LeBron complaining about all star game

[Jiri Welsch]

I agree with LeBron that it's a force. I don't care about his rest, I care that we're like two months away from getting out of this thing and people can't keep their eye on the [dang] ball.

[SparzWizard]

Yeah I think the ASG is stupid during the pandemic.

But I'm also tired of hearing LeBron complaining and whining lol. Even if it does agree with my point.

[CelticsElite]

The NBA is a business and they play to generate revenue. What is the difference between the all star game and any other game ? These are non essential workers. It seems bizarre that this is the line in the sand where morality supersedes money.

tp


Don’t understand how anyone can sympathize with lebron. The leagues financial situation is stressed and needs as many avenues for revenue as possible to pay the players with $350 million contracts

[CelticsElite]

Yeah I think the ASG is stupid during the pandemic.

if the ASG is stupid during a pandemic, so is every other game

[RPGenerate]

The NBA and the NBPA have already negotiated and agreed upon having an all star game, so why didn't Lebron and these other stars speak up then? It makes no sense. This tells me that a) Lebron and those who agreed with him had a very sudden change of heart, or b) they are woefully outnumbered by the majority of players that do want an all star game.

[Moranis]

The NBA is a business and they play to generate revenue. What is the difference between the all star game and any other game ? These are non essential workers. It seems bizarre that this is the line in the sand where morality supersedes money.

Teammates, coaches, staff, etc. aren't the same.  You don't congregate in a City at hotels for days.  There isn't an influx of media, tv, radio, etc.

There are lots of reasons why an all star game has a much higher risk factor than a regular game. 

Without fans what is the point in an all star game.  Those are only for the fans and frankly I can't imagine there is a ton of revenue to be had from television for an all star game. 

[CelticsElite]

The NBA and the NBPA have already negotiated and agreed upon having an all star game, so why didn't Lebron and these other stars speak up then? It makes no sense. This tells me that a) Lebron and those who agreed with him had a very sudden change of heart, or b) they are woefully outnumbered by the majority of players that do want an all star game.

exactly. The players Union represents the players. So LeBron gribe needs to be with the Union. Not the nba.

[Kernewek]

The NBA is a business and they play to generate revenue. What is the difference between the all star game and any other game ? These are non essential workers. It seems bizarre that this is the line in the sand where morality supersedes money.

tp


Don’t understand how anyone can sympathize with lebron. The leagues financial situation is stressed and needs as many avenues for revenue as possible to pay the players with $350 million contracts

The average NBA team is valued at over 2 billion dollars.

The NBA, in total, pulled in 8.8 billion dollars in 2019  pre-pandemic.
Per team that’s a little over 290 million, if you assume an even split.

Even down 10%, that’s still 7.9 billion dollars. Or “only” 264 million per team. The salary cap last year? 109 million, or thereabouts.

The largest player contact this season costs 45 million.

That’s Steph curry, playing for a team that’s valued at 4 billion dollars. I think we can all do the math here. Steph’s salary is a large bit of chump change for ownership, but it’s still chump change. Even if one revenue stream (live games and television contracts) is impacted.

And this is  before you get into the fact that no NBA team ownership only relies on their team for revenue (save the Lakers).

[timpiker]

I am so sick of anything leBUM I could puke.

[Tr1boy]

Recently several other stars have complained

Giannis, Harden etc

However league still does need to make their money. Are these stars willing to give up a little of bit of their salaries to cancel the ASG?

[Donoghus]

Recently several other stars have complained

Giannis, Harden etc

However league still does need to make their money. Are these stars willing to give up a little of bit of their salaries to cancel the ASG?

No, they're going to toe the company line here and play.  But its nice to see them being critical of something that seems rather unnecessary and stupid.

[Erik]

The NBA is a business and they play to generate revenue. What is the difference between the all star game and any other game ? These are non essential workers. It seems bizarre that this is the line in the sand where morality supersedes money.

Teammates, coaches, staff, etc. aren't the same.  You don't congregate in a City at hotels for days.  There isn't an influx of media, tv, radio, etc.

