In which Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert says he received a flood of racist voicemails after LeBron James exercised his constitutional right to call our only available president a bum.
Because, well, he was being a bum with the whole Warriors invite/disinvite thing.
"I received voicemails ... that were some of the most vile, disgusting, racist [messages]," Gilbert said Friday when he appeared as a guest on a CNBC show. "There's an element of racism that I didn't even realize existed in this country this much."
But, Dan, haven't you heard? We don't have a problem with racism in America. And those people who suggest we might, and we might want to think about doing something about it?
Why, they're just a bunch of spoiled (alternative word: "uppity") black athletes who hate America and don't appreciate the opportunity they've been given (not earned; it's always "given") to make millions of dollars playing a game. And so they should just shut up and play, because those dead African-Americans that Colin Kaepernick keeps whining about had it coming, anyway.
Or so that narrative apparently goes.
Saturday, September 30, 2017
Friday, September 29, 2017
Words with teeth, today's edition
And so the festering edifice begins to crumble, now that the FBI's probe into college basketball and all its corrupt support system really begins to ramp up. NBA agent Andy Miller won't be the only collateral damage. There will be more.
Maybe even, you know, a certain football coach over in Columbus, Ohio.
No, Ohio State's Urban Meyer isn't part of any of this business, nor will either he be or his fellow high-dollar football coaches. This is strictly a hoops beef right now -- although that doesn't mean it will stay that way. As Miller, whose connection to college buckets extends only as far as representing NBA clients who used to be college players, could attest, this octopus has some long tentacles, and they stretch in some wholly unexpected directions.
So it's not what Meyer did. It's what he said.
When asked about the FBI's investigation into college basketball yesterday, he went full nuclear zero tolerance, saying coaches who intentionally lie about committing violations should be banned from ever coaching again on the college level.
"If you intentionally lie about committing violations, your career is over," Meyer said during a call-in radio show on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. "You're not suspended for two games (or) some of the silly penalties you have, you can't talk to a recruit for a week and a half or something like that. No. You're finished. That will clean up some things."
Which might or might not be true, of course. Coaches who have been banished to outer darkness by the NCAA, after all, always seem to wind up in cushy gigs elsewhere -- like, oh, I don't know, the NBA perhaps. What puts the teeth in the FBI's probe is not only will you be banished from college buckets for lying, you'll wind up doing a stretch in Shawshank. Which is why so many coaches and ADs are in full cringe mode right now waiting for their assistants to roll on them.
Facing prison time, the rats will talk. They will sing like canaries, to mix the animal metaphors.
Here's the thing about tough talk, though: It very often comes back to bite you.
This is not to say Meyer is going to wind up getting caught lying to the feds someday. Not at all. But his allegiance to zero tolerance in this case has a few holes in it, because he's not always been so fond of it. When some 30 players get arrested on your watch while at Florida, and several more have at OSU, whatever message you're sending about keeping your nose clean in Meyer's program would seem not to be getting through. Or at least isn't being delivered with the kind of tough zero-tolerance talk Meyer used yesterday.
Perhaps that's unfair. But it did make me sort of chuckle.
And in these crazy days, a chuckle's worth its weight.
Maybe even, you know, a certain football coach over in Columbus, Ohio.
No, Ohio State's Urban Meyer isn't part of any of this business, nor will either he be or his fellow high-dollar football coaches. This is strictly a hoops beef right now -- although that doesn't mean it will stay that way. As Miller, whose connection to college buckets extends only as far as representing NBA clients who used to be college players, could attest, this octopus has some long tentacles, and they stretch in some wholly unexpected directions.
So it's not what Meyer did. It's what he said.
When asked about the FBI's investigation into college basketball yesterday, he went full nuclear zero tolerance, saying coaches who intentionally lie about committing violations should be banned from ever coaching again on the college level.
"If you intentionally lie about committing violations, your career is over," Meyer said during a call-in radio show on 97.1 The Fan in Columbus. "You're not suspended for two games (or) some of the silly penalties you have, you can't talk to a recruit for a week and a half or something like that. No. You're finished. That will clean up some things."
