Discussion: ESPN The Last Dance 10-Part Michael Jordan Documentary Series UPDATE: Early release due to coronavirus!

pookie

Thinking of a Master Plan
BGOL Investor
Fam we dont need an explanation as to why MJ had all the power. We know why.

The only question is why does MJ lie about using his power to keep Isiah off the team even decades later.

All these other players sing the same song. Pippen has been the only one to be upfront about not wanting to play with Isiah. Everybody else says "well its the other guys who didnt like him".

To me it’s a sign of weakness, you let your personal feelings about something that happened on the court get in the way of another man achieving a milestone, that’s some hater shit. MJ was all about basketbal, He can’t say he didn’t feel Isaiah wasn’t good enough to be on the team and that’s why he didn’t want him on there, his sole excuse was he didn’t like him
 

The Plutonian

The Anti Bullshitter
BGOL Investor
For a man called the goat, money, black jesus, black cat...

Clowned EVERYONE

And produced a 10 hour documentary to do it on camera

He sure scared of a under 6 ft point guard from Chicago who has a winning record against him.

Cause TRUST zeke would have had no problem

Then and now

saying HE DID IT if it did.

In my opinion....pause....this makes him more bitchy. Zeke didn’t bust y’all ass for years? He wasn’t great? He didn’t put Detroit on the map and too? They weren’t a dynasty? Shit, then Chi steals most of their players? Ok MJ. The real fag shit was freezing him from the Dream Team and lying about it. But...you MJ. Ok bro. And that shit about the Glove was pure denial. Numbers show it. Lastly, that Horace Grant shit:smh:
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
In my opinion....pause....this makes him more bitchy. Zeke didn’t bust y’all ass for years? He wasn’t great? He didn’t put Detroit on the map and too? They weren’t a dynasty? Shit, then Chi steals most of their players? Ok MJ. The real fag shit was freezing him from the Dream Team and lying about it. But...you MJ. Ok bro. And that shit about the Glove was pure denial. Numbers show it. Lastly, that Horace Grant shit:smh:


Let me put this out there...

So far we have proof on proof on proof MJ lying right on a few things?

And so far?

Zeke aint lie and even copped to any mistake

And got KILLED FOR IT.

So lets do this...

When zeke says the celtics did the same thing with no handshakes

Which he been SAYING for DECADES

Nobody only MJ supporters saying well thats not true

EVEN AFTER VIDEO EVIDENCE AND MCHALE ADMITTED IT.

What that say?

Why just off that alone Zeke aint get the benefit of the doubt?

Further...

The freeze out?

Who started that legend?

Go back and see if THAT is true?

Cause now? I want PROOF

Even if it is?

Let's find out if AGAIN this wasn't common practice

All I'm saying is Zeke aint been CAUGHT on ONE LIE yet

He is also an admitted asshole

But he owned it.

Sidebar...

All these mj stans calling out Horace?

Did they even READ THE F*CKING BOOK?

When they do?

Come back to me
 

REDLINE

Rising Star
BGOL Investor
Let me put this out there...

So far we have proof on proof on proof MJ lying right on a few things?

And so far?

Zeke aint lie and even copped to any mistake

And got KILLED FOR IT.

So lets do this...

When zeke says the celtics did the same thing with no handshakes

Which he been SAYING for DECADES

Nobody only MJ supporters saying well thats not true

EVEN AFTER VIDEO EVIDENCE AND MCHALE ADMITTED IT.

What that say?

Why just off that alone Zeke aint get the benefit of the doubt?

Further...

The freeze out?

Who started that legend?

Go back and see if THAT is true?

Cause now? I want PROOF

Even if it is?

Let's find out if AGAIN this wasn't common practice

All I'm saying is Zeke aint been CAUGHT on ONE LIE yet

He is also an admitted asshole

But he owned it.

Sidebar...

All these mj stans calling out Horace?

Did they even READ THE F*CKING BOOK?

When they do?

Come back to me



200.gif
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster



'He was beloved by everybody': How Scottie Pippen lifted Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

A COUPLE OF years ago, Jud Buechler's daughter Reily was walking through Los Angeles International Airport when she spotted one of Buechler's longtime teammates: Scottie Pippen. She texted her father about her celebrity sighting. Her phone rang.

