NBA Players: Again Squandering Leverage

Once again, The4Corners comes to you from planet earth, where popular opinions continue to defy the notion of properly and adequately addressing the issues of the populace on the whole. Within this notion, various aspects of our society at large end up in the headlines and for numerous reasons. Here, economics and self identity politics enter the fray and shape narratives and intentions towards individuals among 'liberal' and 'conservative' lines. It is evident that society at large has been continuously engendered and fed a company line that perpetuates the same old cycle that generations of people learn to either roll with or get rolled over by. The4Corners doesn't do that...we get to the core and discuss the issue evenly and with perspective so that people can actually learn something new, be challenged or further reinforced with their similar perspective to get out into the world to not merely change it, but make it better.

Being a life long resident of Boston, Massachusetts, it is quite natural that these initial entries will emanate from the Northeast state of mind, especially as it concerns sports. I regularly read the Boston Globe and from there, I get inspired by the numb and mundane to write about the issues-of-the-day on the table. Today, it is the issue of whether pro sports, namely, the NBA should return to business in shadow of a pandemic and societal upheaval. Let's just get this out of the way now: the players should be concerned about Covid-19. They should be concerned about the social unrest prevalent in our society. However, in their current position, where the team owners, league officials and corporate partners are trying to rush them back onto the court in order to fulfil media contracts and provide the value of distraction to its many fans, the players should be squarely focused on the status of their union and the tremendous leverage they currently have at their disposal because I believe many of the social justice reforms they desire can emanate from unifying the National Basketball Players Association under the umbrella of leverage. What is stopping them from saying "we will not play until the current NBA bylaws and the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) are altered"? Within this context, the players can put anything on the table which could potentially fulfill many aims within and outside of the league which hits at the heart of societal matters while improving the status of the players in the employer-employee dynamic. In the meanwhile, the owners/league can get their games, satiate the fans, and make nice with media partners and corporate sponsors while the players are able to codify reform that can stimulate an impact felt well beyond the hardwood. Oh yeah, and STILL get paid serious scratch.

First, players have to also be mindful of who they choose as their leadership. One particular player who has pretty much burned bridges everywhere he has gone as a professional, should not be in a position to dictate, much less suggest the direction the players should go in navigating the intersections of a deadly pandemic, social justice matters, player contracts and public relations. Said player has flip-flopped on his intentions in regard to the NBA commencing its hastily arranged regular season and playoff schedule in Orlando; one day he wants to go and have a massage therapist, saunas and opportunities to brand; when informed that he cannot attend and be pampered due to his inability to play because of injury and Covid-19 concerns, playing the games should be avoided in the interest of social justice. The players should not be enthused to get back onto the court in order to show how much of a social justice warrior they are to the public at large; yes, these players have a platform, but this platform is rife with exceptions, disqualifications and conditions. In essence, the platform is provided, not built by one's own hands, so there will be little to no agency and no real change as whomever builds the platform determines what is said on it. Therefore, it would be custom tradition on that platform is for the players to adhere to 'acceptable' gestures such as corporate sponsored apparel, photo-opportunities and ceremonies which are hollowed out, empty and toothless. Since the players are businessmen in their own right, many may relish the dog and pony show in order to serve two things: 1) To unveil those cool (insert corporate company here) sponsored George Floyd or Breonna Taylor t-shirts and related merchandise, which is their popular conception of revolution and culture shifting and/or 2) Grow their individual personal brands, which promise to 'say something meaningful' which brings in new customers and followers with the goal of being 'iconic' within the media circle.

Achieving social justice, it's tenets and whatever iterations that come with it (all groups of people have their own ideas of what social justice is), will not be experienced within a week, month, a year or even decades because it is a generational exercise comprised of elements ranging from economics, spatial politics, identity, culture, relationship to the dominant culture. Therefore, not playing because of these issues and communicating that the games will not be played until this is achieved is sheer lunacy. Acts of Congress, laws and other provisions have been implemented over the past 60 or so years with some intent to address social inequality; although the intent should rightfully be scrutinized, there are millions of people of the target demographic that have been able to take advantage of this. However, there are tens of millions who got caught up in a cultural cycle of dysfunction and remain there today. Therefore, the thought that not playing basketball because of this or even threatening to walk away through protest is short-sighted and sends the wrong message to the 'young youth of today' some of these athletes wish to reach. If you wish to walk away, do it with the intent to exert leverage in order to get what you want. The target of this leverage is the relationship between the players, coaches, executive offices and the league itself. Be willing to walk away from it all and tell the owners to kick rocks with the aims to achieve goals that can be accomplished for the benefit of the purposely overlooked, underemployed and easily discarded so called 'black' coaches, the lack of 'black' executive level personnel and ownership, as well as the plight of young players coming up behind you in your industry while allowing younger populations to see you exercise some semblance of agency because THAT example is what they lack exposure to.

