Five Things I Dig and Don’t Dig About the Toronto Raptors

With two thumpings given, the Raps look like their starting to find their mojo. O.G. for DPOY is live and kickin'.

Let's roll.

1. Why are we all surprised?

I'm starting with the Kyrie stuff, kinda. I have the luxury of having an extremely small platform. Might as well use it. Thank you in advance.

*UPDATE: Of course, as I am writing this, Brooklyn suspended Kyrie Irving. 

In the last few months, the NBA has exposed its blemishes as a deeply imperfect entity.

At all layers - governors, coaches, executives, players - came incidents of sexism, racism, abuse, sexual assault, bigotry. The whole shabang.

And, as the NBA does, it didn't give a fuck.

Raptors Republic alum, Esfandiar Baraheni tweeted the following:

And while I get what he's saying, thing is, Es. There's no blind eye[s] here.

Pro Sports, or the NBA in this case, doesn't turn a blind eye.

It's the exact opposite.

They take a goooood hard, calculated look at every incident. Mulling over every legal, economic, and public relation angle possible. The query not is it a problem? But, is it a costly problem?

It's not about moral ambiguity. Or benefit of the doubt. Or innocent until proven guilty. It's not about Jews. It's not about people identifying as women. It's not about Black liberation. It's not about the victims. It's not about who said what? It's not about what's right.

It's about what will make the most money.

Let's take Kyrie Irving's most recent wading through anti-Semitic propagandistic shitction that he suggests is a part of his knowledge journey, for example.

Adam Silver came out with a statement and barely had the nerve - calculatedly so - to outright condemn Kyrie.

“Kyrie Irving made a reckless decision to post a link to a film containing deeply offensive antisemitic material,” Yes, Adam, you're right he did.

“I am disappointed that he has not offered an unqualified apology and more specifically denounced the vile and harmful content contained in the film he chose to publicize. I will be meeting with Kyrie in person in the next week to discuss this situation.”

"Disappointed". A super powerful head of a multi-billion dollar company is disappppointtedd. Aw shucks.

The best Silver could muster was a feckless reprimand like an indifferent parent. Silver's use of "Reckless" couches Kyrie's actions and his subsequent refusals to "offer an unqualified apology" as unintentional. Whoopsee daisy.

Adam, wearing the big boy pants of the League will be "discuss[ing] this situation", as in "rest assured everyone you can go on with your usual attending games and buying 18$ hotdogs cause I got this" slash "I'm not punishing him". (That's true, now. Brooklyn went ahead and did so on their own accord).

Adam Silver's response is about as meek as it gets. As meek as he was in the face of China's ire a few years ago. As meek as he was in doling out a pathetic slap on Robert Sarver's wrist. As meek as he has been with most every other incident that were it to happen in any other employment setting would have severe disciplinary consequences. All for the simple reason that there's no value in coming down harshly. Unless there is.