"Reily," Buechler implored his daughter, "turn around right now and introduce yourself. Tell him how thankful you are for what he did for your dad."

She approached Pippen.

"He was great to her," Buechler said. "And for me to tell her that -- it shows how much love I have for that guy."

Love comes up often when former teammates discuss Pippen -- particularly those, like Buechler, who joined the Chicago Bulls during Michael Jordan's brief retirement and remained once Jordan returned. Randy Brown, who signed with Chicago in 1995, tells Pippen he loves him at the end of every phone call.

At their final team dinner, days after winning the 1998 NBA title, Phil Jackson ushered players into a private room, away from coaches and spouses, and asked each to toast one teammate. Buechler toasted Pippen.

EDITOR'S PICKS

"It was, 'I hope Scottie goes somewhere and gets paid, gets what he deserves,'" Buechler recalled.

Teammates didn't mind that Pippen timed his foot surgery in October 1997 so he would miss the first two-plus months of that season. They sympathized with his contract situation -- why he had once craved the security of a long-term deal, and the resentment he felt when it became clear he was underpaid. Pippen and 11 siblings grew up in a two-bedroom house in rural Arkansas.

"We knew why he took that deal," said Will Perdue, Pippen's teammate over eight seasons. "He was a good family man."
"We felt his pain," Brown said. "We wanted him to play, but we understood."

Pippen had built up enough goodwill to sit. "He was beloved by everybody," said Steve Kerr, a Bull from 1993 to 1998.
"He is my favorite Bulls teammate," said Bill Wennington, a member of Chicago's last three title teams.

Some of the fondness stemmed from Pippen's playing style: pass-first, eager to take the toughest defensive assignments. Some of it was about the contrast in leadership styles with Jordan.

"He was a perfect complement to Michael," Kerr said last month on the Lowe Post podcast. "Michael was the hard-ass. You had to be ready every day for his criticism. Scottie would put his arm around you and make sure you were OK. He is a kind soul."

Teammates said the juxtaposition is not meant as criticism of Jordan's ruthlessness. "You need both," Buechler said.

Scottie Pippen soothed teammates scorched by Michael Jordan's more incendiary style. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images

AS CHRONICLED IN the ESPN docuseries "The Last Dance" and in Sam Smith's seminal book "The Jordan Rules," Jordan's intimidation tactics were meant to steel teammates for the postseason. Even teammates who did not enjoy the withering glares and verbal jabs concede Jordan's methods had some effect.

They also wonder how the team might have functioned if its second-best player weren't wired the way Pippen was. What if Pippen had been as merciless as Jordan? Would teammates have quaked under a two-man dictatorship? Would that version of Pippen have chafed at No. 2 status?
With Chicago trailing Game 1 of the 1998 Finals against the Utah Jazz by three with just under three minutes left, Pippen attempted a game-tying triple. A timeout followed. As the Bulls huddled on the sideline, Jordan lectured Pippen; Jordan had been rolling, and he was apparently upset Pippen had not fed him. Pippen had made the shot. (NBC's cameras caught the exchange; Bob Costas cackled at Jordan's alpha competitiveness.) Pippen listened, and offered what appeared to be a rebuttal. They put the issue to bed.

"There was always a lot of communication between Michael and Scottie, and frequently it was heated," Kerr said. "But never disrespectful. It was always with the intention of trying to win."

What if Pippen had been shy -- reluctant to offer support for teammates experiencing self-doubt?

When Brown was struggling to learn the triangle offense, Pippen pulled him aside. "You're not gonna play if you don't get this," Pippen told Brown. "I know what you bring, but Phil has to trust you." Pippen was encouraging, not admonishing. He had seen the triangle befuddle newcomers.

"It was like learning Mandarin," said Horace Grant, still one of Pippen's closest friends. (Grant acknowledged he had such trouble at first that Johnny Bach, a Bulls assistant, nicknamed him Fubar, the military acronym for "f---ed up beyond all recognition.")

"Scottie was patient," said Pete Myers, who rejoined the Bulls in 1993. "Otherwise, it would have been tough."

