Forcing someone to make a public statement via explicit or implicit threat of loss of income or ostracization is playground politics for adults.
Bullying and playground politics just isn't the right way to think about this.
Kyrie, e.g., put the economic pressure on himself. Nike sells shoes. They don't want to pay him anymore because he can't sell shoes nearly as well now, and might impact their ability to sell shoes long-term. Regarding the Nets and NBA, Kyrie's many million dollar contract isn't exactly for playing basketball. It's for his ability to get lots and lots of people to want to watch basketball. When he pissed off a lot of people he doesn't do that very well, and his value as a basketball player drops.
My point is that the "socioeconomic pressure" in many cases has nothing to do "bullying," "threats," or "playground politics". It can be self-inflicted: If you lower your value to the people who give you money, they will no longer want to give you as much money.