I don't think basketball is any sleazier than the other sports. Football may have more violent crime than the major American sports, but I think in general there's not too much difference to find between football, baseball basketball and hockey.
There's plenty of good moral guys playing in the NBA. I'm not a fan of the pro version of the game, but people like Dwight Howard and Alan Houston of the Knicks are good people. I haven't heard anything bad about the Pistons' Tayshaun Prince in the years I've followed his career. It's overlooked that most of the players at the game last night did nothing wrong. Even Rasheed Wallace of bad reputation was trying to calm things down.
I'm a fan of the Tennessee Vols and it pains me to think that fine people like C J Watson, Stanley Asumnu and Chris Lofton might be dismissed as thugs just cause they are black guys who play basketball. I'm sure fans of most team s in the country also have players they can be proud of both on and off the court. I agree that the gangsta element that has attached itself to the image of basketball is not good, but I'd say the thugs are in the minority. When you don't follow a sport, the thug minority will be the ones always gertting the attention.
Dude, you just touched on it.
It's come up REPEATEDLY here, people behave as if Stephen Jackson is the norm not the exception.
Because the participants are black and have some tats, they're gangsters and thugs.
I'm sick of the rather overt racism on the part of many on this board. Then we wonder why we can't get more votes from blacks.
You don't have these types of problems at a NASCAR race :0)