Pippen admitted mistakes and protected teammates.
'The Last Dance' on ESPN
The 10-part Michael Jordan documentary "The Last Dance" is available on the ESPN App.
Everything you need to know
Lowe: How Pippen lifted MJ's Bulls
Shelburne: Kobe and MJ's friendship
How to replay the series

During one game against the Indiana Pacers, Pippen instructed Wennington to break with Jackson's game plan and double Indiana center Rik Smits. At a film session the next day, Jackson paused the tape: "Billy, what the hell were you doing?" Jackson chided, according to Wennington.
Pippen spoke up: "Coach, I told him to go.
"
"A lot of guys in Scottie's position would have left me hanging," Wennington said.

During Chicago's first three-peat, Jackson would sometimes yell at B.J. Armstrong for some mishap that was actually Pippen's fault. "I caught on that Phil couldn't scream at Scottie, so he'd scream at me," Armstrong said.

Pippen would take the blame in the huddle or apologize to Armstrong as they strode onto the floor. "He didn't have to say anything," Armstrong said.

"I love Scottie," Toni Kukoc said. "The guy that helped me the most those first two years was Scottie." Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
EVEN IN THOSE early years, Pippen seemed to sense the Bulls needed a balance to Jordan.

"I tell people all the time, Scottie was the best teammate I ever played with," said Stacey King, a reserve on Chicago's first three title teams. "MJ would get on you, and Scottie would say, 'Don't worry. Don't listen to him. You're gonna be OK.'"

Players who signed with Chicago during Jordan's 17-month retirement grew comfortable playing with Pippen as their centerpiece. Jordan's return was like an earthquake. They leaned on Pippen for guidance.

"The [players on the first title teams] got to know Michael the person," said Armstrong, who stuck with the Bulls through 1994-95. "The new guys never got to know that person. They only knew the Air Jordan character. He jumped in and started playing, so they couldn't develop that relationship. Scottie knew that, and knew he had to manage the other guys."

That included Toni Kukoc -- symbol of the disconnect between Pippen and Jerry Krause, Chicago's general manager, and at first the target of Pippen's rage. Pippen derisively referred to Kukoc as "Jerry's boy," and poked fun at Kukoc's defense.

Kukoc took it and worked. He detected constructive criticism beneath the barbs. Pippen softened.

"I love Scottie," Kukoc said. "The guy that helped me the most those first two years was Scottie. I never felt [the criticism] was mean. He was trying to point me in the right direction."
Circumstances tested them again in 1994, when Pippen refused to play the final 1.8 seconds in Game 3 of Chicago's playoff series against the New York Knicks because Jackson designed the game-winning shot for Kukoc -- with Pippen inbounding. It was an act of defiance that could have fractured the Bulls.

Kukoc greased the healing process by swishing a game-winning buzzer-beater. In the locker room, Bill Cartwright, the team's veteran leader, scolded Pippen in front of teammates. Cartwright wept as he told Pippen how hurt he was, according to teammates and past accounts.
Pippen sat in silence and absorbed it, teammates recalled. "He listened, and he knew," Armstrong said.

Pippen briefly apologized, according to Grant and Wennington.

Teammates were upset, but they tried to imagine how they might have reacted in Pippen's position. "He was our best player," Grant said. "He probably should have taken that shot. Phil should have [designed the play for Pippen]. That doesn't excuse not going back in. We were disappointed in Scottie, and Scottie was disappointed." (Both Pippen and Jackson have declined media requests during the run of "The Last Dance.")
Cartwright addressing the wound immediately, with such profound emotion, was vital in the Bulls moving on. "Nothing could fester," Perdue said. Pippen had banked enough trust for everyone to put it behind them by the time they left the locker room.
"It was, 'OK, Scottie went to the twilight zone, but now he's back,'' Grant said.
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3:01
How the '94 Bulls turned from Pippen's team to trade rumors
The 1994-95 Bulls were supposed to be Scottie Pippen's team now that Michael Jordan was retired and playing baseball, but it proved to be a hard task when the newfound leader found his name at the center of trade rumors.