Which might or might not be true, of course. Coaches who have been banished to outer darkness by the NCAA, after all, always seem to wind up in cushy gigs elsewhere -- like, oh, I don't know, the NBA perhaps. What puts the teeth in the FBI's probe is not only will you be banished from college buckets for lying, you'll wind up doing a stretch in Shawshank. Which is why so many coaches and ADs are in full cringe mode right now waiting for their assistants to roll on them.
Facing prison time, the rats will talk. They will sing like canaries, to mix the animal metaphors.
Here's the thing about tough talk, though: It very often comes back to bite you.
This is not to say Meyer is going to wind up getting caught lying to the feds someday. Not at all. But his allegiance to zero tolerance in this case has a few holes in it, because he's not always been so fond of it. When some 30 players get arrested on your watch while at Florida, and several more have at OSU, whatever message you're sending about keeping your nose clean in Meyer's program would seem not to be getting through. Or at least isn't being delivered with the kind of tough zero-tolerance talk Meyer used yesterday.
Perhaps that's unfair. But it did make me sort of chuckle.
And in these crazy days, a chuckle's worth its weight.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
The chickens arrive home
Welp. Looks like it's time to haul out this oldie-but-goodie again.
Because the only thing more shocking than the nuclear device the feds dropped on college basketball yesterday is that it wasn't shocking at all. Sneaker companies all mixed up in a scheme to steer kids to certain colleges with whom they have chunky deals? Assistant coaches who then take bribes to hook up those kids with agents who line them up, when the NBA comes calling, with -- gasp! -- those same sneaker companies?
Well, pour water on me and call me Drip.
Listen, all the feds did yesterday was tear the lid off a corporate enterprise, and its attendant unholy bargains, that's been going on for 30 years at least. The Sneaker Wars, and all the slimy under-the-table deals that come with them, didn't just start yesterday. You can go all the way back to the meat-market battles for top high school talent between the Nike Five-Star Camp and Adidas' ABCD camp that began in the 1980s, and which continue to this day.
Pssst. Hey, kid. Come to Five-Star/ABCD. We'll hook you up. We'll get you seen by all the top coaches (or at least the ones we got deals with). And, oh, here's a truckload of gear. Noticed you needed some.
Truth is, this has been a long time coming, and if every Power 5 athletic director and coach is quaking in his boots this a.m. (because the FBI ominously warned its probe isn't over yet), it couldn't have happened too soon. The whole rotten incestuous system -- from the apparel deals to the AAU cesspool to the schools using their athletes as billboards for those apparel deals -- has perverted everything college athletics, in their pure if mostly unattainable form, are supposed to be about. And for more than long enough.
There's always been money for somebody in college athletics at the top end, but the difference between then and now is it's no longer just individual coaches or ADs with an entrepreneurial bent. Now the entire structure of college football and basketball is a corporate enterprise driven by corporate imperatives. It's instructive to note the feds didn't clue in the NCAA on their investigation until yesterday morning, mere hours before they went public with the findings. Can't say for sure, but I suspect that's because the feds see the NCAA as part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And so assistant coaches at four different programs are now in the hottest water possible -- taking bribes could land them in prison, not just on NCAA probation -- and you can rest assured there is more to come. One of the schools being investigated in this, though not by name, is Louisville. And if it's discovered Rick Pitino's program was neck-deep in the bribe-taking racket, The Teflon Man may finally be up against something he can't slick his way out of. You can only pull off the whole Sgt. Schultz I-see-nothing-nothing act for so long.
On top of that, we may see the first application of the NCAA death penalty since SMU football back in the '80s.
And, again, this isn't over. This is just beginning. Corruption this deeply embedded has a root system that spreads everywhere. Everybody, it seems, has their hands out. Which of course makes laughable all the hand-wringing about whether or not to pay players, or how you could possibly make that work.
Yeah, well. They seem to have made this work, haven't they?
Update: Both Pitino and AD Tom Jurich are reportedly out at Louisville. The dominoes have begun to fall.
