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NBA Off-Season 2019 - Bridge Over the River Kawhi


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59 minutes ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

The Olympics should be amateur athletes in my opinion, so yes I'd prefer professionals not being eligible from any country.

I'm pretty sure most of the participating athletes are professionals or at least as far as they are able. I know some sports have rule restrictions but I'd prefer to watch top tier competition. The rule restrictions serve more to protect the interest of the main products of the sport so I don't see the point.

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14 hours ago, DireWolfSpirit said:

The Olympics should be amateur athletes in my opinion, so yes I'd prefer professionals not being eligible from any country.

The thing is that it becomes a bit difficult to draw the line between professionals and amateurs, which is the main reason why professional athletes were allowed to compete (in most sports) in the Olympics.

Before pros were allowed to play basketball in the Olympics, "professional athlete" meant "player in the NBA" so players of European clubs were allowed to play despite being paid rather well (though much less than their NBA colleagues) to play basketball. Or do we ban them as well and stick with what Soviet Union did - giving their players military rank so they can play basketball while "being employed by the military"?

13 hours ago, Proudfeet said:

I'm pretty sure most of the participating athletes are professionals or at least as far as they are able. I know some sports have rule restrictions but I'd prefer to watch top tier competition. The rule restrictions serve more to protect the interest of the main products of the sport so I don't see the point.

To be honest, I'd like to see every sport in which the Olympics is not THE competition removed from the Olympics. For example, i don't see the point in having football or tennis in the Olympics. Don't know much about boxing but I know that Olympic medal, though usually a stepping stone to a pro career, is still highly valued. I'm sure there are other sports that wouldn't make the cut if that was the way Olympic events were picked.

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24 minutes ago, baxus said:

To be honest, I'd like to see every sport in which the Olympics is not THE competition removed from the Olympics. For example, i don't see the point in having football or tennis in the Olympics. Don't know much about boxing but I know that Olympic medal, though usually a stepping stone to a pro career, is still highly valued. I'm sure there are other sports that wouldn't make the cut if that was the way Olympic events were picked.

Tennis I can see. The Davis Cup and Grand Slams are not quite the same.

Football is one of those sports with restrictions to protect their main product (World Cup). There isn't a point in having two similar competitions (national teams) so they changed the rules to give it some purpose. No idea why Americans value the Olympics more than the World Cup for basketball though. They seem fundamentally the same to me. More exposure to non basketball fans maybe?

The entire sport of boxing could be abolished for all I care. With all the documentation on the adverse long-term effects of concussions available now, can't say I am impressed with a sport where giving your opponent a severe enough concussion to knock them out is a strategy / goal. Maybe it was considered safe before but as far as I am concerned, it is barely above gladiators duelling in a coliseum now.

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Eh, I say let all the pros compete, but I won't fight you if you want to set age limits. Perhaps this opinion is soaked in American perspective, but I find the way our colleges make so much money off of amateur athletes to be completely disgusting. The NCAA would be worse than FIFA if not for that whole "we're building stadiums with slaves in Qatar" business. 

Random question on the subject. Aren't all the good young talents in European football already kinds of pro athletes on a way? Or do the youth clubs not pay them in some respects?

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On 9/21/2019 at 12:45 AM, Tywin et al. said:

Random question on the subject. Aren't all the good young talents in European football already kinds of pro athletes on a way? Or do the youth clubs not pay them in some respects?

It's a completely different system from the one in the states. Kids get through club academies and youth system, starting from a pretty early age. By the time youngsters get to be 17-18, they have either already signed pro contracts or are on the verge of signing one.

I'm not sure about the legal issues here, and what type of contract an underage player can sign or if they can sign one at all, but I'm 100% certain that they are getting paid one way or another. Sometimes it's a system of getting monthly stipends, sometimes it's getting their parents very well paid jobs, you name it.

That being said, there have been serious punishments for clubs breaking the rules concerning youth players transfers and signings. For example, Chelsea have been banned from the transfer market for 2 transfer windows (basically a full year) for breaking those rules.

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5 hours ago, baxus said:

It's a completely different system from the one in the states. Kids get through club academies and youth system, starting from a pretty early age. By the time youngsters get to be 17-18, they have either already signed pro contracts or are on the verge of signing one.