THAT 1993-94 GROUP -- the one without Jordan, featuring several newcomers -- had a particular admiration for how Pippen approached that season. They arrived curious if Pippen would view Jordan's absence as an opportunity to assert control, and chase points.
Pippen had his best season, finishing third in MVP voting and leading the Bulls to 55 wins. That season changed the perception of Pippen as a player. He did it without veering from the triangle or his natural temperament. Pippen averaged 22 points -- only one more than in 1991-92. He attempted 17.8 shots per game, up from 16.5 over the prior two seasons.

"He didn't go out there like, 'This is my team,'" Grant said. "He wanted us in the fold. He learned from MJ that he needed us."
Pippen had worked toward his moment as Chicago's undisputed star. He was almost as competitive as Jordan in practices. Perdue and Pippen -- usually on opposite teams -- got into a few dustups, Perdue said.

When Jordan returned, Jackson would now and then split up his two stars. "Scottie would go at Michael," said Jim Cleamons, a longtime Bulls assistant.

Pippen had license to pick at Kukoc's weak point -- defense -- because he had worked to refine his own flaw. "Scottie couldn't make a 15-footer when he started, but he worked his ass off," Cartwright said.

Pippen never became a true plus shooter. Those 1994 Bulls lost in the second round, leaving Pippen forever short of immortal "best player on a title team" status. That said, the Bulls were one controversial call from taking a 3-2 lead over the Knicks in the second round, with Game 6 in Chicago and a 47-win Pacers team waiting in the conference finals. How would a potential trip to the Finals without Jordan -- even a loss to the eventual champion Houston Rockets -- have changed Pippen's legacy?

Pippen did wobble under the off-court demands of alpha superstardom, Perdue said. Pippen could no longer deflect media duty, assuming Jordan would handle it. When reporters asked about the performance of a teammate, Pippen would let slip the occasional impolitic sound bite -- and apologize the next day, Perdue said.

"I don't think he realized how easy MJ made it for us," Perdue said.


Pippen's relative limitations as a pure scorer and jump-shooter would have made it difficult for him to become the best player on a championship team. Opponents often stashed undersized defenders on Pippen, betting he would not exploit them. Sometimes, they were right. Here and there, Pippen summoned a sudden, vicious fury and went at them one-on-one.

(He brutalized Terry Porter in Game 5 of the 1992 Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers, one of the defining wins of Chicago's first three-peat. Jordan and Pippen combined for 70 points on the road to put Chicago up 3-2; Pippen finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists.)
As a No. 2, Pippen was perfect. In constructing a title team, that apex No. 2 might be as valuable -- perhaps more -- than some No. 1 types who rank a tick behind the very best ball-dominant stars of their era. Those guys get you far. They helm very good offenses. But as the lead guy, they usually fall short of the ultimate prize.

Stick them in a No. 2 role, and their game can be diminished. They don't have the ball as much. They aren't as good at one or more of the requirements for a championship-level No. 2 guy -- defense, spot-up shooting, on-the-fly playmaking.
Calling Pippen the greatest No. 2 ever is not a backhanded compliment. It does not make him a lesser player than some No. 1 options who put up gaudier numbers but did not approach a championship in that role. Pippen was lucky to play with Jordan, the best No. 1 option ever, but Jordan was lucky to play with Pippen too.

Complementary superstars made the 1995-96 Bulls perhaps the greatest team of all time. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images
THERE HAS NEVER been a player quite like Pippen. Advanced statistical systems spit out unsatisfying comps: secondary wings who lacked Pippen's playmaking and all-world defense (Shawn Marion, Khris Middleton); some alpha scorers who don't fit Pippen's mold (Paul Pierce, Clyde Drexler). Grant Hill's name comes up, but he was a more prolific scorer. Ditto for Kawhi Leonard, who has grown into a pantheon-level No. 1 -- with Pippen-quality defense.

Jimmy Butler is a popular contemporary comparison. That's close. Butler operates a little more like a No. 1 scorer, and doesn't quite match Pippen's wiry length on defense. Paul George is probably today's premier No. 2, but he laps Pippen as a shooter -- while falling short as a playmaker and by a little as a defender.

