rebuke of actions by ppl -- including black athletes who are currently sitting out games -- protesting police brutality."

This is where we are by some people's measure – any (white) person who says it’s ok to stand for the flag, and encourages others to publicly express feelings of patriotism is now inherently racist for disrespecting the actions of athletes to the woke crowd. White athletes *must* kneel with black athletes. Participate in groupthink or be harassed and shunned.

(08-27-2020 09:50 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:43 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:41 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:30 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

Cancel culture at its finest...

Oh, they can keep their jobs...I guess you are saying I HAVE to watch?

I wonder what difference you see between NBA players refusing to play unless some principle is addressed and me refusing to watch unless some principle is addressed?

Please enlighten us.

Lad? Lad? Where did he go?

Oof, I don’t answer in 10 minutes and you think I’m ignoring you.

Sorry, been trouble shooting an issue for work all day, baking up on a roof top. Sometimes I don’t have the luxury of responding ASAP - please done take offense.

I was making a joke, I figured the stir the pot icon was sufficient.

(08-27-2020 02:57 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:50 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:43 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:41 AM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 09:30 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I can't see AE's presumably silly and biased posts, but I can say I am boycotting anything NBA until they stand for the National Anthem.

Cancel culture at its finest...

Oh, they can keep their jobs...I guess you are saying I HAVE to watch?

I wonder what difference you see between NBA players refusing to play unless some principle is addressed and me refusing to watch unless some principle is addressed?

Please enlighten us.

Lad? Lad? Where did he go?

Oof, I don’t answer in 10 minutes and you think I’m ignoring you.

Sorry, been trouble shooting an issue for work all day, baking up on a roof top. Sometimes I don’t have the luxury of responding ASAP - please done take offense.

I was making a joke, I figured the stir the pot icon was sufficient.

I figured you had to work. AFAIK, I am the only one here with an open schedule.
Just surprised it came up so soon after my question. In the smoke-spotting business that is called a puff of smoke. Easy to draw incorrect conclusions from puffs.

As for the icon, I don't speak sign language that well. Remember, I am an old coot. Talk plainly with me.


To be fair, sometimes you ignore my questions for days, and then tell me to look up something you said months ago.

(08-27-2020 02:43 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 01:08 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I would like to see the NBA cancel the rest of this season and every future season as a protest. Not play another game until we have justice in ths country.

As to the above, and to the 'we are going to cancel our team's playoffs' ---- the self-boycott is the stupidest version of a boycott.

As with you, if they are so down with this course, have all the teams cancel the rest of their games. No skin off my back.

It would be like me saying 'I am so fed up with systemic {pick your 0-2 adjectives here} {pick your 1 societal trait here}' that I am going to refuse to practice ANY law for the next 4 months.' Lolz.

By the way on a note similar to your boycott of any sports where the participants dont stand for the national anthem:

Last night a gentleman name Madison Cawthorn gave a speech at the RNC. He is the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, is 25 years old and is paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident as a teenager. At the end of his speech two people came out to him and placed a walker in front of his wheelchair. Cawthorn then rose from his wheelchair and stood, with the assistance of his aides and the walker. He urged Americans to not “cower to a mob,” and to “kneel before God but stand for our flag.”

So, some jacktard PBS correspondent then tweeted this: "Madison Cawthorn made it a point to stand, suggesting that all Americans to should stand during the pledge of allegiance & national anthem."

It was a direct rebuke of actions by ppl -- including black athletes who are currently sitting out games -- protesting police brutality."

This is where we are by some people's measure – any (white) person who says it’s ok to stand for the flag, and encourages others to publicly express feelings of patriotism is now inherently racist for disrespecting the actions of athletes to the woke crowd. White athletes *must* kneel with black athletes. Participate in groupthink or be harassed and shunned.

That PBS idiot is a real piece of work - or piece of something, anyway.

I just got tired of these oppressed black men who make millions kneeling for the flag or the anthem in protest of something that is not real. Police brutality? I am against that, and also against cannibalism, but I still stand for the anthem.

I can protest their protest. I have chosen to extend this to any athletic event, pro or amateur - so I hope if there are Rice events on TV our athletes choose to pay respect to the country. If this crap keeps up, I may watch only one sporting event this year - the Army-Navy game. I bet those kids do it right.

