COVID-19: Scrimmage games | July 23 (NBATV), 26 (NBATV), 28 (FSSW) for DAL

[Hypermav]

https://www.hotnewhiphop.com/kyrie-irvin...12845.html

[Mavs2019]

Given what´s happening right now I think this might not happen afterall.

[mtrot]

Kneeling started with a guy wearing pig socks to disgrace all cops.  I do not lump all people into a category but kneeling has become a cop hating act.  

The guy in Minny was murdered by a bad cop, and I hope that cop hangs for it.  But the guy they are using as their pedastal was a bad dude too.  He did not deserve to die but he is not a role model.  Yet he is the movement.  Yet the related rioters killed a black retired police officer who was doing security for a friend and not one of these players has even mentioned him.  Why not?  

My 3 minutes to pay respects to the flag are personal and I won’t have it ruined by cancel culture.  There are a million ways players can do good and highlight their cause, this is not one of them.  They turn off millions just like me who draw a line in sand about our flag.  Once you give away a standing positive tradition like respecting the flag its all downhill.  Then kneeling wont be enough now you need to turn your back while kneeling.  Then after that you will need to raise your fist while kneeling backwards.  Then heck, we can just get rid of the US flag and we need a BLM or Antifa flag.  It will never be enough.  And it starts with kneeling to disparage all police.

There are several ways to get message across without disrespecting flag.  I am already to give up any sport that allows it.  I am sure I will not be watching NFL as they are saying they will do it.  If NBA does then I am done too.  I have weaned myself of sports these past months so its not gonna be hard to do.  

I am not alone either.  Any message they are trying to portray is lost immediately due to starting off disrespecting the flag.  Find a respectful way to protest.  Or stay in locker room and kneel.  Otherwise I’m done with sports who do it.

I'm with you, and thank you for your service.  This kneeling carp is a no-go for me.  I've been a Mavs and NBA fan for decades, but if these players and Cuban start that kneeling, I'm out.  I will not watch a sport that allows its athletes to disrespect and insult our country on the field or playing court like that.  And please don't tell me that it's not about the flag.  If it's not about the flag, which represents our nation, then why do they kneel during the National Anthem?  Also, what business allows their staff to social protest while they are on the clock and during their work activities?  The most personal expression you can expect at most work places is to have a cross or some other symbol on your desk. Players are quite free to protest all they want on their own time.  But I do not tune in to sports programming to be lectured to about how racist I am and how guilty I should feel for actions that I have never done.  

Now, what they did to Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis, and Mr. Garner as well, are a disgrace and heinous crimes, but an incident like those, and a few recent others, do not mean the nation as a whole is racist. Those involved in this case should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  And I am in favor of enhanced and rigorous training programs for police, which limit the use of choke holds once a subject is secured.

[fifteenth]

ThunderMav. First of all I truly respect your service to our country. I also enjoy your excellent (most of the time) contributions to this board. I chose not to serve in Vietnam in 1974 as we were the first class to not get drafted. We all knew numerous friends one year older than us who died in Vietnam. None of us signed up for obvious reasons. But, my brother later served for 23 years and my Father also served in Korea. I think I understand the betrayal you feel because the Flag is part of the definition of the Honor you served with. 

I respect the pain you feel at others striking at you and those who have served in the worst possible way. 

Here is how I have tried, with some success but not total success by any means at handling the betrayal feelings I have felt since the kneeling began. Here goes: The people who are kneeling are coming from a place of incredible emotion as well. They too have an incredibly important concern. They feel betrayed because they are losing people important to them. That dynamic may be very close to the feeling of losing friends in battle...at least I try to relate to that way. Both groups of people have understandably strong emotions. 

So why did they have to choose the Flag to make their extremely legitimate point. I imagine their point of view to be: getting societies attention is best done by using the very thing that is most important to Americans, the police, white people...whoever they seek to target. Their idea was that their target audience would finally listen if they used the flag. They were hopefully not thinking about what this does to you and those who have served. Their own legitimate pain has caused any concern they may have had for those who served to fall by the wayside in favor of voicing their own painful concerns. 

I would be very interested to hear the viewpoints of African Americans who have served. They, as long as they have achieved the sense of honor that goes with serving their country, would be able to relate to both extremely important concerns.

I'm an African American and an American Veteran as well. 

I do appreciate both points of view very much.  As an African American I've lived long enough to experience some very, very blatant racism as well as the more subtle but just as damaging effects of racial bias expressed against us in particular.  Sometimes our issues are lumped in and compared only as those of minorities, with the many shared issues of minorities, but the effect is different for African Americans. 

Yes, it does go back to slavery, but also to many more years of legalized race based discrimination after slavery.   Then there's all the cascading effects that live on from slavery and legalized discrimination. 
Even though the civil rights movement eliminated the discrimination on paper, African Americans carry a different mindset. 
Its a community scar.  Its very, very, very real.  When something happens, like George Floyd, like Sandra Bland, like Ahmad Arbery, to be honest, its not just a "rational" reaction.  Its emotional.  It drags up decades of stuff. that's particular to this country's history with this race. 

In my case I'm not typical in my own disposition, I'm a veteran, and I'm an ordained minister as well. 
So I fully share the high sense of loyalty to the USA and the flag that represents that loyalty.  I don't at all like seeing the flag disrespected.  But I also get it.  Its looking for a way to make a statement, rational or not rational, because what we see done to other African Americans and being done, is also not rational. 
Its not rational to keep your knee and weight on a man's neck, who can't breathe, and you know it, with people all around you watching, and crying out about it.  So the reactions at some point become equally, irrational. 