At least one of those players will go down as better than Pippen. Most won't. Regardless, none feel much like him stylistically.

Perhaps if you crossed George with Draymond Green -- blending their respective 3-point shots -- you'd get Pippen. In spitballing sessions a decade ago, one team brought up prime Andre Iguodala -- almost a 20-point scorer -- as Pippen-esque in theoretical scenarios pairing Iguodala with a top-5 player.

Some players exert a disproportionate impact on the game when they have the ball. Pippen's on-ball impact wavered, but he mattered every second he was on the floor. He was like an electrical current humming in the background.

"Scottie could score one point, and it would feel like he had 30," Brown said.

Huge portions of the 1997 and 1998 Finals between the Bulls and Jazz amounted to a game within the game: John Stockton and Karl Malone running pick-and-roll on the left side, Pippen rotating from across the floor to smother them while still vaporizing Stockton's crosscourt passing lanes.

"He was the best center fielder I've ever seen," Kerr said. "He guarded everybody."

Pippen is one of only three players -- along with Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon -- to record 200 steals and 100 blocks in the same season.
"He was a huge risk-taker, but he could recover," Armstrong said. "If I got beat backdoor, I got beat. If he got beat, he'd get back and block the shot."

Jackson identified the linchpin of opposing offenses, and sent Pippen there: Magic Johnson in the 1991 Finals; Mark Jackson in the 1998 conference finals; sometimes Stockton. He even toggled Pippen onto big men just to switch pick-and-rolls.

"If someone was causing trouble," Cartwright said, "the answer was, 'Put Pip on them.'"

Pippen was durable, appearing in at least 72 games in each of his first 10 seasons.

A lot of what made Pippen great fades with time. Extra passes rarely make highlight reels, and when they do, the focus is on the shot-maker. In rewatching old playoff games, one such forgotten sequence stands out. With 45 seconds left in Game 4 of the 1993 Finals and Chicago up by two on the Phoenix Suns -- and up 2-1 in the series -- Charles Barkley intercepted a wild Pippen pass and kicked the ball ahead to Kevin Johnson.

Johnson streaked up court with Dan Majerle on his right, only Pippen in front of them -- a 2-on-1 to tie the game, maybe the series. Johnson picked up his dribble near the 3-point arc, perhaps spooked by Pippen, and dished to Majerle. Majerle rose for a layup; Pippen pivoted to his left and swatted the ball out of bounds.

On the inbounds pass, Danny Ainge, a Suns guard, popped off a pindown from Barkley. Pippen, defending Ainge, switched onto Barkley in the post. This was MVP Barkley, a rare combination of athleticism and brutality. Barkley shoved Pippen behind him. Ainge threw an entry pass. Pippen slid around Barkley's right shoulder, and deflected the ball out of bounds.

Armstrong stole the ensuing inbounds pass, sealing the game.

"Scottie connected everything together," Armstrong said. "We were a good team, but with Scottie, we became a great team. You can't say you love basketball and not love the way Scottie Pippen played."
 
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spider705

Light skin, non ADOS Lebron hater!
BGOL Investor
Jordan rules. :hmm:


Thing about Maxwell is, he literally has come out and said I WANT TO FIGHT MICHAEL JORDAN.

He was not scared of him AT ALL.

And for the record, the Rockets were the only team to have a winning record against Michael Jordan's Bulls
 

Rembrandt Brown

Slider
Registered
Terry Rozier: "Just actually seeing this documentary, I learned so much," he said. "I didn't even know that they won three straight [championships two times]. I'm just being honest. ... To do things like that in this league, you have to be super special.​


:eek:
 

KingTaharqa

Greatest Of All Time
BGOL Investor
Terry Rozier: "Just actually seeing this documentary, I learned so much," he said. "I didn't even know that they won three straight [championships two times]. I'm just being honest. ... To do things like that in this league, you have to be super special.​


:eek:


Now yall gon accuse me of being Terry Rozier, since BGOL thinks im the only person on the planet that wants yall to get off his nuts. :rolleyes: His own employees arent in awe of him like I been telling yall for a decade.
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
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Karl Ravech

Just nine days ago, Ed Howard — a Black baseball player from Mount Carmel High School in Chicago — was selected in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft by the Chicago Cubs.

