His team hasn’t played a game since March, but Hornets owner Michael Jordan has emerged as an important go-between for NBA team owners and the players at the Walt Disney World campus, writes Jackie MacMullan of ESPN.
As MacMullan explains, Jordan is the NBA’s only Black majority owner, and his experience as a player allows him to connect with current players in a way that other franchise owners may not be able to. According to MacMullan, Jordan spoke to NBPA president Chris Paul before this morning’s player and owner meetings to get a better understanding of what players hope to achieve going forward.
“Michael is the perfect person to be in this role,” one league official told ESPN. “He’s been a high-profile player who has won championships. He’s also the owner of a small-market team. He has great credibility both with the players and the owners.”
During Thursday morning’s Board of Governors meeting, Jordan was a “voice of reason,” according to MacMullan, who says the former Bulls superstar urged his fellow owners to listen to players’ frustrations and concerns before offering their own solutions. League sources tell ESPN that team owners unanimously supported the players and spent much of their meeting discussing how to amplify player voices.
The NBPA had been scheduled to meet this afternoon at 4:00pm eastern time – with two or three reps from each team participating in the discussion – to iron out the issues they want to address with team owners, tweets Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated. A meeting between players and owners will follow at 5:00pm, with Jordan – who is the chair of the labor relations committee – set to participate.
Reports have indicated that many players favored continuing the season due to the platform the restart has created to raise awareness of social injustices, and MacMullan writes that a number of owners – including Jordan – expressed a similar sentiment.
Of course, it’s worth noting that financial considerations will also incentivize the two sides to remain on the same page going forward. Sources tell The Athletic that players would have lost approximately 15% of this year’s salary if they’d chosen to end the season, and would have been risking about 35% of their salaries for next season. The lost revenues associated with a stoppage would have hit team owners hard as well.
I never understood stopping play because I feel like a lot more could have been done for players to get their message out whether you agree with them or not. Putting BLM on shirts and side banners and putting messages on the backs of jerseys that you can’t read well on tv are really forgettable in the middle of play.
I do think they have to strike a balance though between spreading a message and lecturing viewers which could be a turn off for a number of people. It’s a tough balance to strike, but hopefully they can do it.
Or, don’t try to lecture anyone, at all, since assuming stuff based on the color of their skin, even white, is just as inapprorpiaye and a new type of systematic oppression.
You don’t know someone’s upbringing, you don’t know what they’ve been through, and you don’t know them.
2018- 262,956 kids in entered foster care. 47% white.
Total there were 437,283 kids. 193,117 were white. Blacks made up 99,025 and Hispanics made up 90,688
But, you know, cause those kids be white they benefit from white privilege. Yes those 100,000+ white kids being put in the foster care system really had that “privilege”.
Seriously, dont lecture anyone or assume anything about anyone. People that want to tune in let them. People that don’t let them.
You can’t force people to care. You can make them not care and even oppose your efforts and movement though. That you can do. And they are currently doing it and wondering “why won’t anyone listen to us?!?!?!?!!?”
Whether I agree with them or not they have the right to express their beliefs as long as it isn’t forced on me or if it doesn’t take away from the basketball itself. I don’t know what all your stats have to do with anything. Just because you personally think what someone believes in is wrong doesn’t mean you get to say whether they express their opinion or not.
“White privilege” is a maddening term for it, but the thing that’s intended to be referenced is still there needing a phrase for it. I think it’s more like “black non-slack” or something.
Here’s a story, maybe true. The first phrase comes from acedemia, where people of certain majors at elite colleges sit around and think up things that would outrage their parents. Elite colleges approve, since for the money they’re supposed to be investing their kids with a sense of privilege anyway. How this actually applies to a young cop from Kenosha who sees his death is another matter; why would they care.
NBA is a business. $ drives decisions….every time. Nothing wrong with that. You don’t agree with their decisions….don’t buy a ticket or jersey.