Gumbel’s a tool. I hate the NBA, and get a chuckle out of their woes (they deserve it just for foisting the unbearable WNBA on my sports ticker). But the comparison to plantation owners is a bit off. After all, the players get 53% of the revenue under the owners’ current proposal. That’s a bit better than what the slaves got, as I understand it.
This afternoon the black sports talking heads on ESPN (Blackistone and Wilbon, in particular) defended Bryant, but they qualified it by adding “although I wouldn’t have chosen his exact wording.” They truly believe that Stern’s relationship with black NBA players whose average salary is $5 million per year and is akin to a slave/slaveowner situation. Truly sick.