Tag Archives: National Basketball Association

Considering Some State Laws, This Actually Makes Sense

Posted on by

On Sunday, The Daily Wire reported the following:

NBA officials and the National Basketball Players Association reached a new tentative labor agreement over the weekend that no longer penalizes athletes for using marijuana and removes the substance from the league’s drug testing program.

Both parties reached the new seven-year Collective Bargaining Agreement early Saturday morning, which still needs players and team governors to ratify the deal before becoming official.

Recreational use of marijuana is legal in twenty-one states, and medical marijuana is legal in many others. To prohibit athletes from using something that may be legal in their home states makes no sense. I disagree with the legalization of recreational marijuana, but banning the use of a substance that is legal in many states makes no sense.

The article notes:

Aside from changing its position on marijuana use, The Athletic details other negotiations in the tentative agreement, which include allowing NBA players to promote and/or invest in betting and cannabis companies, sign non-gambling endorsement deals with sports betting companies and invest in teams in NBA and WNBA teams via an NBPA-selected private equity firm — among other terms.

According to the outlet, the reversal would go into effect this summer through the 2029–30 season if both parties do not opt out by the end of the 2028–29 season.

The article concludes:

“The Band-Aid has been ripped off in the sports world,” Durant said. “It’s kind of an undercover thing that players use cannabis and use it throughout when they’re actively playing.”

Former NBA players, including Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Allen Iverson, have also been open about their cannabis use, according to Insider.

NBC Sports reported the National Football League reduced potential penalties for marijuana three years ago in a similar deal but did not completely exclude testing for the substance as more states started to legalize cannabis for recreational use — creating a conflict between the league and the law.

It will be interesting to see if this decision impacts the quality of play in the NBA. I do suspect that marijuana might be useful in dealing with the kind of pain that professional athletes deal with. Masking that pain might result in better athletic performance, but it also might result in further damage to whatever is causing the pain. Again, it will be interesting to see what impact this decision has on the National Basketball League during the upcoming season.

 

China Is A Problem In Many Ways, But American Corporations Are Not Helping

Posted on by

Yesterday The Epoch Times posted an article about some of the activities of Zoom, one computer application that has seen a significant increase in usage because of the coronavirus lockdowns.

The article reports:

A Zoom executive worked with Chinese authorities to provide data on users located outside of China and ensure the U.S. video-call giant retained market access in the country, according to recently unsealed court documents filed by U.S. federal prosecutors.

The documents detailed internal communications between Zoom employees, which showed that Chinese security authorities made numerous requests to the company for data on users and meetings that discussed political and religious topics Beijing deemed unacceptable. Zoom complied with most of these requests, at times involving users outside of China.

The revelations highlight how users outside of China’s shores are increasingly being caught in the crosshairs as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) steps up its demands on companies like Zoom to surveil and censor users both at home and abroad. Zoom is a San Jose-based company, whose software is developed in China.

The claims arose in a prosecution announced on Dec. 18 against Jin Xinjiang, also known as Julien, a China-based Zoom executive. Jin was charged over his role in disrupting a series of meetings this year commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre—an event deemed taboo by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The article concludes:

In another example highlighting challenges facing American companies operating in China, the former chief trust officer of Airbnb abruptly resigned last year over concerns about how much data the rental platform was sharing with China, Wall Street Journal recently reported.

Sean Joyce, a former deputy director with the FBI hired by the company in May 2019, became alarmed that the company was not transparent about how much data Airbrb shared with the CCP, including Americans traveling to China. In a conversation with the company’s top leaders outlining his concerns, co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk told Joyce that “we’re not here to promote American values,” the outlet reported.

William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, at a panel discussion earlier this month, said that Americans should be more aware of this issue.

“When we sign up for these companies … these apps, are we okay with our data going over to a communist country for utilization by the intelligence services?” Evanina said.

Unfortunately a number of the people slated to be part of a Biden cabinet have extensive business dealings with China. They will be in the same position many American companies are in–do I cooperate with the CCP for financial reasons or do I protect America? We saw what happened when a team manager in the NBA spoke out in favor of the freedom movement in Taiwan (article here). Because the NBA has a very large audience in China, he was forced to apologize. The NBA chose money over freedom. How many other American companies have done or are doing the same thing?

