Is bullying an issue in the NBA?

http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post ... in-the-nba

You badly want to buy in.

You desperately want to believe what pretty much anybody who has anything to do with the NBA has been saying ever since the names Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin became a staple of the daily discourse.

You hope it's all true about how this league, for all of its perceived ills and shortcomings, does not have a serious bullying or hazing problem.

And I will say that case has been made to me rather strongly in consultations with various players, coaches, team officials and agents over the past week-plus.

No one is saying: You better dig deeper on this one. Not yet.

It would be naïve in the extreme to dismiss the possibility that past transgressions can still come to light or that some NBA pranks still go too far. Folks in Denver won’t soon forget the rage emanating from Kenyon Martin back in April 2010 when a former Nuggets ball boy filled Martin's Range Rover with buttered popcorn. Anyone who has read about what Gilbert Arenas once did to a shoe belonging to former Washington teammate Andray Blatche won’t soon forget, either.

...

the NBA from issuing a memo to all 30 teams last Friday reminding everyone that no forms of bullying or hazing would be tolerated, listing a number of behaviors that violate policy. Which immediately prompted the Minnesota Timberwolves to decree that rookies would no longer even have to tote backpacks around, such as the Jonas Brothers model that had been issued to Shabazz Muhammad.

“Now I think rookie hazing won’t exist anymore,” Muhammad told the Los Angeles Times.

This guy gets it, as required by his job:

Zachariah Vanderhoof · Sprinkler Foreman at Southern fire sprinklers
If you have a job for a year it does not entitle you to look down on someone just because they are new instead you should do everything to help there self esteem for the betterment of the team cause its not easy being the new guy and learning from scratch. Plus jokes have no place in the working environment its a job not a playground.

Exactly. Grow up, NBA.

Michael Jordan says you softies are flaming faggots.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... 0505&num=0

I hope it don't get no physical at least.

It doesn't sound like there's a major problem in the NBA, though that's obviously impossible for any of us to say with any certainty since we're on the outside with a limited view in. I think it's fine that the NBA does want to draw a line between good-natured ribbing and bullying/hazing, but it doesn't seem like the situation is out of control.

The NBA has been pretty open about the presence of rookie hazing as to even mention and include it in a feature about the 2013 NBA Draft, with Damian Lillard giving some rooks those girly pink bags.

Michael Jordan says you softies are flaming faggots.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... 0505&num=0

Stop bullying my thread.

Plus jokes have no place in the working environment its a job not a playground.

This is rubbish. People spend that much time at work. I would go mad in a (just) professional and sterile environment without jokes.