Because the only thing more shocking than the nuclear device the feds dropped on college basketball yesterday is that it wasn't shocking at all. Sneaker companies all mixed up in a scheme to steer kids to certain colleges with whom they have chunky deals? Assistant coaches who then take bribes to hook up those kids with agents who line them up, when the NBA comes calling, with -- gasp! -- those same sneaker companies?
Well, pour water on me and call me Drip.
Listen, all the feds did yesterday was tear the lid off a corporate enterprise, and its attendant unholy bargains, that's been going on for 30 years at least. The Sneaker Wars, and all the slimy under-the-table deals that come with them, didn't just start yesterday. You can go all the way back to the meat-market battles for top high school talent between the Nike Five-Star Camp and Adidas' ABCD camp that began in the 1980s, and which continue to this day.
Pssst. Hey, kid. Come to Five-Star/ABCD. We'll hook you up. We'll get you seen by all the top coaches (or at least the ones we got deals with). And, oh, here's a truckload of gear. Noticed you needed some.
Truth is, this has been a long time coming, and if every Power 5 athletic director and coach is quaking in his boots this a.m. (because the FBI ominously warned its probe isn't over yet), it couldn't have happened too soon. The whole rotten incestuous system -- from the apparel deals to the AAU cesspool to the schools using their athletes as billboards for those apparel deals -- has perverted everything college athletics, in their pure if mostly unattainable form, are supposed to be about. And for more than long enough.
There's always been money for somebody in college athletics at the top end, but the difference between then and now is it's no longer just individual coaches or ADs with an entrepreneurial bent. Now the entire structure of college football and basketball is a corporate enterprise driven by corporate imperatives. It's instructive to note the feds didn't clue in the NCAA on their investigation until yesterday morning, mere hours before they went public with the findings. Can't say for sure, but I suspect that's because the feds see the NCAA as part of the problem, not part of the solution.
And so assistant coaches at four different programs are now in the hottest water possible -- taking bribes could land them in prison, not just on NCAA probation -- and you can rest assured there is more to come. One of the schools being investigated in this, though not by name, is Louisville. And if it's discovered Rick Pitino's program was neck-deep in the bribe-taking racket, The Teflon Man may finally be up against something he can't slick his way out of. You can only pull off the whole Sgt. Schultz I-see-nothing-nothing act for so long.
On top of that, we may see the first application of the NCAA death penalty since SMU football back in the '80s.
And, again, this isn't over. This is just beginning. Corruption this deeply embedded has a root system that spreads everywhere. Everybody, it seems, has their hands out. Which of course makes laughable all the hand-wringing about whether or not to pay players, or how you could possibly make that work.
Yeah, well. They seem to have made this work, haven't they?
Update: Both Pitino and AD Tom Jurich are reportedly out at Louisville. The dominoes have begun to fall.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
A few brief thoughts on NFL Week 3
And now this week's edition of The NFL In So Many Words, the excruciatingly regular Blob feature of which critics have said "Quick, invoke the ten-second runoff rule!" and also, "Wait, maybe he'll explain the ten-second runoff rule, because it sure doesn't make any damn sense to us normal people":
1. Hey, look, it's the ten-second runoff rule!
2. (Alternative version: Hey, look, it's a 59-minute, 52-second football game!)
3. Sorry, Lions.
4. Yes, we know there are still eight seconds on the clock.
5. No, you can't use them.
6. In other news, the Colts!
7. Wo-- OK, so didn't lose!
8. For the last time: Tom Brady is a cyborg.
9. Also, Case Keenum is a real boy now.
10. The Bears won. The Jaguars won. The Giants scored. The Seahawks ("Super Bowl team! You bet" -- Football analysts everywhere) continue to play like the PAL mite division Seahawks. And rivers ran backward, and the sun rose in the west, and whales quoted Shakespeare.
1. Hey, look, it's the ten-second runoff rule!
2. (Alternative version: Hey, look, it's a 59-minute, 52-second football game!)
