You hear a lot of people criticize professional athletes for being entitled. Well, after NBA players made the trip to Orlando, Florida to be in the league’s bubble for the start of the season, ESPN’s Jay Williams has some thoughts of his own about how players are handling themselves in the first few days of their new normal.
Players have been making fun of the accommodations they are receiving in Orlando by mocking and complaining about everything from the rooms to the food.
Rajon Rondo doesn’t seem pleased with his Orlando room. pic.twitter.com/hjwB2g0tk8
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) July 9, 2020
.@JoelEmbiid's got jokes about the food in the NBA bubble 😂 pic.twitter.com/asiagAy4Fw
— ESPN (@espn) July 10, 2020
Jay Williams isn’t having that and says the players are coming across as “tone-deaf” in the middle of a global pandemic where some people are happy to simply have food on their plates and a roof over their heads.
“NBA players cannot be tone-deaf. My NBA brothers, you cannot be tone-deaf right now in this current environment. We all know the life that NBA players live. You are blessed. You get a chance to be on private planes, you get a chance to have millions of dollars in your bank account, you live a different level of life. But that is drastically different than what real, every day, working Americans are going through right now,” Williams said in a video on Twitter, as transcribed by Bro Bible.
We all have the right to complain but doing it publicly is different issue. I don’t need some of my #NBA brothers complaining publicly about quality of living & food accomodations in a billion dollar bubble during a pandemic. Tell me your thoughts. pic.twitter.com/cm9JARkmO0
— Jay Williams (@RealJayWilliams) July 12, 2020
“Now, you’re in a billion-dollar bubble. If you want to complain about the anxieties you have from COVID-related issues, I get it. Complain about that. We all have the right to complain about that. But when I hear NBA guys complaining about living facilities, food that they have being delivered to them, it is tone-deaf. It is tone-deaf. We need to think about people who are everyday, working people who are making minimum wage, trying to make ends meet, that are going to factories, that are going to really harsh working environments, where, if anything, maybe their employers are doing less to ensure their safety because they’re trying to increase the bottom line. They’re trying to earn and make money back from all the money that they lost during the times that a lot of these states, individually governed, have been dealing with this issue.
“So when I see guys that are going into a billion-dollar bubble — a billion-dollar bubble — and are getting food delivered to them, that have beds to sleep in, you can’t complain about that. Not while you’re making millions of dollars, not while your employer is going through drastic measures to protect you while they’re still paying you when that’s not the case for everyday, real working Americans. That bothers me.”
You really can’t argue with Williams’ point.
The league will be playing a 22-team format that will include 8 regular-season games and the postseason. The 8 games will be played in order to determine the playoff seeding. Games are scheduled to take place from July 31 through October 12.
