business and law

 

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is an interesting entity. It is not organized as a partnership nor is it organized as a corporation. Instead, it is somewhat unique in that it looks and behaves like a joint venture among its various members. The individual teams of the NBA, such as The Boston Celtics, are governed by the Associations’ Bylaws and Constitution. Believe it or not, the Association’s Constitution states it is not organized as a for-profit enterprise even though operationally few would doubt its existence is to make money for the members (NBA teams) of the Association.

So, here’s the discussion question for this week: Should individual NBA teams boycott the scheduled playoff games as a statement against racial injustice to people of color?

By deciding not to play, apart from any broadcast contract violations, are the teams that do decide to boycott the playing of games acting in an ethically or socially responsible manner or are they violating their duty to maximize shareholder (franchise owner) profits by not playing or something else?

Think deeply about this issue because it raises an important issue about whether sports should be devoid of politics or is it a situation where enough is enough and the players and their families can no longer stand ideally by without doing something to draw attention to racial injustice. Are there any limits to this conduct?