The NBA and Black Lives Matter

By Engr. Edgar Mana-ay

 

The resumption of the National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball games after a long hiatus due to Covid-19 is a most welcome event during this pandemic time especially for us, basketball fanatics.

Although it was a very short elimination and playoff time has begun, still, the games on YouTube is a refreshing respite from the physical, mental and spiritual stress that we are undergoing right now. Of course, I am rooting for the Houston Rockets because one of my children is based in Houston and I am an ardent fan of “fear the beard” James Harden.

In the past, I had an article profusely praising NBA for the tweet made by Houston Rocket General Manager Daryl Morey supporting the pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong. Of course, it elicited a swift and warlike reaction from bully and evil China by cancelling scheduled NBA games in China. But now I am also very, very disappointed with them during this season resumption because the NBA has allowed itself to be hijacked by the “Black Lives Matter” movement, completely embracing its nonsense and rubbish ideology when the NBA is supposed to be purely a basketball affair.

Players’ name at the back of their jersey is removed and replaced by stupid slogans some even in a foreign language supporting the Black Lives Matter ideology, hence, we cannot fully enjoy the game because we cannot identify the player who made a shot. Ask any basketball fans, the name of the player at the back of the uniform is very important for name recall.

The “Black Lives Matter” movement erupted once more George Floyd was arrested on suspicion of theft, was handcuffed, pinned down in the throat by a WHITE police officer that caused his accidental death. Soon cities across the country became scenes of feral savagery enabling the torching and looting of thousands of businesses.

Black and white Americans enjoyed the lust for violence, plunder, and destruction across all cities in the United States in the name of Black Lives Matter. Police officers were shot at, run over, slashed with knives, and clubbed; two current and former law enforcement officers were killed in cold blood.

Stores and pharmacies were plundered by looters driving trucks and emptied stores content into the back of newly repurposed vehicles of civil war. Costs of these destructive protests run into hundreds of millions of dollars compounding the financial woes of the country already reeling from the Covid 19 pandemic. SUPPOSE FLOYD WAS WHITE OR BROWN LIKE A FILIPINO AND THE POLICE WHO PINNED HIM DOWN WAS BLACK WILL THE ABOVE SAVAGERY HAPPEN? This writer doesn’t think so.

The Black Lives Matter movement also called for a defunding of both the police and the mass incarceration. As per its website, the organization (Black Lives Matter) is committed to getting rid of the police and prison system. It said the rise of mass incarceration occurred alongside the rise of militarized and mass policing. Such a weird idea. Do they want the Mafia, the murderous gangs or the drug syndicates to take over the police work on the street?  In this movement, it is the black that will be most affected, NOT the white. What about us Filipinos, Malaysians, Indonesians, Latinos, Chinese, and others living in the US, about 20 million, who are neither black nor white, do our lives also matter?

In Chicago, which many Filipinos can attest, blacks shooting fellow blacks are rampant. Crime is a serious problem in many cities in the US, so much so that surveys show that many blacks in the city neighborhoods want more police visibility in their area, not less! Most blacks in Chicago are peace-loving, hence they want more policemen to arrest and put in jail the many criminals who are mostly blacks! And so, it is the “Black Lives Matter” movement that endangers the health and safety of the black people in America because they want to get rid of police patrol and jail.

90 percent of NBA players are black because they have more brawn compared to the whites (and to me that’s inequality, the NBA should allocate at least 30% for non-black players) and do they really understand that patronizing the “Black Lives Matter” movement actually endanger their own lives? I have also less respect for many of them who refuse to stand still or place their right hand on their chest as a sign of respect when the US national anthem is played. These players should be banned from the league. Nationalism and patriotism have no more place in their hearts and it’s just the NBA dollar that they are after and sad to say, the American audience is also tolerating it. During international tournament such as the World Cup, many refused to represent the USA for fear of getting hurt, hence will affect their earnings in the NBA.

Black Lives Matter, which endangers blacks, cannot be successful without the support of the WHITE Americans. Thousands of young affluent WHITE men and women were seen actively participating during the destructive looting protest orchestrated by Black Lives Matter and to some extent by the Democratic Party, according to some reliable sources. These white men and women have been intellectually seduced by their ideologically corrupt professors. They sincerely believe that the cops are the enemy and the prison are evil. If we get rid of police and prison, Black Lives Matter officials will be unaffected, as well as their white allies because they live in a comfortable neighborhood. It will be the poor and innocent black men, women and children that will pay the price for their insanity and stupidity.

What these people need is a reality check. We are all created equal before the eyes of God regardless of color, creed, or religion. In fact, this is the basis of all constitutions of democratic countries like the Philippines, the USA, and many others. It is therefore redundant, superfluous and overacting (oa for the NBA) to emphasize “to death” (as getting “nibbled to death by a duck”) that black lives matter because ALL LIVES MATTER including the brown, the yellow and the white. It is just like the German term “Schlimmbesserung” which means an improvement “kuno” that makes things worse!

The US Declaration of Independence says: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.