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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