Search

» » Patrick Beverley: “If [LeBron James] said he hooping. We all hooping.” - ProBasketballTalk

Patrick Beverley: “If [LeBron James] said he hooping. We all hooping.” - ProBasketballTalk

sumantotos.blogspot.com

Patrick Beverley and LeBron James have had a beef on the court dating back years.

Off the court, Beverley understands the power structure of the NBA. Stars such as Kyrie Irving, Dwight Howard, CJ McCollum, and others have questioned if now is the right time to go to Orlando and play, saying it would stall the momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement. However, the game’s biggest star, LeBron, has championed a return to play and says players can impact social justice movements from Florida. Beverley took to Twitter to suggest how this is all going to play out.

There has never been a situation like this in the NBA before. While star players usually have been able to bend the will of the rank and file players their way in the past, this may be a different situation.

Each player has to balance his concerns about the Black Lives Matters movement, their health and safety, time away from family, getting paid for this season, and the dramatic impact not playing would have on their financial futures. It’s a lot. Players such as Irving see not playing as the best option, while LeBron and guys such as Garrett Temple say it’s a false choice to pick between playing and social justice, that players can accomplish both.

Players can choose not to go to Orlando and face no punishment, but then they don’t get paid.

But whether to play or not is a deeply personal choice, and while they can speak of unity and backing each other up, not everyone is going to reach the same conclusions. Or take the same actions.

Gregg Popovich’s thoughts and musings on race in America — or nearly any topic, to be honest — were never meant for Twitter. To say “Gregg Popovich knocks NFL, Roger Goodell” is to vastly oversimplify his thoughts.

Which is why an extended interview in the New York Times with columnist Maureen Dowd is a better format — and Popovich did rip the NFL and Goodell. But he also questioned himself and what he thought he knew.

“Especially if you’re a white coach and you’re coaching a group that’s largely black, you’d better gain their trust, you’d better be genuine, you’d better understand their situation,” he tells me. “You’d better understand where they grew up. Maybe there’s a black kid from a prep school. Maybe there’s another black kid who saw his first murder when he was 7 years old…”

But in recent calls with the Spurs’ players and staff he has been amazed at the level of hurt. “It would bring you to tears,” he says, his voice cracking. “It’s even deeper than you thought, and that’s what really made me start to think: You’re a privileged son of a bitch and you still don’t get it as much as you think you do. You gotta work harder. You gotta be more aware. You gotta be pushed and embarrassed. You’ve gotta call it out.”

Popovich, a former Air Force officer, had ripped President Donald Trump before, and said he thought the NFL’s response to Colin Kaepernick kneeling was out of fear of the president’s response.

“A smart man is running the NFL and he didn’t understand the difference between the flag and what makes the country great — all the people who fought to allow Kaepernick to have the right to kneel for justice. The flag is irrelevant. It’s just a symbol that people glom onto for political reasons just like Cheney back in the Iraq war…

“[Goodell] got intimidated when Trump jumped on the kneeling.”

Goodell admitted the NFL should have let players protest peacefully.

Popovich is genuine and authentic, plus he works to empathize with people. It’s a skill not enough politicians work to hone.

New York is going to hire Tom Thibodeau as its new head coach… unless Kenny Atkinson becomes the Knicks choice.

Thibodeau wants to return to NBA coaching, and his decades-long friendship with Rose made him the frontrunner from the start. It is likely still his job to lose.

However, former Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson is gaining support in the Knicks’ front office, reports Ian Begley of SNY.TV.

While there is no specific timetable known for the Knicks’ head-coaching search, there is legitimate internal support within the organization to name Kenny Atkinson as its next head coach, league sources tell SNY…

Agents and other coaches with a vested interest in the Knicks’ search continue to see Thibodeau as the most likely hire if team president Leon Rose decides not to bring back [interim coach Mike] Miller as head coach. Other outlets have reported that Thibodeau is the early favorite.

What drives the Atkinson support at Madison Square Garden is his success developing young talent and setting a culture in Brooklyn. The Knicks have a young core they like — RJ Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, a high draft pick this year — but as an organization has not been good at identifying and developing talent in recent years. If the Knicks are thinking about a patient rebuild around their youth, Atkinson would be a good choice.

Hiring him is also a shot at the Nets, who let him go.

