Out in bounds: The Jason Collins story

By Michael J.W. Stickings and Mustang Bobby 

MJWS:

I applaud Jason Collins. The culture may be changing rapidly towards full and equal rights for LGBTs, but this still took guts. A lot of guts. If you don't understand that, you don't understand the retrograde and frequently bigoted culture of male team sports in America, and of American sports generally, the sort of closed and sometimes hateful culture that allows an idiot like Chris Broussard to spew his bigotry at the biggest platform of them all, "worldwide leader" ESPN.

But it's good to see Collins receiving so much support. I hope others can now follow his lead, in the NBA and elsewhere, and that American (and really North American) team sports finally embrace not just toleration but full acceptance and inclusion.

It's about time.

**********

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Los Suns

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Phoenix Suns, the NBA's team in the Police State of Arizona, has done the right thing in coming out firmly against the abhorrent immigration bill.

Managing Partner Robert Sarver, with the full support of the players (and with the approval of the league), has decided that the team will wear "Los Suns" jerseys for Game 2 of its second-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs tonight. It's also Cinco de Mayo today, but the decision is a direct response to the legislation.

The Spurs apparently want to wear "Los Spurs" jerseys but may not be able to get them on time. (The Suns wore "Los Suns" jerseys earlier this year.)

Sarver:

I looked around our plane and looked at our players and the diversity in our organization. I thought we need to go on record that we honor our diversity in our team, in the NBA and we need to show support for that...

I don't think it's the right way to handle the immigration problem, No. 1. No. 2, as I read through the bill, it felt to me a little bit like it was mean-spirited and I personally just don't agree with it. In addition, one of the main priorities right now for our state is to get jobs for people. The enactment of this bill just puts us farther behind the eight-ball in attracting companies to do business here and I think it will have a negative economic effect and a negative effect on our ability to create jobs for people who are looking for work.

Hopefully, it's all going to get worked out and the federal government will step in and there'll be a national solution. I realize that immigration is a problem and we have issues that need to be dealt with. I just don't think this bill accomplishes that.

The great (and Canadian) Steve Nash:

It's a clear-cut issue for me. I don't agree with this bill. I don't agree with the spirit of the bill or the message it sends, not only to people in our community but how it represents our community across the country and the world.

I think the bill opens up the opportunity for racial profiling, racism. I think it puts the police in an incredibly difficult position that isn't fair to them. It's an infringement on our civil liberties to allow the possibility for inequality to arise in our community.

General Manager Steve Kerr:

It's hard to imagine in this country that we have to produce papers," Kerr said. "It rings up images of Nazi Germany. We understand that the intentions of the law are not for that to happen but you have to be very, very careful. We feel like it was well-intended but maybe not well-executed. As a result, this state is taking a huge economic hit.

I think he's being too nice. The legislation is not "well-intended" -- and the consequences obviously aren't just economic. It is a proposed law crafted by conservative white Arizonans and aimed directly at non-white (and mainly Hispanic) Arizonans. The intention is pretty clear.

Good for the Suns for taking a firm stand and sending a clear message on a significant political issue, a rarity in professional sports these days.

Making deals with the devil

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Is it really any surprise that Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire who wants to buy the NBA's New Jersey Nets and move them to Brooklyn, has some, shall we say, questionable business interests? I mean, how exactly did he acquire all that wealth? Surely he knows something about corruption, and worse, and about making deals with tyrants like Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, as the New York Post is reporting.

I suspect that he has achieved his wealth and power to a great extent by making deals with various devils. What is troubling here, though, is that the NBA, a league plagued with struggling franchises and that desperately wants an infusion of wealth both into itself and into the country's top market, has apparently also made a deal with a devil. What needs to be asked is what David Stern and NBA brass knew when they signed up Prokhorov to be a member of their elite club.

Not brilliant!

By J. Thomas Duffy

Holy Chuck Cooper, Batman, is this guy dribbling without the ball?

A Birther basketball league?

Basketball league for white Americans targets Augusta

A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made up exclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but the team isn't receiving a warm welcome.

"Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league," the statement said.

[snip]

Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league's roster restrictions is not racism.

"There's nothing hatred about what we're doing," he said. "I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of "street-ball" played by "people of color." He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas' indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans' dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.

"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" he said. "That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."

Hey, Don Moose Brains, this movie has already been made!

Like 24-years ago: Hoosiers!

Your deal doesn't sound anything like Hoosiers.

Hoosiers was about redemption and was loosely based on a real event.

Your deal sounds very much like xenophobic racism.

And, regular readers may be wondering, why aren't we rolling out the "Ignorant Dolt" carpet for this?

The reason is, we wouldn't want to sully our dubious Hall of Shame with the likes this cretin.

He goes way, way beyond being an Ignorant Dolt.




(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)

Quote of the Day: LeBron James on dunking (on George W. Bush)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This is about a week old, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Interviewed in next month's Maxim magazine, LeBron James, probably the best player in the NBA, is asked the following question:

If there was one guy on the planet you could dunk on, who would it be?

Bron-Bron's answer:

If it doesn't have to be a basketball player, George W. Bush. I would dunk on his ass, break the rim, and shatter the glass.

How awesome, and how fitting, would that be?

Orlando does it!

By J. Thomas Duffy

Well, you can start calling him "LeGone James (H/T Barry Crimmins).

The Orlando Magic, led by Dwight "Superman" Howard, kicked ass and took names this evening, stomping on the Cleveland Cadaverliers (also a Barry Crimmins H/T), 103-90 (and the game wasn't this close - Orlando led by 18 at half-time, and 16 at the end of the third), taking the Eastern Division finals 4-2, and heading into the NBA Finals, against the LA Lakers, for the first time since 1995

This was especially sweet.

Not so much from James, but the media, as Cleveland cruised through the first two rounds, tremendously easy, they (the media) was already building statues of James as THE GREATEST EVER.

They couldn't say it enough times, they couldn't talk about it enough, they couldn't show enough highlight clips, and James' last second (about three-minutes in any other city) shot to win Game 2, only added to this nonsense.

As Orlando then took a 3-1 lead games, all-of-a-sudden, the conversation shifted to the rest of the Cleveland team sucked, and when was someone going to help King James, that King James couldn't be expected (though they suspected he could) do it by himself, and that, with playing so many minutes (hey, it's the playoffs, baby, there's no crying in the playoffs), that King James (gasp), maybe, was tired, fatigued.

With crunch-time on-the-line, a ticket to the finals (or, in the Cadaverliers case, a ticket to Game 7, at home), it was "Superman" who punched the time clock, going for 40-points, with 14 rebounds, seemingly, being unstoppable.

King James went for 27-points, but with zero (yes "0") points in the second quarter, and only 7 (I think) in the final quarter.

And, it got little play, that Orlando slugged it out in the playoffs, and now go to the finals, without their #1 Guard, Jameer Nelson, out injured.

So, now the Lakers, and here's to the Orlando Magic, that they can go in there, and disappoint La-La Land, again, this year, much like they were last year, by the Celtics.

Go Orlando!

Beat LA!



(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)