Big Baller Brand Goes Rogue

What would you do if you were 18 years old and drove a Ferrari? What would you do if you were 18 years old entering your first year of college and you already had your own signature shoe brand? For some it appears this type of success and wealth isn’t enough. Liangelo Ball is an 18 year old basketball star coming from a family that has recently become millionaires, because of their endorsed “Big Baller Brand” shoe company endorsed by NBA rookie superstar Lonzo Ball, the oldest son in the family. The two younger sons have felt the full effect of their brother’s basketball success, and furthermore, their increasingly controversial father’s popularity. This family seems to be in sports news every week, and each of the brothers seem to have very bright futures in the basketball world, as they both had full scholarship offers from UCLA, just like the older brother Lonzo had.

Despite this, Liangelo Ball made the decision to steal from a Chinese store on a UCLA team trip to Hangzhou, China. Liangelo Ball along with three other UCLA freshman basketball players were caught on camera shoplifting Louis Vuitton sunglasses from a store in China. The UCLA team was traveling to play preseason games to prepare for their upcoming season, when Chinese police interrupted their international trip. They barged into the team hotel in Hangzhou, China, where the stealing had apparently been committed, and questioned all players without allowing coaches to be present. I want to remind you that nothing has been proven, and I would like to uphold the American ideal of “innocent until proven guilty”, even though the crime wasn’t committed in the United States. However, the idea of “due process” is not a Chinese notion, and the Chinese have economic freedom but not much political and social freedom.
Shoplifting may be considered a petty crime in the US, but in China offenders can face up to 10 years in prison without much representation in the court system. The fact is Chinese officials claim they have video evidence of the players stealing, and they could possibly face 3 to 10 years if proven guilty without the safety of the American judicial system to save them. These players honestly could have committed no crime at all, but the lack of transparency of the Chinese government can’t be controlled by American officials, and these boys are in the hands of the Chinese judicial system.

However, President Donald Trump has reportedly spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping, and asked him to help resolve the issue involving the players. His recent visit to Beijing is where he discussed the topic, and the talks were summarized as positive. However, this is undoubtedly embarrassing to the UCLA program, and furthermore the United States. Basketball is becoming increasingly popular in China, and a lot of money has been invested into training young children to one day perform in professional leagues across the world. The NBA has mostly stolen the spotlight with Kobe Bryant’s Laker jerseys being the highest selling athletic jersey in China, ahead of superstars like Messi, and Ronaldo (ESPN). The College Basketball industry has recognized the success the professional basketball league has had in Chinese markets, and has sent its teams overseas to spur interest. The success of these ventures has been so profound that Chinese web network Alibaba has bought the rights to play college games in China (New York Times). This upcoming season was going to be the first season streamed abroad, and this news couldn’t come at a worst time. It may have no effect on the success of the new buisness deal, but the way Liangelo Ball has represented the US and college basketball is troubling for his own personal image, and the image of the United States.

Photo courtesy of NBC

Prison Talk

Some problems just seem to never go away, and even when they do it seems more unresolvable problems stem from the solution of the former problem! That is the very predicament the NFL is currently in. Two back to back meetings between NFL ownership and the players association have resulted in absolutely no policy change with regards to the NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. Instead, the comments of Houston Texans owner Bob McNair stole the headlines during the meeting. Instead of positivity and agreement being the result of these meetings, more controversy erupted. He said “We can’t have the inmates run the prison” as an expression to relate the current situation in the NFL. An overall horrible statement in many respects.

First of all relating anyone to an inmate is offensive. Many of these athletes have never even committed a crime, and they’ve put in tireless work to get into the positions they are in today. Granted McNair used a figure of speech, but the absent mindedness for someone of McNair’s position to say this is astounding. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 37.9% of incarcerated people are African American, and according to the Huffington Post, 70% of athletes in the NFL are black. Similarly it hasn’t gone unnoticed that there are no black owners in the NFL. The semantics of the quote coupled with the facts just give off a bad feeling, no matter the true meaning behind his words. These facts merely exacerbate the poor figure of speech McNair used. It has led many to believe that perhaps NFL league owners are finally saying what they really think even if unknowingly.

These are free men, that feel like they are being controlled and owned by ownership. Relating them to inmates is degrading, and the popular feeling throughout the NFL is that owners have not supported the players for years. Conversely in the NBA, players seem to feel much more empowered, and this is likely due to the overwhelming support they garner from their individual organizations. In the NFL the players protest has been extremely unpopular, because it is seen as a business concern. Instead of supporting the players to possibly help the situation, they held a meeting to decide whether they would ban the protests. However, what these owners are failing to understand is that they own the team, not the individual men who are free citizens of the United States who deserve free speech just as everyone else does. NFL players have now been called “SOB’s” by our president, and “inmates” by NFL owners in the span of about a month. The division is widening, and the symbolic relationship between NFL players and their owners is demonstrating that the problems raised by the initial Kaepernick protests are very real. Relating men as inmates furthers the theme that there is an obvious racial divide highlighted by constant misunderstandings that can only be solved through unity.

Instead of raising awareness about the police brutality plaguing the nation and the social divide between blacks and whites in America, the debate is seemingly about whether or not players should even be allowed to demonstrate their personal views. Only a handful of teams have actually attempted to act on the views of players and donate money to charities enacting real change in communities. The goal should be to re-grow relationships between the police force and African Americans, rather than destroying other relationships whilst in debate with the original problem trying to be fixed.

Photo courtesy of SportingNews