[skip_intro]

Rush might want to apply this to the NFL as well.

[EagleUSA]

Well put Rush!!!
It is why I stopped being a basketball fan over ten years ago -- the game is no longer respectable.

[Mr. Jeeves]

As a fan, I'm not going to tolerate being dissed, either. So I've turned off the NBA for good. ;)

[Libertina]

Many of these players have nothing to be respected for.

[narses]

How many of our children look to these thugs for role modeling?

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[Lou L]

Sponsored by some mobile phone outfit whose trademark line is "Where You At?"

[spodefly]

Is Media Matters running this as a way of pointing out all the awful, evil, inaccurate things said in the "Conservative Media"???

[Randjuke]

While I agree that the NBA has deteriorated over the past couple of decades, calling it a gang mentality may be a bit of a stretch. Have the colors really changed over the years to reflect gang colors? I doubt it. It would be more accurate to call it a "selfish" or "entitled" mentality. You could probably more accurately apply the gang label to hockey, where fighting is essentially accepted.

Make no mistake. I am not defending the current NBA, they pretty much lost me in the early nineties, when it became clear the regular season meant nothing other than who gets seeded where in the playoffs, and players whose teams were down by thirty points put on chest-thumping celebrations after a dunk.

[FreedomSurge]

Think of the recent fiasco at the Olympics. Did the US team(?) even win a medal. Easily the best talent, easily a disappointing team. I think this relates to the hip-hop culture.

[ops33]

The hammer and the nail come together again.

[SSG USA]

The worst thing about all of this is that kids really look up to these narcissistic thug a$$holes as role models. When they see that it is ok for them to act like thugs, it leaves an indelible impression on them.

Exit the gentlemen athletes like Nolan Ryan, Arthur Ashe and George Foreman (what is to hate about George???) and so many others and enter the thugs like Dennis Rodman and his band of criminals. This is why I don't watch professional sports (except for tennis) anymore.

[Alberta's Child]

If the NBA is "hip-hop culture on parade," then the dumbest bags of rocks on the planet are those middle-aged white slobs who pay to watch these guys play.

[shellshocked]

Rich criminals on parade. NOthing more. The sport isn't even entertaining to watch. I've gone to a number of Denver Nuggets games in the box seats and we usually watch hockey.

[stbdside]

As for me, I'll just stick with NASCAR.

[raptor29]

NBA commissioner David Stern is the biggest phony in sports. He goes before the public with his pious condemnations of whatever recent trouble his players have caused, and we're supposed to buy his line. But for the past couple decades, he has embraced the promotion of the tattoed gang culture throughout his league, willingly choosing to walk the fine line and hoping things don't get out of hand. The standard of play has been allowed to slip significantly to where it's become a schoolyard slam dunk contest, and to where Europeans now kick our ass in international competition. A solid Bobby Knight-type coach with a group of undrafted but solid college players would win the NBA title. What passes for 'talent' in the NBA is comical. The league is a joke.

[MadelineZapeezda]

Peja and Vlade are exceptions

[fish hawk]

If it wasn't for sports, most of them would be in Jail already. As it is more of them are going there every day. Drugs, Assault, wife beating, and even murder. Every time I say this I too am called a racist. Well, that doesn't make the facts anymore untrue.

[iconoclast]

Every once in a while, Rush still nails it, bop, right on the head!