The first comment from broadcaster Karl Ravech, whom ESPN had entrusted with on-air duties for draft night, was, “With all the stuff that’s going on with race in the country, you take a kid from Chicago.”

Seconds later, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale — one of the biggest names in baseball media — issued a since-deleted tweet that read, “the #Cubs draft Ed Howard, yes, showing action instead of hollow words.”



 

playahaitian

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President Donald Trump calls NBA players 'very nasty' and 'very dumb' for kneeling during anthem
Scott Gleeson
USA TODAY




President Donald Trump called NBA players "very nasty" and "very dumb" in a Tuesday radio interview while expressing his disapproval of the league's players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice.
For the NBA's restarted season in Orlando, Florida, all but two players have knelt during the national anthem. Players have also worn jerseys with messages associated with the Black Lives Matter movement written on the back.
"The kneeling (during the national anthem) has been horrible for basketball," Trump said on Fox Sports' "Outkick the Coverage."
"They've had horrible ratings, low numbers. People are angry about it. They have enough politics with guys like me. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way (protesting) was done. The NBA is in trouble, bigger trouble than they understand."

Viewership for the first full week of bubble games near Orlando, Florida, where 22 teams tipped off a restarted season, was down 4% from the league’s pre-hiatus average. But it was 14% above the average after the first weekend -- according to Sports Media Watch.


In the interview Tuesday, host Clay Travis asked Trump whether he was aware some NBA players had criticized the president for his thoughts on their protests. Trump responded: "No, I haven't noticed them sending (criticism) back to me. I wouldn't be surprised. There are some very, very, very nasty, frankly very dumb (players). I haven't noticed that."
Trump's feud with NBA players has extended from the beginning stages of his presidency, when he uninvited the then-NBA champion Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House in 2017, prompting LeBron James to call Trump a "bum."

James recently laughed off Trump's criticism of NBA players kneeling when Trump tabbed it "disgraceful," saying last week: "I really don't think the basketball community (is) sad about losing (Trump's) viewership."
James has been outspoken about the Black Lives Matter movement and used his platform to express his political and social views regularly.
At the end of the interview on Tuesday, Travis asked Trump whom he would pick — James or Michael Jordan, as the greatest basketball player of all time. Trump didn't hesitate.

"Michael Jordan," Trump answered. "I've seem them both. Michael is, plus he wasn't political, so people like him better."
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
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President Donald Trump calls NBA players 'very nasty' and 'very dumb' for kneeling during anthem
Scott Gleeson
USA TODAY




President Donald Trump called NBA players "very nasty" and "very dumb" in a Tuesday radio interview while expressing his disapproval of the league's players kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustice.
For the NBA's restarted season in Orlando, Florida, all but two players have knelt during the national anthem. Players have also worn jerseys with messages associated with the Black Lives Matter movement written on the back.
"The kneeling (during the national anthem) has been horrible for basketball," Trump said on Fox Sports' "Outkick the Coverage."
"They've had horrible ratings, low numbers. People are angry about it. They have enough politics with guys like me. There was a nastiness about the NBA the way (protesting) was done. The NBA is in trouble, bigger trouble than they understand."

Viewership for the first full week of bubble games near Orlando, Florida, where 22 teams tipped off a restarted season, was down 4% from the league’s pre-hiatus average. But it was 14% above the average after the first weekend -- according to Sports Media Watch.


In the interview Tuesday, host Clay Travis asked Trump whether he was aware some NBA players had criticized the president for his thoughts on their protests. Trump responded: "No, I haven't noticed them sending (criticism) back to me. I wouldn't be surprised. There are some very, very, very nasty, frankly very dumb (players). I haven't noticed that."
Trump's feud with NBA players has extended from the beginning stages of his presidency, when he uninvited the then-NBA champion Golden State Warriors from visiting the White House in 2017, prompting LeBron James to call Trump a "bum."