T-shirt and sneaker revolutions won't, and never will address the controversial issues prevalent in our society, especially when we all know the manner in which those products are manufactured and the people who players claim to speak for glean no benefit from that process to begin with. They may look 'revolutionary fresh' but what happens when the ink fades from the shirt and the treads wear off those kicks? Do people pull out their debit cards and re-up the revolution?

Athletes, like all entertainers, have become products of social movements when they stand for something within their chosen fields which reverberates throughout society; Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised those black fists to bring international attention to the blatant human rights violations committed by their government in their home country...as they represented that country as winners in the 1968 Summer Olympics...while so called 'black' men were being drafted to serve in Vietnam in disproportionate numbers...as the war on poverty created a culture of dependence and pushed so called 'black' men out of homes...as protests for human rights were met with vicious dogs, fire hydrants and unlawful arrest. The late Mohammed Ali was stripped of his heavyweight boxing title and jailed for refusing to participate in the war in Vietnam as it was against his moral code to fight for the 'freedoms' of the Vietnamese when his people can't even get the same back at home. He also was a member of an organization...not a mouthpiece and certainly not the leader. To hear an athlete say that they wish to dub a season while in a position to afford a prolonged layoff while their contemporaries can't, screams of an injustice in of itself. No public figure started their own social justice organization with themselves at the helm, didn't turn it into a shallow and dysfunctional self-promotion vehicle.

If you wish to walk away from the NBA, do it for the benefit of future NBA players who are protesting in public now, losing loved ones to Covid-19, gun violence, surrounded by dysfunction and are susceptible to racial profiling by local police departments. Do it for the college athletes who are in effect, subject to at least a year of indentured servitude and playing well below their earning potential in that crooked NCAA system. Walk away and don't play unless the NBA drops that age limitation to play in the league. Make the league encourage the free market enterprise for qualified individuals. Make sure the league ensures talented athletes have a fair and equitable path to the pros on par with hockey, baseball, tennis, soccer and golf players. Ensure that the teams don't overlook qualified former NBA players that can coach in favor of inexperienced and ill-prepared college coaches, videographers, pencil pushers and people who have not played in the NBA nor spent considerable time on an NBA bench.

The question that must be asked, especially of NBA players, is whether you are a brand or a member of society. There is nothing wrong with living in a gated community and enjoying the spoils that your talent has gifted you. There IS something wrong with sitting on the phone in those same comforts and writing diatribes on Twitter of all places, about the ills of society in order to gain traction within a market demographic with the intent to sell them social justice themed products; it stinks of opportunism, selfishness and an extreme lack of self-awareness. This is a new world and the strategies of social change that took place in the 1960s and 70s, which are seen through various lenses in documentaries or pictures, have been well appropriated, strip mined and re-packaged. These images are in movies and television commercials; they sell cars, music, fashion and lifestyles.

Athletes can be mediums in which social change can be communicated, but they are NOT the instruments of social change. Huey Newton in a 'City-Edition' Golden State Warriors jersey will not get anything done; it may look cool and such, but when that individual speaks and has to filter his message to appease the broader audience, he will cease to be heard. If he goes off script, he will be silenced because it's not his platform. The players need to leverage the league into operating in a manner in which they believe society should be reflecting. There are still bosses and chains of command that could stand to have differing voices and opinions, but most NBA players do not wish to acquire the accreditation to hold sway and influence in that arena. Nonetheless, that is the corporate structure of any business endeavor. However, the manner in which the corporate structure operates, how the employees are engaged by it, how employees engage with it and how it engages the public should be paramount. Now, these are elements can be changed within a few weeks and would cause a visible and real ripple effect. If the powers that be aren't with the program and have no willingness to negotiate, then the players should step off in unison. Let them figure it out and stay by the phone because the league will call. Even people who adhere to the most abhorrent opinions of fellow members of this society would have no choice but to respect that. In doing so, players will inspire other unions and associations in a myriad of industries to exert some form of the same leverage. This is the practice of being a medium of social change.

Nonetheless, I am expecting the same clown show, but at least the tragedy mask will be on display for some contrast. The race for who wishes to join Colin Kaepernick as the resident social justice representative for an established brand that is complicit in the trampling of human rights abroad is on. I figure that certain people are going to make a statement in their own self-interest to eschew helping in exerting the leverage for the benefit of others and decide to go into business for themselves so they can be the subject of a 30 for 30 episode 20 years from now. 'Look what I gave up..." Meanwhile the NBA players will still be stuck and unable to contribute to the transformation of society through their collective efforts within the NBA. If any young NBA player reads this, I ask...what have you got to lose that has been and always will be threatened to be taken away from you for the most arbitrary of reasons? Exercise the opportunity to exert leverage and positively alter the destinies of those around you as well as those who have not even been born. DON'T MISS THIS BOAT. Go into this endeavor knowing that the overall societal change you seek will more than likely take place long after you are gone; you are the one tasked with pouring the foundation in which to build upon. There is no application in Google Play or Apple that can access what can be built over time. Don't listen to self-interested crackpots with cool sneakers as their opinion of themselves, the world around them and YOU, changes with the tides.

It always mindful to remember that the beautifying one's street begins with the fixing of one's own home.