The NBA has a problem and it’s not an 80 year old white guy
who pines for the days of separate drinking fountains. Adam Silver is riding high on all the
metaphorical high 5’s and slaps on the backs he’s been receiving for taking a
hardline with Donald Silver. Which is
kind of sad. There is nothing heroic or
brave about opposing racism. It takes
the same effort as taking your shopping cart to the cart corral in the parking
lot of Home Depot. It’s just the right
thing to do. And getting too
congratulatory only opens us to a conversation we don’t want to have. Your gonna take his team for being a bad
person? LeBron James says there is no
room in the NBA for Donald Sterling. He
may be right but does that apply San Francisco 49er Chris Culliver who has made homophobic comments
in the past and recently called a family of Mexicans “wetbacks”. Should he be allowed to play professional
football? Or will he get the opportunity
to apologize and take sensitivity training?
And anytime a professional athlete shoots up a strip club or runs a dog
fighting ring, at least part of the discussion is the culture they were raised
in as if it were some sort of excuse. I
have yet to hear one talking head on ESPN talk about Donald Sterling being
raised in a different time.
If anything Adam Silver should be pissed David Stern left
him with this. Donald Sterling’s racist
views are well documented. No one should
be surprised. The reason this is not
even a really problem for the league or it’s players is stuff like this takes
care of itself. Players won’t want to
play there. Coaches won’t want to coach
there. And good ones won’t have to.
Kevin Love, or more accurately his agent, recently let the
Minnesota Timberwolves know that he will be opting out of his contract and
taking his talents elsewhere (Thanks LeBron.)
And this my friends, is the NBA’s biggest problem. Not Kevin Love specifically. The fact that this happens all the
time in cities throughout the league. ESPN and talk radio have hours to
fill so they fill a lot of that with their own speculation. That speculation becomes it's own self fulfilling philosophy. Once Kevin Love signed the contract that
allowed him to opt out after three years the speculation started. Will the Wolves trade him to Lakers for a
sack of magic beans today, or will they let him walk for nothing? He’s from California so you know he wants to
play there. You have to trade him now to
get anything of value for him. Has there
ever been a trade in the NBA that has been close to even? And this isn’t unique to franchises that are
bad or poorly run. In 2012-13 season the
discussion of where LeBron James would be playing when 2014-15 season
began. Does he not like Miami? Is he tired of winning championships?
Only teams in LA, New York, Boston and to a lesser extent
Chicago are immune to this. That’s 6
teams. And it isn’t just about making sure
the best players only play in the big markets.
If a team in a smaller market has the audacity to make the NBA finals
the immediate talking point is “Is the NBA worried that no one will watch an
Indiana/OKC final?” Isn’t the point of
professional sports to win? Even if you live in Memphis? This year
you have Miami, Indiana, San Antonio and Oklahoma City as your final four
teams. So what do the Sports Reporters
on ESPN have to talk about? Whether or
not the NBA is unhappy that these 4 pathetic cities managed to make it this
far.
The NBA should care about the perception that they don’t
want most of the teams in the league to win.
As long as the NBA treats the 24 teams not in NYC like they’re the
Washington Generals they shouldn’t expect communities to support these
teams. They should start giving back tax
money giving to these teams in the form of Arena’s and practice
facilities. And as long as players of
Kevin Love’s ilk spend the first 6 years of their careers bombarded with the
idea that they are just honing their game for another team in a bigger city
nothing will change. Players of Love’s
talent are the type you build a team around.
And they are hard to get. For the
first time since trading Kevin Garnett the Timberwolves have a sliver of
credibility. And now they are forced to
trade it away. Despite two overall #1
picks and another on the way the Cleveland Cavaliers still haven’t recovered from
LeBron James leaving. Every NFL season
starts with hope. Even the most
pessimistic fan hangs on his team every week.
Fans of teams that are consistently bad blame ownership and
management. Fans of the Milwaukee Bucks
feel they will never have a chance. And
that is the biggest problem the NBA has.
The void of any real hope. Viking
fans feel jinxed because of superstition combined with reality. T-Wolves fans have no reason to feel
optimistic because their team is in a league that only wants large market teams
to compete.
Donald Sterling doesn’t want black people coming to his
games. Someone needs to tell Adam Silver
that doesn’t make Magic Johnson the perfect candidate for ownership. Give people like Donald Sterling enough rope
and they’ll hang themselves. Feeling
obligated to deify such thoughts shows a lack of sincerity. So kick him out of the league or let him
suffer the consequences of putting words to his thoughts. But stop acting like it’s the cancer eating
at the core of your league. Prejudice
and bigotry can be found in every locker room and front office in the league. Making Donald Sterling the face of racism
just distracts you from the real issue.
Fan apathy.
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