3. Sorry, Lions.
4. Yes, we know there are still eight seconds on the clock.
5. No, you can't use them.
6. In other news, the Colts!
7. Wo-- OK, so didn't lose!
8. For the last time: Tom Brady is a cyborg.
9. Also, Case Keenum is a real boy now.
10. The Bears won. The Jaguars won. The Giants scored. The Seahawks ("Super Bowl team! You bet" -- Football analysts everywhere) continue to play like the PAL mite division Seahawks. And rivers ran backward, and the sun rose in the west, and whales quoted Shakespeare.
Monday, September 25, 2017
One final thought
And then I'll let this go.
So, kneeling with one's head bowed during the national anthem is disrespectful. But booing people kneeling with their heads bowed isn't disrespectful (because apparently the people booing didn't think so)?
Wow. Sure changes the dynamic of church on Sundays.
So, kneeling with one's head bowed during the national anthem is disrespectful. But booing people kneeling with their heads bowed isn't disrespectful (because apparently the people booing didn't think so)?
Wow. Sure changes the dynamic of church on Sundays.
America the deaf, Part Deux
In which some knelt with their heads bowed in an attitude of prayer. In which at least one knelt with his hand over his heart. In which they linked arms, not just players but in some cases even owners, hypocrites though those owners may be.
This is what happens when an American president who doesn't understand America, and who is himself the rankest of hypocrites, trashes an entire group of Americans, most of them black. This is what happens when a man who wouldn't stand up for the flag when it was his turn to do so says those Americans, most of them black, should be fired for not standing up for the flag.
Even though there was nothing remotely disrespectful about what those Americans did. Even though some were bowing their heads and holding their hands over their hearts as they knelt, and not spitting on the flag or screaming obscenities or doing anything that actually would be disrespectful.
If Donald J. Trump, the American president, thought he was going to intimidate anyone by so crudely missing the point with his ugly rant against NFL players, he grossly miscalculated. If he thought he could play the bully by calling those players, mostly black, SOBs (a term he didn't even apply to white supremacists and other true haters of America), he couldn't have been more wrong.
All he did was bind players and owners and even the hypocrite of all hypocrites, Roger Goodell, as nothing else could have. All he did was strengthen their resolve about an issue -- racial injustice -- this American president doesn't recognize as legitimate for reasons that should be obvious by now.
Nice goin', Donny. That sure worked.
This is what happens when an American president who doesn't understand America, and who is himself the rankest of hypocrites, trashes an entire group of Americans, most of them black. This is what happens when a man who wouldn't stand up for the flag when it was his turn to do so says those Americans, most of them black, should be fired for not standing up for the flag.
Even though there was nothing remotely disrespectful about what those Americans did. Even though some were bowing their heads and holding their hands over their hearts as they knelt, and not spitting on the flag or screaming obscenities or doing anything that actually would be disrespectful.
If Donald J. Trump, the American president, thought he was going to intimidate anyone by so crudely missing the point with his ugly rant against NFL players, he grossly miscalculated. If he thought he could play the bully by calling those players, mostly black, SOBs (a term he didn't even apply to white supremacists and other true haters of America), he couldn't have been more wrong.
All he did was bind players and owners and even the hypocrite of all hypocrites, Roger Goodell, as nothing else could have. All he did was strengthen their resolve about an issue -- racial injustice -- this American president doesn't recognize as legitimate for reasons that should be obvious by now.
Nice goin', Donny. That sure worked.
Sunday, September 24, 2017
America the deaf
And now yet another guy who doesn't understand America, and this guy is not just some guy on the street who thinks all those black folks should quit whining about being shot by the cops in situations where they shouldn't be getting shot by the cops.
Come on down, Mr. President!
Who, down in Alabama, took timeout from trading playground taunts with his North Korean twin to say these players need to be punished for exercising their American right to protest. Yes, it sure was a shame NFL owners didn't just run those players off the field when they "disrespected" the American flag by, you know, kneeling in prayer during the national anthem.
Yes, sir. Kneeling in prayer. Now there's some disrespect for ya, by golly.
The President went on to say the protests were ruining the game, and encouraged fans outraged by Americans exercising their American right to peacefully protest to walk out of the stadiums. And any player who dared to exercise his American right to peacefully protest should be fired.