My values are spiritually, theologically based, so I'm really not in the mainstream of what has become black political thought, but at the same time I'm totally dialed into it, all the time. Its an integral part of what I do in fact.  
I say that to say, you have to get the emotions on both sides of the issue to appreciate the divide. The rational arguments alone won't cut it.  

A lot of Americans don't see loyalty to the flag and country the same way it was seen, not at all.  Remember military service became voluntary all way back in 1973.  An entire generation hasn't learned that sense of obligation and responsibility to the country the way it was taught through the older military generation.  The view again of loyalty is quite different across the population now.  I've talked to young people that take loyalty as almost a bad word to bring up in this context.   To who, and to what?  That's the idea I hear. 

Loyalty to country vs loyalty to racial equality.  Where is the line?  Isn't this essentially an argument about what is agreed to as being right vs wrong?  Isn't that what is meant by values?  At one time, Americans, of all races, had more common agreement on that.  Not so much now.  

Right now, its a deep and wide divide. 

 to relate to both extremely important concerns.

Well said, pal!

[Mavs2019]

I don´t get how you can be so attached to the piece of fabric and not the flag as a symbol for American values. Values that are defined by American people and actions. Do you think the President represents those values better than the people that kneel?

Undermining the free press, assaulting peaceful protestors for photoshoots, lying blatantly so frequently that a child would probably be put under 24/7 psychiatric valuation for a mental defect, undermining the American justice system, undermining the checks and balances of the American political system, driving social inequality along the lines of education, social security and health care with more corporate benefits.

When you served your country, what did you think you were fighting for?

Is it what you see right now?

A President that is very comfortable to risk the lives of Americans for his personal gain and campaign.

This corona virus will kill more Americans than all wars, since WW II, combined.

Has Trump done anything to unite the American people in times, when the country needed somebody to lead by example. Somebody to follow the science and ask for solidarity and compassion for one another. Has he done anything to adress the BLM movement politicially, in order to slow these potential superspreader events down?

[khaled1987]

I am not American so I generally can't comment on this debate, but one angel I want to ask about is about international players
I mean, it isn't their flag or anthem and not really their country either. They might not have any real interest in being a part of this ( though some will surely want to participate ) and I think some fans might feel little more uncomfortable for them to do it.
OTOH it will be tough for those players to not do it if their teammates are doing it collectively.

Don't know, but generally feel it will be awkward situation for them.

[Mavs2019]

I am not American so I generally can't comment on this debate, but one angel I want to ask about is about international players I mean, it isn't their flag or anthem and not really their country either. They might not have any real interest in being a part of this ( though some will surely want to participate ) and  I think some fans might feel little more uncomfortable for them to do it.
OTOH it will be tough for those players to not do it if their teammates are doing it collectively.

Don't know, but generally feel it will be awkward situation for them.

Don´t give them any ideas.

The international players probably don´t care. Nobody plays national anthems for club games or individual sports (except boxing) anywhere else in the world. National anthems are reserved for games between actual nations.

[hakeemfan]

Anyone paying attention to the Tennis thing that was started by Djokovic? Bunch of players including himself have come down with CV19. They shut down that soon.

I see the NBA shutting down in a couple of weeks after restart. They are going to face the same thing. Where do you start quarantining folks? Teams will also run into numbers issues as some will have a lot more of their roster impacted than others.

[Mavs2019]

Anyone paying attention to the Tennis thing that was started by Djokovic?  Bunch of players including himself have come down with CV19. They shut down that soon.

I see the NBA shutting down in a couple of weeks after restart.  They are going to face the same thing. Where do you start quarantining folks?  Teams will also run into numbers issues as some will have a lot more of their roster impacted than others.

Yeah well. They threw parties and fanfests without any social distancing protocol at all. Just a perfect example of idiotic behaviour.

[ClutchDirk]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n...240663001/

[Mavs2019]

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/n...240663001/

Makes sense. Texas and Florida teams probably next. Spike in cases, more chances to catch it.

Knicks will win the title by default. Only team with five healthy players on the day of the NBA finals. It´s happening.

[hakeemfan]

I don’t know why black folks who do want to kneel are tap dancing around this. One moment they say it is not about the flag. The next moment they talk about how the flag does not mean the same to everyone especially when their parents and grandparents had to come back from war, putting their lives at peril for someone else’s freedom, to only not have their own freedom once they got back.

Move the goal posts. If you are kneeling down during the anthem, admit openly and proudly that it is about the flag. Admit that you will proudly stand up again when everyone stands with you to ensure that at least the basic ideals that signify the flag are upheld on a daily basis. For symbolisms such as standing up for a flag to not be a mere symbolism, but an emotional feeling that comes out of the heart for everyone , we still have a long way to go.

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status...5054909442

[Mavs2019]

Nikola Jokic has also tested positive as part of the Djokovic cluster.

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/statu...1940570118

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https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status...4260039682

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status...0299094016

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1276531065969168384

https://media.giphy.com/media/l4FBcX50iP.../giphy.gif

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/HowardBeck/status/12...8865530880

[ClutchDirk]

https://twitter.com/ByTimReynolds/status...8793024514

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https://twitter.com/IraHeatBeat/status/1...9693338624

[hakeemfan]

A 51 year old Caesar’s Palace employee passed away after reopening. Maybe the players being young and extremely fit will be fine. Not sure of the others though around them. This is a huge gamble this soon especially when the cases are not really coming down much.