PLAYER OR PROPERTY

In most recent news NBA fans have been turned on their heads after learning of the trade that landed Kyrie Irving in Boston and Isaiah Thomas & Company in Cleveland. Upon this news fans in Boston began to burn Isaiah Thomas' jersey. The disrespect sent the King himself, Lebron James on a rant about the disheartening act.

*Lebron James speaks on the burning of jerseys via his twitter account, http://www.twitter.com/kingjames*

This in turn led me to think how do people actually view these players? This isn't the first time a jersey is burnt and it won't be the last. Also, whenever players choose to speak their raw consciousness an uproar always seems to be caused. Naturally it's hard to show empathy for people who makes millions of dollars and live a life the average American could even dream about. However is that all people see in athletes , money makers that are sworn to undying loyalty or else ?

“You doing it for me, It’s all good,” Green said. “You doing it against me … you speaking out against my organization, it’s not good anymore? That’s a slave mentality. A slave master mentality. That’s ridiculous. It was all fine and dandy when he was laying people out, taking fines and all this stuff for your organization. But now all of a sudden when he says something that he feels, it’s a problem.”......excerpt from The Mercury News, article by Marcus Thompson II

Those statements were regarding the incident between Knicks owner James Dolan and NBALegend Charles Oakley.

*Draymond speaks to the media about Charles Oakley*

So what's the call of action here? Boycott the NBA? Call everyone racist? No none of that will be necessary. Fans and Owners need to simply adopt a 7 letter word emphasized by Aretha Franklin.RESPECT.

Respect the fact Isaiah Thomas led your favorite team to a NBA eastern conference finals. Respect the fact that Lebron led those 2007 Cavaliers to a finals and decided to come back to led them to more finals despite being disrespected by the owner.

Appreciation for the services of your favorite athletes is all it takes to keep basketball the competitive fun spirited sport it is. Most fans are emotionally invested but our emotions shouldn't be what makes us emotionless towards our favorite athletes, don't let that go over you head.

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