Yeah the power stuff is hard to factor in but I was more referring to just a one time incident/accusation versus multiple incedents/accusations.
Especially for black males. I'm guessing he was told the best course of action was to make it go away as quickly as possible regardless of guilt.
I get this stance, it's totally appropriate! What if it really was consensual though and Billups is telling the truth? Does he not deserve to ever get an opportunity to coach? This is why I don't like pretending I know what happened.
You're also rolling the dice any time you go to trial. My best friend caught his wife cheating on him with a friend ours. Well.... technically his roommate told my friend what was happening, he didn't walk in on them or anything. He called her up, said he wanted to work it out, she went straight to the police and said he beat her. Zero physical evidence. Zero witnesses to anything. Nothing but her story, which changed multiple times. In fact her story was so inconsistent, a judge turned down her request for a restraining order. But he went to trial for DV, he was convicted by a jury, and had to go to anger management for like a year. He never committed a crime, completely clean record before it happened. He never committed a crime or has done anything wrong since. He has a new wife, another young son, and a much better life now that he's away from his Ex. I never believed that an innocent person could be convicted in America, but I was wrong, and it was done with zero evidence. Not a single bit of proof. Just her word. The word of an adulterer.
Sue Bird is still playing. NDA would prevent discussing specifics of the case but not general. He will be asked and he and the team have to be prepared. Excuse me. Lucia just had a hairball attack. No connection I am sure.
I don't think it's some travesty of justice that Billups was hired. It's certainly entirely possible that he's innocent of any crime and the best person in the world. I don't mean that sarcastically, he might be a great guy. But I don't think it's a travesty of justice, either, that the topic comes up at all and that people might question the incident. There are a lot of dynamics at play here. Black men are disproportionately accused of crimes they didn't commit. Rape victims are disproportionately not believed when it comes to victims of crimes. The vast majority of rape victims never see their attacker brought to justice or often even charged. There were actual wounds on the victim, so whatever happened and with whomever, it wasn't a simple "misunderstanding." There are reasons to trust Billups and reasons to doubt him. So I don't think there's anything ridiculous or problematic about a segment of fans being troubled by such a conundrum, and I don't think it's problematic that there are fans who are comfortable with it. I think we should give everyone space to feel however they do about this hire, because it's a lot more ambiguous than most basketball hires.
I agree. And I can totally understand why either side would feel the way that they do. I just don't like that there are people who are acting like they're 100% sure he did it.
Yeah, this is where I am at. I have no problem with those that will never get past it and I have no problem with those who don't judge him because we don't know the actual story. I do however have a problem with all the people telling other people that they're wrong for feeling a certain way. It's like if you mention one thing about Billups possibly being innocent on Twitter right now you're labeled as part of rape culture and if you aren't going to support the team you're soft as fuck and told to get over it. This is never going to be clear.
You're wrong for telling people that they're wrong for telling people that they're wrong for feeling a certain way!
Twitter tends to draw and reinforce the extremists, on both sides, of an issue. The entire platform has become a competition for who can stand out with the hottest take, to gather the most likes and retweets. The internet itself created this dynamic, but Twitter takes it to the highest level yet. It's not a great place for discussion or reasonable takes, IMO.
In the year or so since the George Floyd murder we've seen countless examples of cops falsifying police reports or arresting people and charging them with crimes to justify using force and a lot of that is ON VIDEO and they still try and get away with it. Imagine all the times stuff like that has happened when it wasn't on video.
You know this happened before he ever really found success in the NBA? He's had a career most people would die for SINCE IT HAPPENED.
Woj just talked about it, Portland did their homework on the case, Billups addressed it with them, and they are moving on with a deal to make him the next coach in a nutshell.
I'm aware of when it happened. I can't pretend to know what it's like to be a black person if you thought you had consensual sex with someone and the next day they claim they didn't consent. The fact that he wasn't well known could be exactly why he was advised to pay her off and make it go away and why this didn't get brought up until recently. If it went to trial it could've ruined his career. Tough to know what the right thing in that situation for him was. On the other hand, if he did rape her he's a piece of shit and should still be in jail let alone have the career he had.
I would add minorities to this list as well. I think the flaw with the stance of - if someone has been accused of something, employers should take the easy way out and never consider them for a job; is in turn punishing the accused who was never proven guilty of anything. I'm with you it's a slippery slope, but I don't like the stance of eliminating someone because of an accusation, decades ago, the police were made aware of, and never moved forward on is the standard I'd vote for. That's not to say it didn't happen or that the women in this case is a liar.
Woj's direct quote: "The Blazers met with Chauncey Billups Seattle on Wednesday and he was convinced that he was their choice after that meeting, but I'm told they continued their own internal investigation into those charges Thusday and Friday before they offered him that job Friday night. Portland knows that Chauncey Billups had been vetted by a number of other organizations prior to this process including the Clippers who hired him as an assistant coach last year and the Cleveland Cavaliers who previously offered Chauncey Billups an elevated position: President of Basketball Operations. They didn't rely on those probes, and I'm told in their conversations with Chauncey Billups he recounted his version of those events a number of times, including with Neil Olshey, the president of basketball operations and their owner Jody Allen, and those aligned with what their investigations had found. So they're continuing now to finish a contract, terms on a deal, and you can expect Chauncey Billups introduced as the Blazers new head coach, perhaps as soon as early next week."