(08-27-2020 02:43 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 01:08 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I would like to see the NBA cancel the rest of this season and every future season as a protest. Not play another game until we have justice in ths country.

As to the above, and to the 'we are going to cancel our team's playoffs' ---- the self-boycott is the stupidest version of a boycott.

As with you, if they are so down with this course, have all the teams cancel the rest of their games. No skin off my back.

It would be like me saying 'I am so fed up with systemic {pick your 0-2 adjectives here} {pick your 1 societal trait here}' that I am going to refuse to practice ANY law for the next 4 months.' Lolz.

By the way on a note similar to your boycott of any sports where the participants dont stand for the national anthem:

Last night a gentleman name Madison Cawthorn gave a speech at the RNC. He is the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District, is 25 years old and is paralyzed from the waist down from a car accident as a teenager. At the end of his speech two people came out to him and placed a walker in front of his wheelchair. Cawthorn then rose from his wheelchair and stood, with the assistance of his aides and the walker. He urged Americans to not “cower to a mob,” and to “kneel before God but stand for our flag.”

So, some jacktard PBS correspondent then tweeted this: "Madison Cawthorn made it a point to stand, suggesting that all Americans to should stand during the pledge of allegiance & national anthem."

It was a direct rebuke of actions by ppl -- including black athletes who are currently sitting out games -- protesting police brutality."

This is where we are by some people's measure – any (white) person who says it’s ok to stand for the flag, and encourages others to publicly express feelings of patriotism is now inherently racist for disrespecting the actions of athletes to the woke crowd. White athletes *must* kneel with black athletes. Participate in groupthink or be harassed and shunned.

I don't read that this correspondent was calling this a racist act... he called it a rebuke of protesters' actions. Why do you think he was calling it racist? Because he mentioned black athletes? Perhaps it was a dog whistle of sorts to SJWs but it seems like a stretch.

White athletes (at least those that don't have the same philosophy on these events) are in sort of a bind these days. If they don't participate with their colleagues then it may fracture the team and create issues that are unwelcome during the playoffs (or short-season baseball).

speech

"The activist below found a way to turn a paraplegic standing up in his wheelchair an act of white supremacy," Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross tweeted.

(08-27-2020 05:48 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  speech

"The activist below found a way to turn a paraplegic standing up in his wheelchair an act of white supremacy," Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross tweeted.

I'm not sure who's more guilty of hyperbole... Yamiche Alcindor or Chuck Ross.

(08-27-2020 05:54 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 05:48 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  speech

"The activist below found a way to turn a paraplegic standing up in his wheelchair an act of white supremacy," Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross tweeted.

I'm not sure who's more guilty of hyperbole... Yamiche Alcindor or Chuck Ross.

I thought this was somewhat on point:

Quote:"How on earth could you possibly turn the rather moving act of a FREAKIN' PARAPLEGIC rising for the national anthem into some weird BLM trip?"

Well, it might take one who is so vested in the movement to note an act of 'standing for the national anthem' as a 'rebuke'. Kind of grotesque in my mind.

(08-27-2020 07:39 PM)tanqtonic Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 05:54 PM)Rice93 Wrote:  

(08-27-2020 05:48 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  speech

"The activist below found a way to turn a paraplegic standing up in his wheelchair an act of white supremacy," Daily Caller reporter Chuck Ross tweeted.

I'm not sure who's more guilty of hyperbole... Yamiche Alcindor or Chuck Ross.

I thought this was somewhat on point:

Quote:"How on earth could you possibly turn the rather moving act of a FREAKIN' PARAPLEGIC rising for the national anthem into some weird BLM trip?"

Well, it might take one who is so vested in the movement to note an act of 'standing for the national anthem' as a 'rebuke'. Kind of grotesque in my mind.

I didn't watch the speech and I'm not going to go back and do so. My assumption is that he was pointing out that he stands for the national anthem and for the flag (in contradistinction to those protesters who don't). A bit of red meat for the base? Perhaps that's why one guy read it as a rebuke? I may be off on this (again... didn't watch). Maybe he didn't draw any type of comparison to the protesters.