NBA Circus

What Charles Barkley said back in July is the perfect response to all the pandering the NBA is doing. Guys like him and actor Terry Crews are not afraid to speak their mind and look at things from a different viewpoint and possibly one that a number of people agree with. The problem is this mob mentality that you have to be in support of garbage like Black Lives Matter. That you have to believe the same things LeBron James and others have to say. Going against the status quo of these players does not make you the bad guy unless you're being stupid on purpose.

Here's my issue with Black Lives Matter. It's not a good movement. Whatever message it had on police brutality is lost for good. The fighting with police does not make them better. Neither does the bad cops that give the good ones a bad rep. Now, people want a distraction. Sports is slowly coming back, but guys like Barkley don't like that politics is bleeding over into the sport he played for 15 years. BLM on the court, the various jerseys with messages on them, victims names. How is that solving systemic racism and police brutality? Are people going to remember those names in a year or two? This is how you lose viewers.

I also think Adam Silver is too gutless to intervene. I understand not wanting to be bullied by some of these players for fear of getting bashed on social media, but he has to take a stand sometime. He had opportunities to stop incidents, racism or not, but didn't. The only time I can think of is the Donald Sterling incident in 2014. It's one thing to have a voice and some freedom, but the problem is giving the players too much freedom without any consequences. There has to be some guidelines on how to act. The late David Stern would be rolling in his grave if he saw what was going on.

Along with the messages and victims, what does kneeling solve? It solves nothing. And Barkley went against the status quo that players shouldn't be vilified if they stand, which was met with tons of criticism and people of his own race bashing him along with some support. Both sides will be vilified. The question I would ask a lot of these players and coaches would be this; Do you believe in all this? Or are you falling in line because you don't want to get ridiculed and bashed by your own team? Because that stuff can happen in a locker room and it's something you won't hear on social media. I don't think anyone wants to be bullied by the long tenured veterans, so they will follow what everyone else is doing. And that brings a bad message in regards to the NBA.

I'd be curious to see how the ratings are throughout the next couple months. The numbers for the sport came back decent, but has dropped a little bit the last couple days. I'll assume anything below two million is mediocre. We should all strive to end racism and police brutality, but movements like Black Lives Matter are not doing any good. Add in the league's pandering to it, and it turns off potential viewers. Barkley is right. It is a circus. Very unfortunate to see the NBA like this. Not a good way at all to represent your league.