Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy has been accused of gambling on games he refereed and possibly affecting the outcome of the game, a practice called "point shaving." I cannot be the only one who is excited about the scandal and the huge ego check it has provided to David Stern. Even though he did compare the NBA to the FBI and CIA during his response to the news, you could tell by the expression on his face he felt as if he had just "Sexed Mutombo." The best thing is this is just beginning. Much like the airline ticket scandal in 98', which Donaghy was involved in as well, there is no way this is an isolated incident, and it makes me giggle.
If some of you do not understand why this makes me excited, let me explain. Since David Stern took the league over in 1984, the NBA has expanded and prospered. He is given a lot of the credit for the success because of his marketing strategies and his pushing of superstars. I do not give him any credit because of the small help provided by Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and, this guy you might have heard of, Michael Jordan. What he really had accomplished is a change in the nature of the game where athleticism is more important than actually knowing how to play the game of basketball. He is the reason basketball is unwatchable anymore, and without a superstar in the Michael Jordan status, which Lebron is not, the ratings have and will continue to fall.
I find it interesting how that is not blamed on Stern like the success is. In fact, a lot of people still consider him the best commissioner in sports, even though his sport is falling at a rate only surpassed by the NHL. Lately, however, the wheels are beginning to fall off, and this scandal might just be the bump that breaks the axle. The Joey Crawford incident, the Stoudemire incident and the general discontent with his dictator like reign on the NBA are all factors leading to the fall of David Stern and I will throw a party when it happens.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
What Don Imus has taught me.
Very simply, it is alright to call three white-collar white boys rapists but it is not alright to refer to a women's basketball team as "nappy headed hoes." The latter part of that statement, I completely agree with. Don Imus is a dick, we all know that, and though I think it has gone a bit far in his firing, I can see where the anger has come from. Just one side note, some one needs to talk to Vivian Stringer about how far she is going with this. Don Imus stole your team’s dreams, really. Back on subject, there are two real problems I have with this situation.
The first one is more basic and said by everyone. I can turn on Power 106.7 in San Antonio and hear black women degraded a whole lot worse than Imus ever would have though to degrade them everyday. The hypocrisy of Barack Obama calling for Imus's firing while accepting money from people who do the same thing but ten times worse than Imus did is amazing to me, and had cause me to change my vote away from Obama in the upcoming presidential elections.
The second problem I have, and Obama falls into this category as well, is the lack of consistency of the people that called for Imus's firing. Why is not Al Sharpton catching flak for his premature condemnation of the three Duke boys? Why is Al Sharpton not losing his job for insinuating that those three young men were rapists, an insult much more vile and hateful than "nappy headed hoes." Where are the mobs of letters and people coming to the support of these three boys whose dreams have actually been stolen by the words of Al Sharpton and others? There is no one.
So the real question becomes, why? It is very simple, white people are afraid. It is not very hard to believe, there is not much worse in this country that you can be called than a racist, and for a white person, males especially, to indicate that they believe that they are being persecuted for the color of their skin is the quickest way to be labeled a bigot short of showing up in a white sheet with a red crest over your heart. It is pathetic that the same people that say they hope this Don Imus situation creates discussion are the same people that destroy the lives of people that openly express their feelings. It is not surprise they do; it is in Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's best interests to make everything about race. Stop and think, if there was not racial issues, which I firmly believe there would not be as many as we see today without them, what would Al and Jesse talk about? What would they spend their time doing? The are pathetic men trying to hold on to a glorious past by manufacturing racial situations but still ignoring ones that do arrive. Such as these three Duke students who were persecuted for their skin color and social class in a mostly lower class black town that was happy to see the three "crackas" get theirs. Is that not racism?
I am a true believe in equality, and I am not scared of the repercussions of writing this. Mostly because I do not think many people will read it, but also because I know that there is not a racist bone in my body. So, I am comfortable saying that I truly hope that one day we will be able to live how Dr. King envisioned. We will live in a world where a man is not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. A world where three white boys accused of a heinous crime against a black woman will just be three boys accused of a heinous crime against a woman. Or better yet, three people accused of a heinous crime against another person. Then, maybe, we will not be so quick to jump to conclusions. Then, maybe, those three people will not have to live their lives under the veil of doubt that will constantly surround them until the day they die. Then, maybe, a district attorney will not be able to use the race of the accused as a way to win an election. Then, maybe, we will no longer have the NAACP but the NAAP. The problem is, for the time being, it is only a dream.
“And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King
The first one is more basic and said by everyone. I can turn on Power 106.7 in San Antonio and hear black women degraded a whole lot worse than Imus ever would have though to degrade them everyday. The hypocrisy of Barack Obama calling for Imus's firing while accepting money from people who do the same thing but ten times worse than Imus did is amazing to me, and had cause me to change my vote away from Obama in the upcoming presidential elections.
The second problem I have, and Obama falls into this category as well, is the lack of consistency of the people that called for Imus's firing. Why is not Al Sharpton catching flak for his premature condemnation of the three Duke boys? Why is Al Sharpton not losing his job for insinuating that those three young men were rapists, an insult much more vile and hateful than "nappy headed hoes." Where are the mobs of letters and people coming to the support of these three boys whose dreams have actually been stolen by the words of Al Sharpton and others? There is no one.
So the real question becomes, why? It is very simple, white people are afraid. It is not very hard to believe, there is not much worse in this country that you can be called than a racist, and for a white person, males especially, to indicate that they believe that they are being persecuted for the color of their skin is the quickest way to be labeled a bigot short of showing up in a white sheet with a red crest over your heart. It is pathetic that the same people that say they hope this Don Imus situation creates discussion are the same people that destroy the lives of people that openly express their feelings. It is not surprise they do; it is in Al Sharpton's and Jesse Jackson's best interests to make everything about race. Stop and think, if there was not racial issues, which I firmly believe there would not be as many as we see today without them, what would Al and Jesse talk about? What would they spend their time doing? The are pathetic men trying to hold on to a glorious past by manufacturing racial situations but still ignoring ones that do arrive. Such as these three Duke students who were persecuted for their skin color and social class in a mostly lower class black town that was happy to see the three "crackas" get theirs. Is that not racism?
I am a true believe in equality, and I am not scared of the repercussions of writing this. Mostly because I do not think many people will read it, but also because I know that there is not a racist bone in my body. So, I am comfortable saying that I truly hope that one day we will be able to live how Dr. King envisioned. We will live in a world where a man is not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. A world where three white boys accused of a heinous crime against a black woman will just be three boys accused of a heinous crime against a woman. Or better yet, three people accused of a heinous crime against another person. Then, maybe, we will not be so quick to jump to conclusions. Then, maybe, those three people will not have to live their lives under the veil of doubt that will constantly surround them until the day they die. Then, maybe, a district attorney will not be able to use the race of the accused as a way to win an election. Then, maybe, we will no longer have the NAACP but the NAAP. The problem is, for the time being, it is only a dream.
“And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King
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