Could the JJ rant have been calculated by CAA?

Was one of the conspiracy theories in the other thread. CAA is also heavily involved in ESPN.

The other conspiracy theory was that CAA might be fed up with Zion as well and wanted to light a fire under him.

I think its probably closer to A, though.

CAA helps JJ negotiate contracts and help him with his career, they do not control him like a Manchurian candidate.

All of these conspiracies fall apart under that simple fact that JJ is not some helpless, brainless pawn, and CAA is not some singular evil movie villain conjuring up grand master plans in a smoky room like some B-tier movie. Plans that make less and less sense the more logic and critical thinking you apply to them.

shite like this is how Q anon crap works.

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CAA helps JJ negotiate contracts and help him with his career, they do not control him like a Manchurian candidate.

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Oh, so an agent that a close relationship with a player/commentator has no influence or would never ask for a favor?

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Oh, so an agent that a close relationship with a player/commentator has no influence or would never ask for a favor?

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Go out there and risk your reputation, lie about a sensitive situation, do so by insulting your former teammate, drag him across the mud.... because we secretly think it might help us leverage a better deal for someone that isn't even you? Its absurd

The logic itself is ridiculous, it only becomes more ridiculous when you have to also require the retired, up and coming millionaire to be a willing patsy in this diffuse plot

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Oh, so an agent that a close relationship with a player/commentator has no influence or would never ask for a favor?

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I mean ultimately JJ is the boss in the relationship. JJ isn’t an employee CAA and there are enough high powered agencies that JJ could up and leave CAA and probably have same/similar opportunities.

If there’s any CAA involvement in yesterday’s shitstorm it seems much more likely that CAA recognize zion as a potential LeBron like goldmine and they are pissed that he may be throwing that opportunity away. They may not like being pushed around by his inner circle and this is one of their ways to maybe get him to wake up or to knock the family down a peg or two.


I think this thought that lives on here, reddit and twitter that agencies make the world go round and they are the all powerful puppet masters is way outside of reality. I’m sure they have some level of influence and they are there in part to help the client navigate life but ultimately the agents are the employees. Not the other way around.

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If you don't think that mega-agencies use on air personalities to push narratives they want or increase profiles of people they represent, I don't know what to tell you.

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If you think the way agency influence works is that CAA is some all-powerful cartoon villain-like organization capable of organizing secret complex conspiracies and the people they represent are secretly pawns they control and move around like chess pieces, I dont know what to tell you

Thats not how reality works.

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They do. Its pretty well documented.

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With evidence, provide me an example where CAA organized a diffuse, complex conspiracy and forced one of their clients at Disney to literally conspire and lie, putting his reputation and career at risk, in order to carry out some rube goldberg like conspiracy on behalf of another client?

CAA influence works more in the sense that when someone like JJ goes to get "insiders" he probably finds his way to other CAA agents representing said client and you get a skewed response, or get strategic leaks. It's not literally CAA calls up JJ and tells them you better say this like some mob boss directing lieutenants.

I think in this case the only way JJ would do what he did was if he thought he was actually helping Zion. There'd be way too much potential blowback for him if he was seen as helping his career by kicking a Duke brother while he was down.

That's not to say his agent couldn't have suggested that he try to "help" Zion this way, but it's not like this topic came out of nowhere. CJ started this ball rolling unintentionally. CAA may benefit from it, but I don't see this as a conspiracy either.

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I think in this case the only way JJ would do what he did was if he thought he was actually helping Zion

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I can definitely see that being the case.

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You're just wrong if you don't think agencies like CAA do things like this all of the time, though. Comparing it to Q Anon, as I think this is the 2nd or 3rd time I've seen you make that comparison recently, is just not correct.

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Ethan Strauss referenced it in an article:

LINK

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Even if I don’t take it as seriously as malfeasance in our politics or financial institutions, sports corruption still has an impact on coverage, and I dislike how much of the game behind the game is shielded from readers. For example, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) happens to represent key media personalities at ESPN NBA, which was by design, and accomplished with the subtlety and tact of the Red Wedding. When you combine that nugget with knowledge of CAA’s influence over the New York Knicks (GM Leon Rose is a former CAA superagent, coach Tom Thibodeau is a CAA client), ESPN’s reports of Zion Williamson (CAA client) having an interest in joining the Knicks gets put in a different light. The way it’s presented to the consumer is the mere reporting on a rising star in New Orleans wanting to play in New York. You’re not supposed to know that ESPN wants this to happen because ESPN is CAA and CAA is ESPN, which means that CAA is the Knicks, meaning that the Knicks are ESPN. You’re not supposed to know that this factors heavily into why New Orleans is shite out of luck, gumbo and jazz music be damned. In many ways, the agencies run the NBA. The media that they use to execute their messaging is making the principals seem peripheral. So often, the story of a trade or free agency signing is told absent mention of its true author.

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Right, Reports of Zion's interest vis a vis CAA reporters.

I.E. CAA represented people using CAA as sources to report desires of other CAA clients.

That is how this works, not, lets create this diffuse plot involving reputational risking slander in service of creating this complex conspiracy requiring our clients to work against their self interest to achieve.

If Zion and his agent were involved in this, it would be JJ reporting he heard from people close to Zion x, y, or z. Which would be the narrative CAA wants out there, that they control, that creates the leverage they want, and helps form the narratives they need.


This is not that, this is Q anon armchair conspiracy theorying.