Truth In Comedy

Posted on by

There is a bit of a dust up going on right now between China and the National Basketball Association. It seems that Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, posted a tweet showing support for Hong King’s freedom movement. Obviously, the Chinese are not a big fan of free speech. Mr. Morey has deleted his tweets and apologized, but that does not seem to be enough for the Chinese.

In an article posted today, CNBC reports:

  • Searches for “Houston Rockets” and “Rockets” in Chinese on Alibaba-owned Taobao and Tmall and another site JD.com, yielded no results.
  • It comes after Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for the anti-government protestors in Hong Kong. The tweet was quickly deleted.
  • Chinese broadcast partners Tencent and state-owned CCTV said they would no longer show Rockets games.

We need to remember that China is NOT a free country.

Meanwhile, enter Trey Parker and Matt Stone of “South Park” fame.

Scott Johnson at Power Line Blog posted an article today about their response to the dust up.

The article quotes an article in The Guardian:

South Park’s creators have responded with a mock apology to reports that China has censored the programme, ridiculing the country and comparing President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh.

The “apology” from Trey Parker and Matt Stone comes after reports on Monday that China had scrubbed all episodes, clips and content related to the long-running comedy cartoon from Chinese streaming and social media platforms in response to a recent episode that was critical of the country.

The episode, called Band in China, took aim at what it portrayed as a tendency in US culture to adjust content to accommodate Chinese censorship laws. “It’s not worth living in a world where China controls my country’s art,” says one character in the episode.

The episode also includes a plot line in which a character is caught selling drugs in China and as punishment is sent to a work camp, similar to the mass internment camps in Xinjiang where an estimated one million people, including Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are detained.

The article also includes the non-apology apology from Trey Parker and Matt Stone:

I think that is called ‘speaking truth to power.’

How Things Work

Posted on by

I received this in my email from a friend. I am not sure if it is true or not, but it makes a good point:

The owner of the Phoenix Suns basketball team,
Robert Sarver, came out strongly opposing AZ‘s new immigration laws.

Former Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, released the following statement in response to Sarver’s criticism of the new law:

“What if the owners of the Suns discovered that hordes of people were sneaking into games without paying?

What if they had a good idea who the gate-crashers are
but the ushers and security personnel were not allowed
to ask these folks to produce their ticket stubs, thus non-paying attendees couldn’t be ejected.

Furthermore, what if Suns’ ownership was expected to
provide those who sneaked in with complimentary eats and drink?

And what if, on those days when a gate-crasher became ill or injured, the Suns had to provide free medical care and shelter?”

There Is No Resemblance Between The Hype And The Truth

Posted on by

The North Carolina legislation passed a bill on March 23 called HB2. The media has gone totally bonkers every since–yelling discrimination, bigotry, and all the other things they traditionally yell. I haven’t heard much in the media about the danger bathrooms open to whatever sex you choose to assume on a given day pose to women and children. I need to mention here that the danger does not come from transgendered people–it comes from nefarious people posing as transgenders. The media also overlooked the fact that the spokesmen for the group sponsoring the legislation that HB2 overturned was a registered sex offender. I am sure that is simply an incredible coincidence. The spokesman was removed after his criminal record was exposed.

On Wednesday, World Net Daily posted an article that clarifies the issues involved.

Here are some excerpts from the article:

Widely known now as House Bill 2, or HB 2, the legislation was approved 82-26 in the North Carolina General Assembly. State senators approved it 32-0, although 11 Democrats decided not to vote and another six lawmakers were absent. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory signed the bill on March 25.

Lt. Gov. Forest said the city of Charlotte left lawmakers no choice but to act.

“This isn’t something the General Assembly brought up. The city council in Charlotte brought this up, against legal counsel’s advice and against the advice of a lot of folks. They went beyond their constitutional authority and tried to create a public accommodation law in the city of Charlotte,” Forest told WND and Radio America.

He continued, “That is expressly a responsibility of the state. The city of Charlotte and municipalities don’t have the legal authority, based on our constitution, to establish public accommodation law.”

In addition to overstepping its legal authority, Forest said the Charlotte council pursued a very troubling policy.

“The Charlotte ordinance said that the business community had to to comply with this ordinance,” Forest explained. “They said it was sex discrimination to have men’s room and women’s room labels on your doors.”

When state officials started hearing from sexual assault victims, the effort to reverse the Charlotte ordinance picked up far more steam.

The article further explains:

Forest said the ordinance only required the person to identify as a member of a particular gender, and to have completed or be in the process of gender reassignment.