I'm not sure about the legal issues here, and what type of contract an underage player can sign or if they can sign one at all, but I'm 100% certain that they are getting paid one way or another. Sometimes it's a system of getting monthly stipends, sometimes it's getting their parents very well paid jobs, you name it.

That being said, there have been serious punishments for clubs breaking the rules concerning youth players transfers and signings. For example, Chelsea have been banned from the transfer market for 2 transfer windows (basically a full year) for breaking those rules.

I can’t say every player is getting paid under the table, but almost all organizations are paying some players under the table in one form or another. For example, a private school bought my friend’s mom a house to transfer when he was just 13.

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  • 2 weeks later...
1 hour ago, KingintheNorth4 said:

Ben Simmons hit a 3 and now I don't know what's real anymore.

It’s like that scene where Happy Gilmore reveals he can putt.

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On 10/7/2019 at 7:45 AM, Rhom said:

Daryl Morey runs afoul of a complicated mix of money and politics.

All I know is that when Rick Scott and Beto O’Rourke are both tweeting on the same side of an issue... the NBA probably got their response wrong.

I know I'm in a dark place when I agree with Ted Cruz. The whole situation is weird, especially when you consider nobody in mainland China could see the tweet.

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The NBA just looks bad.  They actively encourage activism from their players in our country no matter the groups they may offend, but when faced with actual perpetrators of institutional human rights violations they fold quicker than a bad poker hand.

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2 hours ago, Rhom said:

The NBA just looks bad.  They actively encourage activism from their players in our country no matter the groups they may offend, but when faced with actual perpetrators of institutional human rights violations they fold quicker than a bad poker hand.

Trump called out Pop and Kerr for not criticizing China. He was doing it in the context that they'd been willing to criticize American institutions, and obviously his own perspective is fucked up and retrograde, but in this one scintilla of a moment, he was... correct about that.

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I don't think it's incumbent upon Kerr and Pop to criticize China.  Morey's job was clearly in jeopardy for a bit there for making a pretty damn innocuous tweet.  It's incumbent upon the commissioners office and the owners to stand up and defend their employee's ability to criticize China.  Until that clearly happens, I don't blame anyone for refusing to comment.

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Don't think that is happening anytime soon. I read that a couple of fans were removed from a preseason game at Philly for chanting support for Hong Kong. 

Also, no idea why journalists are baiting them with dumb questions like this. I mean what answer do they expect? But then again, they've been asking players and coaches about what they think of supposed unjust officiating for years so I guess they are just true to form. 

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Not that America has a perfect record either but China can piss right the Eff off. I really don't care for bullies and employees of the Association should be absolutely free to be critical of the U.S. or Chinese governments.

That being said, it pays to be diplomatic when trying to court business partners so this may be a moment where you have to make the choice between your principles and your pocketbook.

Mark Cuban on doing biz with China-

https://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/mark-cuban-business-china

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More of a general health issue applied to NBA players than an NBA thing, and is also rather obvious. Sleep deprivation is really bad for your performance. 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/27767289/dirty-little-secret-everybody-knows-about

Teams are already resting their players but the article points out that it is the travel itself that is damaging. Sometimes teams do let their players skip games but based on the evidence they really should let all the resting players go directly to the next city and not watch the game in a suit.

Also, scheduling is hard. I wonder how many more days need to be added to the season to completely eliminate back to backs. Or only have back to back games where you don't have to travel.

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Only about 24 hours to go. This looks to be one of the most exciting seasons in a long time.

Also, some bad news, Zion had surgery and will be out 6-8 weeks. I really do fear he could have an injury riddled career due to his weight, and that’s compounded by the city he was drafted to.  

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3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Only about 24 hours to go. This looks to be one of the most exciting seasons in a long time.

Also, some bad news, Zion had surgery and will be out 6-8 weeks. I really do fear he could have an injury riddled career due to his weight, and that’s compounded by the city he was drafted to.  

Agreed.  If he won't or can't take off some weight, he's going to have a hard time surviving in the NBA.  It would be a shame to such a singular talent become one of the great could have beens of sports history.  

 

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