You'd like to think an American president would understand America better than this. You'd also like to think this particular American president would think before he speaks, but by now we all know that's not going to happen. And so we end up with a situation where a man who hid behind his rich daddy when it was his turn to stand up for the flag has the gall to accuse others of disrespecting America.
You want to see disrespect, Mr. President? Look in the mirror.
And while you're at it, no, the protests are not ruining the game. Lousy play -- particularly, ahem, lousy quarterbacking -- is much more responsible for that. But then we should be used to politicians saying silly stuff when it comes sports. None of them (or hardly any of them) know spit about it.
No, politicians play to their base, and we all know who this president's base is. It's why, rather than perhaps listening to what the players are saying, he'd rather just bash them for "disrespect." Which is too bad, because what the players are saying bears listening to. And it's very much along the lines of what this president wore on that red hat of his as he stumped around the country during the campaign.
The players, see, want to Make America Great Again, too. They want to make it a country that addresses inequality and tries to do something about it, rather than attack those who point it out. They want the police to be better, and they want better community relations with law enforcement. They want the issue of mass incarceration of people of color addressed. They want someone in the White House to listen to what are, frankly, some legitimate and articulately expressed concerns.
“First of all, I want to make sure that people understand I love the military," Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett told The Guardian last month. "My father was in the military. I love hot dogs like any other American. I love football like any other American. But I don’t love segregation. I don’t love riots. I don’t love oppression. I don’t love gender slander. And I just want to see people have equality that they deserve.”
Unfortunately, they've got the wrong president for that. Unfortunately, they have a president who, at one point in his campaign, egged on goons at one of his rallies when they roughed up a black woman protestor. And then rhapsodized about the good old days when the police could crack their skulls with impunity.
In other words, they've got Bull Connor as their president.
No wonder they're kneeling in prayer.
Come on down, Mr. President!
Who, down in Alabama, took timeout from trading playground taunts with his North Korean twin to say these players need to be punished for exercising their American right to protest. Yes, it sure was a shame NFL owners didn't just run those players off the field when they "disrespected" the American flag by, you know, kneeling in prayer during the national anthem.
Yes, sir. Kneeling in prayer. Now there's some disrespect for ya, by golly.
The President went on to say the protests were ruining the game, and encouraged fans outraged by Americans exercising their American right to peacefully protest to walk out of the stadiums. And any player who dared to exercise his American right to peacefully protest should be fired.
You'd like to think an American president would understand America better than this. You'd also like to think this particular American president would think before he speaks, but by now we all know that's not going to happen. And so we end up with a situation where a man who hid behind his rich daddy when it was his turn to stand up for the flag has the gall to accuse others of disrespecting America.
You want to see disrespect, Mr. President? Look in the mirror.
And while you're at it, no, the protests are not ruining the game. Lousy play -- particularly, ahem, lousy quarterbacking -- is much more responsible for that. But then we should be used to politicians saying silly stuff when it comes sports. None of them (or hardly any of them) know spit about it.
No, politicians play to their base, and we all know who this president's base is. It's why, rather than perhaps listening to what the players are saying, he'd rather just bash them for "disrespect." Which is too bad, because what the players are saying bears listening to. And it's very much along the lines of what this president wore on that red hat of his as he stumped around the country during the campaign.
The players, see, want to Make America Great Again, too. They want to make it a country that addresses inequality and tries to do something about it, rather than attack those who point it out. They want the police to be better, and they want better community relations with law enforcement. They want the issue of mass incarceration of people of color addressed. They want someone in the White House to listen to what are, frankly, some legitimate and articulately expressed concerns.
“First of all, I want to make sure that people understand I love the military," Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett told The Guardian last month. "My father was in the military. I love hot dogs like any other American. I love football like any other American. But I don’t love segregation. I don’t love riots. I don’t love oppression. I don’t love gender slander. And I just want to see people have equality that they deserve.”
Unfortunately, they've got the wrong president for that. Unfortunately, they have a president who, at one point in his campaign, egged on goons at one of his rallies when they roughed up a black woman protestor. And then rhapsodized about the good old days when the police could crack their skulls with impunity.
In other words, they've got Bull Connor as their president.
No wonder they're kneeling in prayer.
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