August 26, 2020
Last night was a long one and I was surprised to awaken at
9:00am. I had to check the time twice
because sleeping to that hour was an anomaly.
After taking care of my morning responsibilities and having to catch the
shuttle at 1:30 I opted to get my Spanish lesson out of the way. The course usually takes about a half hour so
I thought I could squeeze it in without any issue. Boy was I wrong. The content had become increasingly more
difficult and I had error after error, crawling along at about half the success
rate that I had gotten used to. I try to
achieve one hundred points per effort and I was sitting at about fifty five
when I slammed my computer shut in disgust and headed for the bus. I would have
to finish the lesson later in the day.
And I will finish the lesson.
I had no idea today would be a turning point in the NBA
restart. Our game was slated to be the
second in three games on tap. Ours was
OKC and Houston. The first game covered by one of the other TNT crews, pitted
Milwaukee against Orlando. My crew was having
our customary lunch in the dining area around 4:00 pm when we glanced up at the
projection television screens encircling the restaurant. A news alert just came in that the Milwaukee
Bucks decided to not play to protest the continuous shooting of unarmed black
men and women within our country. The
shooting in Kenosha was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The Bucks had approached the game as they had in previous
days. They showed up about three hours
before the game, went through their customary shoot around drills, exited the
court about thirty minutes before tip, but never emerged from their locker room
after that. The Magic team was warming
up alone all the while looking at the other end of an empty court wondering
what was taking place. The referees were
confused as well along with the court personnel. Eventually, Orlando left the court and
returned to their locker room.
Once we saw the news alert flash on the screen, we left our lunch
and sprinted back to our arena. When we
arrived, a few Thunder players were warming up on the court. No Houston players were in sight. We hadn’t been in position for three minutes
when an OKC representative called his players back to their locker room. The court was empty of players but our
television crew and NBA court support personnel were all in place, unaware of
how the situation would play out.
Our robotic cameras set up in the hallways caught a meeting
between Chris Paul of the Thunder and Russell Westbrook of the Rockets. It was clear the conversation was about what
had occurred next door at the Arena.
Shortly thereafter they separated and headed back to their respective
locker rooms. Not long after that, players could be seen walking out of the
building to catch a bus back to their hotel.
Our game was cancelled as well.
We stayed in position and fed images back to TNT and NBA TV of our
empty arena, along with commentary from our analyst Stan Van Gundy. We listened to an emotional response from
Chris Webber as he gave a personal perspective of the choice that had been made
by the teams today. He provided a statement that I listened to intently, that
could be used by anyone caught in a struggle, not just this one. Using a quote from Martin Luther King, Webber
said, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the
silence of our friends.”
Soon thereafter, the third game of the night, Lakers versus
Portland, was scrubbed. A statement was
being made by the NBA players. Enough is
enough. They were mad as hell and
weren’t going to take it any longer.
Other professional sports teams began to fall in line and cancel their
games. Baseball, hockey, WNBA all
started cancelling games. The sports
that had fought so hard to get back in business and provide our country the
entertainment and distraction from the current pandemic said fuck it, it’s time
to bring this issue to the forefront.
We stayed on the air until 7:00 and then headed for the bus back
home. My wife hates it when I call my
hotel home but it’s just an expression.
It sure doesn’t feel like home but it is one for another month and a
bit. Upon our arrival and walking past the pool, the area was packed and the
atmosphere abuzz with conversations about what had just occurred. I raced to my room and deposited my baggage,
made an extra strong rum and coke, and headed back out. I am starting to be concerned about my rum and
coke ingestion. I better keep an eye on
that.
As I headed for the pool I made an abrupt U-turn because one of the local stations in Tucson, KVOA, wanted to do a quick zoom interview to get my perspective of what occurred today on the NBA Campus. I quickly set up my computer and readied for the interview. The conversation went very smoothly even though I got a little choked up when responding to a question about what I want to come out of this. I have always been an emotional person and when I was trying to recollect all that had transpired in the last few hours, and compared that to what had been occurring to certain groups of people for the last couple of centuries, I had a difficult time finding the right words as I held back tears. Does anyone remember Rodney King? Can’t we all just get along?
Once at the pool, discussions revolved around the reason for the
walkout, will the bubble burst and would we be sent home, was this just a one
day walkout, lots of speculation but no answers. The players were meeting at 8:00pm and would
come to a decision. Everything depended
on the decision coming out of their meeting, and all we could do was wait.
Regardless of the outcome of their meeting, the events of the day
started conversation after conversation, perspective and opinion, proposals and
solutions amongst all of us. Perhaps
that is what the Bucks and the NBA wanted to do. They wanted everyone to start to talk about
it, to understand, to empathize, try to make things better. I am a firm
believer in the twenty sixty twenty rule.
Regarding the social injustice issue, twenty percent of the population
is in full support of the cause, not needed any additional information or
persuasion. On the flip side, another
twenty percent could give a shit about the situation and it is impossible to
change their view or their mindset. It
is a waste of time to spend any on this portion of the population. But that sixty percent, that is where the
energy must be focused. They are the
majority of the population that possesses the power to make change, and they
are the audience to focus on. Not only does this rule pertain to the general
population, but the politicians as well.
As I thumbed through Facebook the opinions were already running
rampant. Posts supporting the movement
were countered equally with opinions degrading the choice of the “rich
millionaires” that weren’t oppressed at all.
So much positivity and negativity became available all at once. It is fruitless to try to change one’s
opinion via social media, but as I read the comments of many of my “friends” it
was clear that I needed to get some new friends.
There was a rocket launch scheduled for 2:06 am so a lot of us
opted to stay up, play some dominoes by the pool, have a few beverages, and
continue the conversation. The player’s
had adjourned their meeting and nothing definitive had been relayed to us
because the owners were going to meet in the morning then after they adjourned,
we might have a better understanding regarding the status of the restart. We were told the two teams from Los Angeles had
voted to end the playoffs and return home.
That was surprising to me. How
competitive will either of those two teams be if and when we begin playing
again if they would rather be going home?
This is going to be interesting moving forward.
Thirty minutes before the scheduled launch of the Delta IV rocket,
the mission was scrubbed until a later date. Dang it. I was looking forward to witnessing this one
as the rocket has three boosters on it so it should look pretty spectacular
against the dark night sky. I guess we
will have to wait on this one, just like we are waiting to have our bubble
existence decided.
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