James recently laughed off Trump's criticism of NBA players kneeling when Trump tabbed it "disgraceful," saying last week: "I really don't think the basketball community (is) sad about losing (Trump's) viewership."
James has been outspoken about the Black Lives Matter movement and used his platform to express his political and social views regularly.
At the end of the interview on Tuesday, Travis asked Trump whom he would pick — James or Michael Jordan, as the greatest basketball player of all time. Trump didn't hesitate.

"Michael Jordan," Trump answered. "I've seem them both. Michael is, plus he wasn't political, so people like him better."

waiting for that master assassin MJ to come out...

RIGHT?
 

playahaitian

Rising Star
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ESPN announces massive layoffs, job cuts as COVID-19 impacts revenues

The president of ESPN revealed in a memo job cuts and layoffs as prior cost-cutting methods appear to have not been effective in curbing the impact of the pandemic.

 

playahaitian

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How athletes have forced ESPN and other networks to change their game plan on mixing politics and sports
LeBron James answered Laura Ingraham’s suggestion to “Shut Up And Dribble” with a Showtime series that has been expanded.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
By STEPHEN BATTAGLIOSTAFF WRITER
NOV. 3, 2020
5 AM
In early 2018, Fox News host Laura Ingraham delivered a diatribe against NBA star LeBron James over remarks to a TV interviewer that were critical of President Trump. She told viewers big-money athletes should steer clear of speaking out on politics and advised James to “shut up and dribble.”
The widely condemned comments may have inspired a surfeit of programming that has given sports stars a bigger platform to discuss their views, even on networks that viewers look to as an escape.
As racism and social justice have become central issues in the 2020 presidential election, professional athletes are speaking out more often and forcefully on sports TV, their biggest platform.
Their response to the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by law enforcement and the police shooting of Jacob Blake have pushed ESPN and other networks to carry programs where on-air commentators, hosts and players are discussing the topics as thoroughly as any news program.

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“I think you had to acknowledge it and embrace it, and that’s what we tried to do,” said Jeff Zucker, chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia. “Sure, people want to see the game and they want to root for their team. But at the same time, the players and our announcers live in America and you can’t just completely separate yourselves from those things.”
Throughout the NBA playoffs carried by WarnerMedia’s TNT, the network aired a series of specials called “The Arena” in which its basketball commentator Charles Barkley, NBA stars Dwyane Wade and Draymond Green and former ESPN host Cari Champion led discussions and presented segments on the coronavirus pandemic, the Black Lives Matters movement and racial injustice.
In fall 2018, Showtime unveiled a three-part documentary series called “Shut Up and Dribble” that chronicled the history of social activism and race in the NBA. The series originally was conceived as a look at the NBA’s influence on popular culture. But Ingraham’s rant gave the project, produced by James and directed by Gotham Chopra, a new focus and its provocative title.
“It really was the perfect documentary at the perfect time,” said Stephen Espinoza, president of Showtime Sports. “None of us knew that anything that we’ve seen in 2020 would happen, but certainly it felt like we were on the edge of perhaps a new era of athletes’ self-determination.”


In response to the growing intensity of the Black Lives Matters movement over the summer, the ViacomCBS-owned premium cable network has taken unused footage shot for the series to make new short-form vignettes under the “Shut Up and Dribble” banner.
ESPN was targeted by right-wing commentators when political discussions seeped into programming three years ago and took a stronger hand in enforcing limits on what its on-air talent could express on social media. Bob Iger, then Disney CEO, said in 2017 that he preferred that the network’s anchors avoid politics, as did ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro, who took over the reins of the network the following year.
But as both players in the NBA and Major League Baseball protested against police shootings — in the case of the Blake shooting in August, a boycott that postponed games in both leagues — the network has also gone in-depth on the issues that dominated the headlines throughout the summer.
Along with ongoing breaking coverage, ESPN unveiled “The Stop: Living, Driving and Dying While Black,” a special produced by the Undefeated, ESPN’s unit devoted to the intersection of sports, race and culture. The program was a raw hour-long look at the relationship between the Black community and law enforcement that included first-person accounts from athletes.
ESPN has also begun work on a documentary on former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who sacrificed his career and pulled sports into the dialogue on racial injustice and police brutality when he took a knee during the playing of the national anthem in 2016. The project is part of an overall production deal Kaepernick has with Disney. There are also more projects about racial progress being planned by ESPN Films.

