NBA Alameda County and Masai
Black Lives Matter rally, Winnipeg Canada.
Photo: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is one of the reasons why the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office decided to drop the intention to charge Raptors’ President Masai Ujiri, with battery.
It’s a legal term. It doesn’t have anything to do with your vehicle’s battery. June 13, 2019, a happy historic day for Raptors, the Canadian basketball team.
Masai Ujiri enters the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California to celebrate with his team, after it beat the Golden State Warriors, to clinch the 2019 NBA Championship.
A sergeant for Alameda County Sheriff prevented Ujiri from entering the arena. He claims Ujiri pushed him resulting in a ‘concussion’. It was a classic case of he pushed me I did not push him. He pushed me.
African Americans were relieved it happened at the Oracle Arena. Masai Ujiri could have been shot dead, if it had happened on the streets, because of recorded police history in the U.S. Shoot black men first, questions later.
Other races don’t have that fear, even when they blatantly provoke the police. The police talks to them, reasons with them, not black men.
Masai Ujiri had no problem with Alameda County Sheriff taking him to court. That is where the NBA comes in. They could not afford to have the case go to court, where it would be recorded for posterity, to be re-hashed in blogs till kingdom come. They just couldn’t.
I can imagine the NBA saying, ‘Alameda, don’t destroy our name. We had nothing to do with it.’
FEAR OF NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
The NBA was worried because there was no way it could have escaped the answers to the 5 W’s: who what why when and where?
We are not having it. Don’t besmirch our name. That has been the NBA’s position since the story broke about Masai Ujiri and the Alameda County Sheriff sergeant.
Lawyers met. A deal was cut and on October 21, 2019, we learnt that the DA’s office in Alameda County said there won’t be any charges against Ujiri. That is when the NBA top brass finally opened the bubbly.
The court case was going to be ugly. All NBA players with egos great and small, were planning to attend the court case in solidarity with Masai Ujiri and Raptors. Basketball fans in the U.S. were also planning to show up in court to cheer Ujiri to demonstrate that they are not sore losers.
What scared the NBA the most were those Canadians that slept in the rain in Toronto during the playoffs. No. The NBA could not afford to have them fly to Oakland for the court case. No way!
NBA? Happy now?
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
It’s a legal term. It doesn’t have anything to do with your vehicle’s battery. June 13, 2019, a happy historic day for Raptors, the Canadian basketball team.
Masai Ujiri enters the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California to celebrate with his team, after it beat the Golden State Warriors, to clinch the 2019 NBA Championship.
A sergeant for Alameda County Sheriff prevented Ujiri from entering the arena. He claims Ujiri pushed him resulting in a ‘concussion’. It was a classic case of he pushed me I did not push him. He pushed me.
African Americans were relieved it happened at the Oracle Arena. Masai Ujiri could have been shot dead, if it had happened on the streets, because of recorded police history in the U.S. Shoot black men first, questions later.
Other races don’t have that fear, even when they blatantly provoke the police. The police talks to them, reasons with them, not black men.
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I can imagine the NBA saying, ‘Alameda, don’t destroy our name. We had nothing to do with it.’
FEAR OF NEGATIVE PUBLICITY
The NBA was worried because there was no way it could have escaped the answers to the 5 W’s: who what why when and where?
1. Who? Raptors President of an NBA team that made it to the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, the 2018 NBA Champions.
2. What? Celebration of the 2019 NBA Championship where the president of the 2019 NBA Champions was denied entry into the venue.
3. Why? Alameda County Sheriff claims Raptors President Masai Ujiri did not have legit credentials and pushed him so that he could join his team to celebrate the NBA victory.
4. When? 13 June, 2019 when, for the first time, a team outside the U.S. carried the NBA championship as hand luggage. ‘Do you have anything to declare?’ asked the customs officer. Yes, some hardware. The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy.
5. Where? Oakland, California, United States of America.
We are not having it. Don’t besmirch our name. That has been the NBA’s position since the story broke about Masai Ujiri and the Alameda County Sheriff sergeant.
Lawyers met. A deal was cut and on October 21, 2019, we learnt that the DA’s office in Alameda County said there won’t be any charges against Ujiri. That is when the NBA top brass finally opened the bubbly.
The court case was going to be ugly. All NBA players with egos great and small, were planning to attend the court case in solidarity with Masai Ujiri and Raptors. Basketball fans in the U.S. were also planning to show up in court to cheer Ujiri to demonstrate that they are not sore losers.
What scared the NBA the most were those Canadians that slept in the rain in Toronto during the playoffs. No. The NBA could not afford to have them fly to Oakland for the court case. No way!
NBA? Happy now?
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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