New study on virtue signalling

The players are under contract to play and to practice. I'm pretty sure ownership can fine them. The league may not be able to fine players for not playing, but it may be able to fine the teams (which of course would be why the teams fine the players, or withhold salaries, per diems, etc.).

But the point is that this pseudo-boycott by the players was fully undermined by the leagues, because the leagues don't won't to miss out on the perceived brownie points available for being properly "woke" (which I think is total bullshit on the part of the leagues: they're the quintessential examples of virtue signalers, here).

And look at this headline at ESPN: What we'll remember most from a historic week in the NBA

The sports journos are totally invested in this all being a significant thing, a Really Big Deal. I think that they're fooling themselves in the extreme. It's only a big deal to them and to people who are 100% behind BLM. To everyone else, it's a nothing moment at best, a laughably stupid moment at worst. No one--imo--is out there saying to themselves, "gee, I didn't think these protests had any validity, but if the NBA is postponing games over the issue, maybe I should rethink my position."

I imagine the social pressure of the current climate precluded anyone on the Magic from stating they still wanted to play, whether true or not. 

If even one player had said that, the backlash would've been swift and overbearing and they'd immediately be labeled an irredeemable rAcIsT. It's a no-win scenario for anyone who might object, no matter how nuanced or well-reasoned their position. Best for players and the league to just cave to the woke mob, lest they be sacrificed on the altar of moral purity.

However, I find the "brave, nobel stance" of the league and many of the players is grotesquely hypocritical given how much they bend the knee to China, who actually is torturing and murdering POC in modern day concentration camps, not to mention oppressing its own people in Hong Kong (and the entire country, really). I realize that what happens in China doesn't directly affect them, but it could be argued that the stories they're protesting don't directly affect them either (given their elite status both financially and in terms of fame).

For a lot of the players, them speaking out is from a place of privilege, if not social pressure. For the NBA, they're just doing the most financially beneficial thing for their profits, which is why they take the side of so-called "social justice" in the US, but ban and censor any type of social justice speech aimed at China (for example, a pre-selected list of SJW terms/phrases are allowed on jerseys, but the NBA will not allow any that speak to social justice issues in China: sports.yahoo.com/jaylen-brown-and-mike-scott-dont-love-nb-as-list-of-social-justice-messages-for-jerseys-201316159.html).

My overall point was that when people like LeBron James say, "Black Lives Matter," they seem to only mean "American Black Lives." He and other players, if they were really strongly committed to the mistreatment of POC, would leverage that to get the NBA to stop kowtowing to China who, since 2018, have detained and/or killed roughly 20,000 times as many POC than cops in the US have shot.

So, while they are protesting mistreatment of POC in one instance (specifically, where they know speaking out WON'T financially harm their business), they are arguably okay with it in another instance (specifically, where they know speaking out WOULD financially harm their business).