He said, despite the protests, HB 2 does a few very simple things, starting with determining who can use which bathrooms.

“What HB 2 did was say that men have to use men’s rooms and women have to use women’s rooms in the state of North Carolina,” Forest said.

At the same time, he said people identifying as transgender benefit, too.

“What this bill did is it created accommodation for people that are transgender, for people that view their gender differently than other folks,” Forest said. “It also provides the opportunity for single-stall unisex bathrooms. Anywhere that you want to place them.”

Forest said, unlike Charlotte, the HB 2 only applies to government buildings and schools. Business owners are free to make their own decisions.

If you own a business in North Carolina, you are free to designate bathrooms in any way you see fit. The article notes that Lt. Gov. Forrest mentioned the possible NBA boycott of North Carolina because of the law. He stated that he found the possible boycott odd because the WNBA  does not allow men to play in their league or enter the locker rooms and the NBA does not open its league or its locker rooms to women.

Common sense needs to prevail here. Note that when the original ordinance was passed in Charlotte, state officials started hearing from sexual assault victims. That statement really tells you all you need to know. Our laws need to protect women and children.

Let The Purge Begin

Posted on by

Now that Donald Sterling has been banned from the NBA for life due to racist remarks, it’s time to take a look at other remarks made by owners of NBA teams, right? Unfortunately, yes.

Breitbart.com posted an article yesterday about the slippery slope we are on.

The article reports:

Sports writer Charles Pierce wondered on PBS “what does [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver now do, for example, with the DeVos family in Orlando, which funds anti-gay candidates and anti-gay issue ads all over the country, as well as owning the Orlando Magic? Does he talk to them? This is an entirely new world, and if we’re going to step into it, let’s step all the way into it.”

It’s surely a new world—a Brave New World, and 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, too.

DeVos, the co-founder of Amway, has donated to Focus on the Family, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and other traditionalist groups. He also has generously supported measures aimed at maintaining marriage as a one-man, one-woman institution, calling “respecting marriage” a “sacred issue.” This outrages SportsGrid writer Jake O’Donnell, who wonders whether holding this opinion—codified into law by the majority of states—should be grounds for disqualification in the NBA’s club of owners. “Hey, this isn’t nearly the same thing as Donald Sterling’s recorded hate-rant,” he concedes. “It is, however, food for thought when discussing the NBA as a place for everyone, vis-a-vis the opinions held by the owners.”

We are entering a world where remarks made to your girlfriend in an argument can cost you your job. We saw with Mozilla that past contributions to a politically incorrect cause can cost you your job. This is not freedom–it is fascism. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Enhanced by Zemanta

This Could Be Pure Coincidence

Posted on by

I know we are all getting tired of hearing about Donald Sterling and his racist comments, but Yahoo News posted a story today that may put the entire situation in a different light.

These are some facts from the article:

Several league officials – including owners and Board of Governors members – told Yahoo Sports they believe Silver has been studying the nuclear option on Sterling: a provision in the NBA’s bylaws that would allow Silver to summon a vote of league owners to strip Sterling of his ownership. The NBA would run the Clippers until the team could be sold.

…Despite his denial of ownership interest in the Clippers, Magic Johnson and potential investors spent part of Monday working to understand the avenues to which they could eventually make a deal to become Clippers owners, sources told Yahoo Sports. If the franchise becomes available, Johnson wants to be positioned to make a deal.

Now let’s take a look at some background on this story. Evidently Mr. Sterling’s racist views had been known around around the league for years, why is this coming out now? Mr. Sterling is approximately 80 years old. He will probably not be with us for more than another 10 to 20 years. Upon his demise, it is assumed that the ownership of the team will pass to his family. That is generally how wills are written. Let’s just assume for a moment that Magic Johnson wants to buy the team at bargain basement prices. Oddly enough, Magic Johnson was the person Mr. Sterling’s girlfriend was seen with before the taped conversation. Magic Johnson might even have been the subject of part of the taped conversation. I am not accusing anyone of anything, but I think that is an incredible coincidence. I also think that when you have ideas that are not socially acceptable and that is known, you are always in danger of having your status changed by people with more clout than you have. This entire episode is an example of someone’s chickens coming home to roost. I am waiting for the fire sale of the Clippers. If Magic Johnson comes out of this with the team, I will always wonder if Mr. Sterling’s family was robbed.

Enhanced by Zemanta