Follow the bouncing ignorance

And now, here comes Laura Ingraham, shrieking harpy of the right, telling LeBron James to just "shut up and dribble." It seems he had a thought or two the other day on the leadership of Our Only Available President vis-a-vis race relations, and ol' Laura didn't think much of them. In fact, she thinks he should keep them to himself, because, after all, he has no standing to say anything on the subject.

After all, he's just a basketball player.

Know what I wish?

I wish ol' Laura would keep her thoughts about athletes to herself. Because she's just a radio jock.

And if I had a nickel for every radio jock/general nitwit who's played the tired old "dumb athlete" card when an athlete ventured an opinion on something besides athletics, I'd have enough money to buy out ol' Laura's contract and replace her with someone who doesn't traffic in lazy clichés. Someone who, I don't know, knows her ass from third base on the subject of athletes.

I was a sportswriter in Indiana for almost 40 years, and what I learned in all that time is the "dumb jock" stereotype was very often a laughably bad fit. And that's especially true in 2018, when athletes like LeBron James (and dozens of others) are entrepreneurs as much as they are athletes.

In LeBron's specific case, he and his agent, Maverick Carter, are involved in a whole clutch of businesses and charities, not the least of which is SpringHill Entertainment, a media production and content company. It's a business model followed successfully by, among others, Magic Johnson, who began by building movie theaters in underprivileged neighborhoods and now presides over a business empire that includes an ownership stake in the Dodgers and an ownership advisor role with the Lakers.

But I suppose he wouldn't have anything relevant to say about race relations and the leadership qualities (or appalling lack of same) of Our Only Available President, either.

That men of his and LeBron's stature, as powerful African-American public figures, very much have relevant things to say on the subject of race and leadership is obvious to anyone with more than a grade-school level of understanding. The whole "dumb jock" thing reflects even a lower level of understanding than that, and, frankly, in this case, carries a whiff of racial animus. You didn't hear ol' Laura take to task Steve Kerr or Gregg Popovich -- both white NBA coaches -- for criticizing Our Only Available President, after all.

Nope. She reserved her bile for LeBron and Kevin Durant, black men with even more standing to speak out on this particular subject than Kerr and Popovich have. In so doing, she ignored the entire well-documented history of African-Americans who used their platform as elite athletes to exert influence far beyond the lines on a court or athletic field.

Pro tip here, ol' Laura. Google "Arthur Ashe" and "apartheid." Better yet, Google the name of the company you work for (Fox), and "celebrity guests", and see how many show business folks your network's put on the air to talk about politics.

But of course, they're generally invited on because they express the opinions consistent with Fox's right-wing bias. So we'll never hear anyone there tell them to shut up and go make movies.

But LeBron?

Why, how dare one of the most recognized men in the world criticize Our Only Available President? How dare he, a mere (black) athlete, think he had the standing to evaluate the leadership of a former game-show host?

The nerve of the man. The nerve.