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Sports + Politics

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 11:02 pm
by carey
For anyone who hasn't seen Popovich's talk about Donald Trump yesterday. I wish more coaches were frank about their political opinions. It should be noted that the Spurs owner is a major donor to Trump's campaign.

[youtube][/youtube]

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sat Jan 21, 2017 11:36 pm
by Mori Chu
^ Thanks for posting, but a video like that should probably go in the Politics folder instead of here since it's likely to be polarizing.

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 12:12 am
by SDC
carey wrote:For anyone who hasn't seen Popovich's talk about Donald Trump yesterday. I wish more coaches were frank about their political opinions. It should be noted that the Spurs owner is a major donor to Trump's campaign.

[youtube][/youtube]
yeah, i saw what happened to the nfl ratings after colin kaepernick.

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 9:54 am
by Mori Chu
If people want to talk about Popovich or his political comments: Politics folder. Please. I will move/delete if people post further about it here. I just want the main site area to be relatively civil and not dive into partisan politics. I mean that for both sides of the issue. Thanks.

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 10:22 am
by carey
Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:If people want to talk about Popovich or his political comments: Politics folder. Please. I will move/delete if people post further about it here. I just want the main site area to be relatively civil and not dive into partisan politics. I mean that for both sides of the issue. Thanks.
It's your prerogative to run the board however you like. I put it in the sports section because it is a highly visible sports figure and it's being covered by ESPN. That is my only rationale.

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:02 pm
by TOO
carey wrote:
Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:If people want to talk about Popovich or his political comments: Politics folder. Please. I will move/delete if people post further about it here. I just want the main site area to be relatively civil and not dive into partisan politics. I mean that for both sides of the issue. Thanks.
It's your prerogative to run the board however you like. I put it in the sports section because it is a highly visible sports figure and it's being covered by ESPN. That is my only rationale.
I'm not sure that being covered by ESPN counts as a sports thing anymore :lol:

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:35 pm
by Mori Chu
carey wrote:
Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:If people want to talk about Popovich or his political comments: Politics folder. Please. I will move/delete if people post further about it here. I just want the main site area to be relatively civil and not dive into partisan politics. I mean that for both sides of the issue. Thanks.
It's your prerogative to run the board however you like. I put it in the sports section because it is a highly visible sports figure and it's being covered by ESPN. That is my only rationale.
I totally get it and don't mean to attack you or scold you. I just think that we are in a rough time politically as a nation, and that some folks want to mix that in with the rest of their lives (e.g. sports), and some want to separate these things and want to be able to talk sports without getting into politics. I definitely understand why you posted it; it is relevant to the intersection of NBA and politics. And I would much prefer for people to post such things here on this site than not post them, whether the link aligns with my personal political beliefs or not.

Since we have a Politics area, it makes sense to me to post things there if it is an (NBA + politics) story. The line here is fuzzy; if the NBA announces they're moving the All-Star game out of Charlotte NC because of anti-trans bathroom laws, does that go in the NBA area or the politics area? I think the announcement of that fact from the NBA goes in the NBA folder, but if people want to argue about whether Charlotte should have that law or whether it's good for sports orgs to move events due to politicized laws, that kind of discussion goes under Politics. It's tricky to know what goes where, and we'll just try our best to put things in the proper places.

I just want to try to keep things friendly and collegial here as much as I can. Political discussions often get escalated and heated pretty quickly, so I think it makes a lot of sense to put them in their own area for the people who want to get into that kind of discussion. And I also want to try not to be more permissive of content that I agree with politically while censoring/burying content that I politically disagree with. This is hard to get right, and we won't be perfect, but I think it matters to at least try.

Thanks again for all the great content that you post here, carey. You are awesome as always.

NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 1:54 pm
by carey

https://twitter.com/ramonashelburne/status/823267441086234629

Even Steve Kerr got in on the Sean Spicer stuff yesterday.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 3:43 pm
by Cap
I looked it up. It was 122.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Sun Jan 22, 2017 4:02 pm
by Mori Chu
^ That Kerr quote is pretty funny. :-)

Also thanks for moving the posts here.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 6:56 am
by Indy
I didn't realize the Spurs owner was a huge Trump supporter. Interesting.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 7:29 am
by Mori Chu
Probably several NBA owners are. They're rich old white men who probably want lower taxes and fewer regulations. My guess is many of them like Trump just fine.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:40 am
by In2ition
Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:Probably several NBA owners are. They're rich old white men who probably want lower taxes and fewer regulations. My guess is many of them like Trump just fine.
What is wrong with rich old white men?

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 8:59 am
by Indy
I don't think he was saying anything is wrong with being old or white. He is just saying that if you are a billionaire and white and old, you fit right into the Trump demo.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 9:31 am
by In2ition
That's an interesting generalization. I thought that the demographics of Trump supporters were uneducated racist white poor male hicks.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:02 am
by Indy
In2ition wrote:That's an interesting generalization. I thought that the demographics of Trump supporters were uneducated racist white poor male hicks.
Well, there are millions more of then than billionaires. And Trump will only hurt poor folks. Billionaires are going to get the most out of it. Many are already planning for how they are going to use their repatriated over-sees money without having to pay the taxes on them that you or I would on our earnings. (By the way, no offense that I am assuming you, like I, are not a billionaire.)

Oh, and I would add that key aspects to Trump's base is much more race and age than net worth, from what I have seen. Again, I think that has a lot more to do with the number of folks in those demographics versus the rich demo.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:20 am
by In2ition
You're right, I'm not a billionaire. I think all this panic about Trump hurting poor people is hyperbole and demagoguery.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 11:54 am
by Indy
In2ition wrote:You're right, I'm not a billionaire. I think all this panic about Trump hurting poor people is hyperbole and demagoguery.
Do you believe "trickle down economics" has worked/is a viable strategy to help shrink the gap between poor and rich?

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:22 pm
by Mori Chu
In2ition wrote:That's an interesting generalization. I thought that the demographics of Trump supporters were uneducated racist white poor male hicks.
There has been a lot of mischaracterization of Trump's supporters. His base consists mostly of middle-class white people, not people at/near the poverty line. He of course has supporters from other groups, but it's not a huge band of bumpkins or poor folks struggling to make ends meet.

Re: NBA + Politics

Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2017 12:24 pm
by Mori Chu
In2ition wrote:You're right, I'm not a billionaire. I think all this panic about Trump hurting poor people is hyperbole and demagoguery.
We will have to wait and see, but in general his business record does not show strong support for the average worker. And most of the policies for which he has expressed support so far are not in line with increases in workers' rights, salaries, benefits, etc. You may still be right that some of the panic is overblown, but there's also IMO not a ton of reason for working class people to be optimistic that he will fight for them. He talks a lot about bringing back jobs to the US, but most of the job loss is actually caused by automation and technology, which cannot be undone. The tactic of blaming these lost jobs on foreign companies, trade, and immigration has been successful, but it isn't really based on fact. Those plants are never going to re-open; those people won't get those jobs back, no matter what Trump might say or want to do about it.