The Knicks also believe they are well positioned to trade for a star. Dealing with elite players — in this case, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant — proved to be Atkinson’s downfall in Brooklyn, as he was seen as inflexible with his system to cater to the new talent. Atkinson didn’t connect with the team’s imported stars.

Thibodeau has a history as a win-now coach who leans on veterans, but he struggled to relate to young players such as Karl-Anthony Towns in Minnesota. Thibodeau says he has grown and will bring a new perspective to his next job, but is that a bet the Knicks want to make?

Mike Miller and Mike Woodson also are expected to interview for the Knicks’ job. There is support in the organization to take a look at Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy as well.

Leon Rose has not tipped his hand much, but the buzz around the league is this is still Thibodeau’s job, even if some in the Knicks’ organization love Atkinson.

Not if, but when.

That’s how NBA players union’s Michele Roberts is looking at the Orlando 22-team restart: It’s not if a player will test positive in the bubble, it’s when. The question is how the protocols are set up to deal with that, and if it’s worth the risk to the players. Here is what she told Gary Washburn of the Boston Globe:

“That’s the only realistic mindset you can have going into this. A player is going to test positive,” she said. “It’s not any more of this ‘if’, it’s ‘when’ and what can I do to mitigate against the ‘when.’ When it happens, if I’m not successful, what treatment is available to me, what are my chances of being really, really sick, and how are you detecting the presence of an infection? Honestly, I don’t think this is any different than what any American has to come to grips with.”

Over the weekend, the voices of players who have concerns about the restart — due to fears of stealing momentum from the Black Lives Matter movement, for health and safety reasons, and concerns about limitations in the bubble — have become louder. Stars such as Kyrie Irving, Dwight Howard, CJ McCollum have opposed restarting the season in Orlando.

The union’s Roberts said that doesn’t seem to be the attitude of the majority of players on an Orlando restart.

“I think the players are where they want to be. They want to give it a shot and if it doesn’t work, well, we tried. Hopefully nothing catastrophic will happen and we can just figure out Plan B. If the worst would happen and it would spread, we shut it down. This is the virus. I’m going to be disheartened, but I’m not going to be surprised because there’s no scientific or medical ability to protect against it. The players know it. The teams know it. We’re doing absolutely everything we can to mitigate it. If I didn’t think we were, that the league was half-stepping, then I would recommend with every ounce of my being that our players not even think about playing again. But that’s thankfully not the case.”

Players do not have to report to Orlando, and if they stay home they will not be punished. However, they also will not be paid. For a lot of players, the money is a major motivating factor toward a return.

In the coming weeks, each player will have to make a personal decision about whether or not to report. They will have to weigh the risks and rewards, the pros and the cons, and make a call. Players want to be unified about a decision, but right now there is no unity in the ranks.

But Roberts thinks players get the big picture and understand the risks. Now it’s their call.

Outside the county courthouse in Murray, Kentucky, there is a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

Ja Morant started at Murray State before going on to a likely Rookie of the Year season with the Memphis Grizzlies. This week, Morant wrote a letter Calloway County, Kentucky, Judge Kenneth C. Imes asking that “white supremacy” statue be removed.

“Murray felt like a second home from the minute I stepped on campus and became a part of the Murray State community. As a young Black man, I cannot stress enough how disturbing and oppressive it is to know the city still honors a Confederate war general defending white supremacy and hatred.”

The statue was erected in 1917 to honor the county’s Civil War dead. Like the majority of Confederate monuments in the United States, this one went up during the repressive Jim Crow era in the South (more than 50 years after the war ended), and these statues were meant to send a message to Black people about white power and the “social order.”

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and the energy behind the Black Lives Matter movement, there has been new energy to tearing down these monuments throughout the nation.

Good for Morant for taking a stand in a community that matters to him.

Let's block ads! (Why?)



Sports - Latest - Google News
June 15, 2020 at 06:05AM
https://ift.tt/3e7dJjq

Patrick Beverley: “If [LeBron James] said he hooping. We all hooping.” - ProBasketballTalk
Sports - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/2Mbsnt7


Bagikan Berita Ini

0 Response to "Patrick Beverley: “If [LeBron James] said he hooping. We all hooping.” - ProBasketballTalk"

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.