There are lots of reasons why an all star game has a much higher risk factor than a regular game. 

Without fans what is the point in an all star game.  Those are only for the fans and frankly I can't imagine there is a ton of revenue to be had from television for an all star game.

How are teammates realistically better than an average NBA player? Every player is subject to the exact same protocol. Unless of course you buy into the hype that it’s easy to transmit this virus with 0 symptoms, which carries anecdotal evidence at best and is in direct contradiction of everything we know about viruses. If the person is sick he doesn’t play.

Your classification of much higher risk on an already low risk encounter means it’s still a low risk encounter.

Again, if there is concern for people’s health, they should cancel or postpone the season until there is full vaccination. They have 0 reason to play other than financial.

[Moranis]

The NBA is a business and they play to generate revenue. What is the difference between the all star game and any other game ? These are non essential workers. It seems bizarre that this is the line in the sand where morality supersedes money.

Teammates, coaches, staff, etc. aren't the same.  You don't congregate in a City at hotels for days.  There isn't an influx of media, tv, radio, etc.

There are lots of reasons why an all star game has a much higher risk factor than a regular game. 

Without fans what is the point in an all star game.  Those are only for the fans and frankly I can't imagine there is a ton of revenue to be had from television for an all star game.

How are teammates realistically better than an average NBA player? Every player is subject to the exact same protocol. Unless of course you buy into the hype that it’s easy to transmit this virus with 0 symptoms, which carries anecdotal evidence at best and is in direct contradiction of everything we know about viruses. If the person is sick he doesn’t play.

Your classification of much higher risk on an already low risk encounter means it’s still a low risk encounter.

Again, if there is concern for people’s health, they should cancel or postpone the season until there is full vaccination. They have 0 reason to play other than financial.

You asked what the difference was.  Those are differences and those are differences that can change the virus spread rate pretty dramatically because they are changes in your routine, who you hang out with, where and for how long you are at places, etc.  If you absolutely change your co-workers for a 2 or 3 day period, it absolutely increases the opportunity for spread. 

The All Star game is much more likely to be a super-spreader event than a regular NBA game because of those differences and changes.  Playing the All Star game is a bad look for the league, especially if there is an outbreak at it as that would effectively shut down the season for a couple of weeks.  As we've seen this year an outbreak on any given team might affect one or two other teams and a few games, but if you have an outbreak at the All Star game, the entire league is basically going to be shut down for a couple of weeks.  The financial impact of that is far greater than whatever minimal financial benefit is gained from playing the meaningless game. 

I think they should vote for the all stars and then just not have the game.  They can do other things, like backyard horse, e-gaming, etc. to still have  some all star events.  It is a poor look from a league that is trying to be pro-active.  This is the opposite of pro-active. 

[Erik]

If your analysis is correct, they made a mistake. I’m willing to bet that the increased risk (I’m still not convinced there is much) is outweighed by revenue gains because the people making this decision are experts compared to us. We don’t even know the protocols. What if it’s a 72 hour quarantine + bubble situation?

Either way, it still doesn’t excuse any of this. Playing basketball is an optional activity. There should be alignment between players and league on the most bang for buck on revenue gains for their risk. Extremely wealthy people who don’t need to play basketball ever again like LeBron James have a different viewpoint than someone like Jayson Tatum who would love to get another max contract to setup his family for many generations, which includes being involved in all star games. So yeah it’s a bit hypocritical for him to think his health is worth more than financial targets after he’s already almost done in the league.

[Tr1boy]

Recently several other stars have complained

Giannis, Harden etc

However league still does need to make their money. Are these stars willing to give up a little of bit of their salaries to cancel the ASG?

No, they're going to toe the company line here and play.  But its nice to see them being critical of something that seems rather unnecessary and stupid.

This is true. But at the end of the day it's about money

League for all the protocols in place etc.  one would think the ASG is the last thing on their mind

but it makes lots of money /tv ad revenue