Re: Sam Smith: Sprewell's Attack=Root of NBA Strife

[Sherry & Hart <hartleyo@ix.netcom.com>]

j.hironaka@unesco.org wrote:
> 
> In fairness, I think the reason Sam Smith's article is so nauseating can
> be attributed to his lack of aptitude or training to think logically,
> rather than any uglier motive.
> 
> To blithely link the NBA lockout to Latrell Sprewell (e.g.. "it became
> as clear as the scratch marks on Carlesimo's throat that the NBA was
> being strangled by greed, selfishness and a lack of ethics and
> morality.")  without offering any shred of evidence or a single measly
> quote from an owner is IMO the crudest form of uppity-"n"-word,
> race-baiting.  It's akin to the fabulously successful strategy of James
> Baker (George Bush's 1988 presidential campaign manager) to link Michael
> Dukakis with Willie Horton (a black man who was "furlowed" from a
> Massachusetts jail and subsequently raped a white girl).
The fact is that this story was originally used by that great
environmentalist Veep Al Gore  when he was running for the nomination
against the Duke and was subsequently used by the Bush campaign. It
probably wasn't politically correct(can't you just puke) by Baker & Bush
but they're not stupid. 
> 
> I'm not necessarily on the players side any longer, and  I certainly
> don't mind if they lose the billion+ dollar wages they were contracted
> to earn this year by their dumb-ass owners. Unless some of these NBA
> players grow up and clearly suffer a little (lost wages) and gain
> perspective, they will never win back the full sympathy of fans (who,
> after all, have historically been working class white men and women).
Why must everything, always be Black & White, whoever likes to see games
and/or can afford to go, are the Fans they have to win back, both black
and white.
> 
> But to even implicitly hint that the "Modern-Day-Basketball-Pro=Latrell
> Sprewell" suggests to me questionable logic and motives. I wish to
> goodness that the Sprewell incident had never freaking happened. It's
> true enough that the incident put a lot of black athletes in an
> uncomfortable spot, when asked to choose sides. Nevertheless, I happen
> to believe this was an entirely isolated incident in pro basketball's
> noble history. The NBA and its fans have surely played a genuine role in
> the process of bringing America together. And the sport has made many
> millions of young people "color blind" as if it were the most natural
> thing in the world. Why can't we just leave it at that?
> 
> IMHO, it's America's job as primo cultural and military superpower to
> try hard to live up to its heretofore phony-baloney ideals ("All men are
> created equal" etc.despite a longer history of legal Apartheid than
> South Africa's). Were you all taught in school that lynching was not a
> federal crime until a full decade after World War II, when America was
> pridefully "making the world safe for democracy" and nuking civilians?
> Were you all taught that according to shipping company logs more
> Africans died aboard slave ships during the trans-Atlantic crossing
> (nearly 10 million) than Jews died during the Holocaust? That's a long,
> slow way to die. We surely wouldn't be forgiving about it if it had
> happened to one of our ancestors.
What the hell is all this crap have to do with the BB strike. It is also
my understanding that there is still slave trading going on in Black run
countries such as the Sudan,etc. What are you doing about that? Stop it
already about the US and its past problems. We got enough problems with
Clinton and don't need any more guilt trips.
> 
> Boy, am I a smug Euro-influenced bastard. Sorry.
Yep, I agree
> 
> ****