Jemele Hill, the former ESPN host who negotiated an exit from the network in 2018 after she ran afoul of its policy against political messages on social media, has noticed how sports media has increasingly embraced topical discussions. She believes athletes such as James are driving it.
“I’m pleased with the progress that has been made, but we have to be careful with how much credit we’re giving out,” Hill said. “A lot of it has to do with the fact the athletes were no longer giving media companies room to wiggle out of it and forced the conversation. Either you were going to follow what they were saying and what was important to them, or you were going to ignore what some of the most prominent athletes in the country have to say.”
The video of Floyd’s death and other incidents such as the vigilante shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in February — penetrated the psyches of the nation and the sports world in a way that went well beyond Kaepernick’s protest.
“We have known that police brutality and the brutalization of Black bodies is as much of American history as celebrating the Fourth of July,” Hill said. “I mean there were certainly individual journalists who have always been willing to talk about this. But they have just never had the full support of the outlets where they work.”
Hill took to Twitter in 2017 to call President Trump a white supremacist and was later suspended when she suggested a boycott of the Dallas Cowboys over team owner Jerry Jones’ stance on players kneeling during the national anthem.
She narrated “Shut Up and Dribble” and now has a talk show on Vice TV with Champion called “Cari & Jemele: Stick to Sports.” They hold court weekly on a wide range of issues, including politics.
The title of Hill’s new show is a jab at ESPN, where last year Pitaro said data showed that fans “do not want us to cover politics,” a stance that made some of its hosts unhappy.
But Rob King, senior vice president and editor at large at ESPN, said the network’s current wave of programming and coverage related to racial injustice is less about politics and more about a societal movement now sweeping the country, and recent research shows the sports audience is more willing to listen.
“I think we all understand we’re having a national conversation,” King said. “It has an urgency to it that it hasn’t for decades, and so [fans] do recognize why it matters.”
King said ESPN has always covered the intersection of sports and social issues. The difference now is that “we seem to be crossing that intersection every block and a half.”
The leagues’ professed support for the Black Lives Matter movement — in contrast to the NFL’s resistance to Kaepernick’s actions in 2016 — is also a factor.
“The reality is we would be covering any sea change in the way in which the leagues decide they’re going to address this,” King said. “It is no small thing when NFL players come out and do a very thoughtful video demanding racial justice and the next day the commissioner follows suit with a video of his own responding directly to the things the players said. That’s a big news story, and that clearly is a sea change from how the league has presented in the conversation.”
ESPN’s policy prohibiting on-air talent from making purely political statements has not changed. Veteran host Keith Olbermann recently asked to be released from his ESPN contract early because he wanted to resume doing political commentaries on YouTube. There have been no other recent public flare-ups with talent over politics.
There are more programs in the pipeline that look at the extraordinary period sports are experiencing. HBO Sports recently ordered a documentary that will explore how the sports world was put on hold this year during the pandemic and the role that athletes played in raising awareness of racial injustice when play resumed. Oklahoma City Thunder star Chris Paul will be the executive producer and narrator.
ESPN is also planning in-depth looks at life in the isolation zone known as “the bubble” at Walt Disney World, where the NBA players completed their seasons.
Showtime has recently started airing a weekly compilation of segments from its video podcast series “All the Smoke” with highly opinionated former NBA stars Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“They wanted to do a brutally candid examination of all kinds of issues within sports on the floor, in the locker room, in the front offices, and then carrying over into racism and politics,” Espinoza said. “It’s come up big for us.”
Espinoza believes the willingness of Black athletes to tell their stories about their encounters with racism, social injustice and the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on their communities is making sports and news inextricable. He does not see that circumstance changing soon.
“Today’s athlete is much more willing to engage in political activism, in social justice and political advocacy than at any point in modern history,” Espinoza said. “That’s not to say the athletes didn’t do it previously, as we’ve documented in ‘Shut Up and Dribble.’ There’s a long history of athletes using their platform to advance social justice. I think those who are attempting to completely ignore these issues, if it’s even possible, are simply delaying the inevitable.”
 
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