tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17208658.post113866017790958527..comments2023-09-08T07:56:19.943-07:00Comments on Setshot: Basketball for the Aging and Infirm: Race: "Such a natural team leader..."Drew Halfmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15672641455185221691noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17208658.post-10682914189098503752007-08-11T12:38:00.000-07:002007-08-11T12:38:00.000-07:00It was not unheard of for slaves of particularly g...It was not unheard of for slaves of particularly good physical shape to be treated better than others, whether that was to keep them in good to shape to keep them working, to keep up their future (trade) value, to keep their value as breeders. Then there where those whose sporting (fisticuffs, for instance) accumen provided them a place of comfort that the common laborers didn't get. <BR/><BR/>Or maybe young, Black males aren't supposed allowed the privilege of analogy...c wlkr jrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16631661409314461944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17208658.post-1139576933586119892006-02-10T05:08:00.000-08:002006-02-10T05:08:00.000-08:00thanks for the reply.Just to clarify, I wasn't try...thanks for the reply.<BR/><BR/>Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to make an analogy between the present situations of NBA players and those of slaves, which would have, as you suggested, been rather ludicrous.<BR/><BR/>I think I was trying to call into attention the troubling dynamic of a room full of white dudes simulating ownership of a group of people that is predominantly African-American, 'bidding' on players, and the language of ownership that goes on in sports coverage and fantasy sports that does carry a lot of baggage along with it. A lot of times in fantasy sports you see notes about players saying things like "Antonio Davis owners should sit him now that he's in Toronto". You also see notes that say things like "Amare Stoudemire is a 5 tool fantasy stud", that opens up the question of the coded sexual dynamic at play.<BR/><BR/>Another thing that always gets me is when announcers and fans use the indefinite article 'a' in front of players names. "Would you trade, say, a Ron Artest for a Corey Maggette?", kind of suggesting that these players aren't really humans but variables in a mathematical equation. Again, capitalism...<BR/><BR/>Anyways, just to clarify...CJBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06607708844922587015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17208658.post-1138836136504102942006-02-01T15:22:00.000-08:002006-02-01T15:22:00.000-08:00thanks for the comment....actually I challenged th...thanks for the comment....actually I challenged the dude's assertion that Reddick was slow (slow being one of those code words), but to no avail. I think anyone that can create their own shot can't be that slow.<BR/><BR/>I also wanted to bring up the imperialism issue, and actually one counter argument is that everyone, regardless of race, from Jerry Buss on down to the towel boy on the Celtics, is subsumed in the capitalist game as a commodity and using whatever leverage they have to improve their situation.<BR/><BR/>I only mentioned Artest because I think was an example of a situation where maybe I was being too hard on someone--after all, I don't know Ron Artest personally--and that I needed to check myself. Jeff's point that was well taken was that people focus more on athletes because they do superhuman physical things, but there are probably much more selfish things going on on a daily basis at the front office level.<BR/><BR/>Jackson's book "The Final Season" is very telling in terms of how even very well meaning white people, and I think Jackson is very well meaning, often cross the line into paternalism. He picks on Rasheed a lot, but mentions that "he behaved himself" in Detroit. <BR/><BR/>It's kind of a catch 22-when someone like duncan dominates the media gripes because it's not sexy enough. But then if Iverson leads his team to the finals they bring up the normal litany of coded criticism (flashy/selfish/tatoos/thugged out/etc.), and start pining for the good old days....CJBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06607708844922587015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17208658.post-1138833978886228802006-02-01T14:46:00.000-08:002006-02-01T14:46:00.000-08:00basketball is really less about speed than it is a...basketball is really less about speed than it is about quickness. it's a mistake to think that reddick is unathletic. he is very quick, with fairly good speed and jumping ability. he reminds me of a slower kirk hinrich but a better shooter. and anyways, athleticism means nothing if you can't control it and be able to execute skills while using it. reddick is a remarkable athlete in that he is quick, has a quick release, a deadeye shot, AND can execute all of these things throughout the game--which is a testament to his conditioning.<BR/><BR/>with that said, the nba is a completely different world. hinrich was a remarkable athlete in the college game--did you see that double-clutch flush he threw down at the end of the championship game with 'cuse?--but he is an average guard athletically in the nba. like hinrich, reddick will be a pg in the nba, a scoring pg, but a pg. he can't hang with all-world athletes like kobe, t-mac, lebron, et al.<BR/><BR/>but on the real topic of the post... we racialize the game. we racialize everything in america. it is the burden we as americans bear. the reap of what we sowed. you mentioned artest... we love artest at globetrotter, we have no shame in that. but i'll even go another step further and say he was entitled to demand a trade. players demand trades all the time, should it matter if its behind closed doors? how inadvertantly brilliant is it that he actually got his trade? behind closed doors, it might never have happened. we throw around words like "loyalty" and "team-first attitude" but these words are rendered meaningless by the nature of the biz. organizations demand team ideology from their players but then execute undemanded trades behind players backs--like ricky davis, who was perfectly happy in boston--and sometimes not even bother to call them and tell them about it. they write this off as "business" and expect that their players understand that it's just "business." so when players like artest demand a trade, where's the "business"-like understanding? this isn't so much racist language as imperialist. but they go hand in hand.aloneconformisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09472413290684481198noreply@blogger.com