Basketball ban on bling is racist, claim black players

American basketball players have attacked as racist a new dress code imposed by national league officials that bans "bling" jewellery and baggy clothes. The National Basketball Association requires players to wear "business-casual" attire when involved in all activities relating to their team or the league. The chunky chains, pendants and medallions beloved by many are banned, as are sunglasses worn indoors, headphones, flip flops and "headgear of any kind". Players can wear "neat" warm-up wear on flights to games, but T-shirts, vintage team jerseys, shorts and trainers are out.

Stephen Jackson, a young black player for the Indiana Pacers, staged a visible protest by arriving for an exhibition game against San Antonio, Texas, dripping with four hefty chains. Jackson, who was suspended for 30 games for his role in a brawl with Detroit Pistons fans last November, said the jewellery rule targeted young black men because chains were associated with hip-hop culture. He said the league was afraid of becoming "too hip-hop".

"I have no problem dressing up … because I know I'm a nice-looking guy," Jackson told the Indianapolis Star. "But as far as chains, I definitely feel that's a racial statement. Almost 100 per cent of the guys in the league who are young and black wear big chains. So I definitely don't agree with that at all."

Paul Pierce, who plays for the Boston Celtics, agreed. "When I saw the rule about, you can't wear chains (outside of a shirt), you know, I think that's just part of our culture. We wear the chains and the hip-hop gear and the throwback [vintage] jerseys," he said. "The NBA is young black males."

The dress code, announced on Monday, is an attempt to clean up the NBA's image, tarnished in recent years by incidents such as the Kobe Bryant rape trial (charges were subsequently dropped) and last season's melee in Detroit where players raced into the stands to fight fans.

"I feel like if they want us to dress a certain way, they should pay for our clothes," said Philadelphia's Allen Iverson, known for his tattoos and throwback jerseys. He echoed Richardson's view: "Just because you put a guy in a tuxedo, it doesn't mean he's a good guy"

But Phil Jackson, the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, welcomed the move. He has referred to the dress of some players as "prison garb". "All the stuff that goes on, it's like gangster, thuggery stuff."

The NBA might appeal to someone, it did me once, when players could actually shoot a basketball from more than 3 feet and could hit a free throw. All the NBA is today, is a bunch of high school players who could not pass the ACT test to get into college, or quit college because they could not hack it.
All they can do is DUNK or shoot 40-foot 3 point attempts. Hell, I can stand 25 feet from the basket and hit 3 of 10 shots. And the consider that good. The NBA is no defense, shoot, pass behind the back three times, and quit dribbling 10 feet from the basket, taking 4 or 5 steps to dunk the ball. Used too, they called travels after 2 steps, but what the heck, we wanna see Shaq dunk again, like his other 3 million dunks we missed. He cannot shot beyond 6 feet. At least Jabbar learned to shoot the sky hook from 6 to 10 feet from the basket to improve his game. Not these cruds.
I quit going to the Supersonic games several years ago. I simply got tired of watching street ball for $45 a pop from the nose bleed seats. Now, ESPN carries that garbage half the night, local street dunk-a-thons. I loved it when college outlawed the dunk many years ago. It actually made them learn to play the damned game.

The NBA sucks. I no longer watch it and refuse to even check the scores. 95% of them are nothing short of big mouth punks.

Good rant.

Before anything else, THANK YOU for your service to our nation. We get to do a lot of fun things because of people like you watching over us.

Someone said once that sports (I'll use baseball to keep the example short) is the only profession where if you are successful 20% of the time, you can get a marginal job; 30%, you make millions; 40%, they make a bronze statue out of you, rename fields after you and retire your jersey.

Other sports "success rates":

Hockey..."one out of five" (goals/shots)
Basketball..."five out of ten" (jump shots)
Soccer...don't ask.

I've not paid to attend a basketball game in at least 13 years, back at the old Forum in Inglewood, and have only attended one game since...last year, a free lower bowl ticket for the Lakers vs the Spurs at Staples...when the Lakers sucked. Hockey is more of my favorite, but I don't overpay to watch that, either.

They'll get over it. If not, they can take my place...one day at my job, great as it is, and they'll be begging to go back to their "oppressive" careers!

**Look what happened with the WNBA -- although it that case, the minority culture that overcame and ghettoized the sport was lesbian. Can you even name a WNBA team? (If you're lesbian, you're excused; I assume you can name them all). **

I'm a married woman and can name one. Sac Monarchs. The unfortunate thing is that I was completely ignorant to the lesbian aspects of the WNBA...and took my daughter (who plays basketball in a private Christian school league) to a game. First thing we noticed was that very few people honored the National Anthem. Then we noticed countless lesbian couples. We left. We did some research and found that 2 of the players are Christians, with husbands and children. The rest? No comment. And as for the NBA, the Tiggywinkles are disgusted with the gangster antics of many players.

Well, it gave you a chance to explain some things to the Tiggywinklet, I guess. What the libs call a "teachable moment," maybe not the lesson they would have delivered.

I'm sorry you did not know about that angle. It's one of the many tabu things in our society -- "everyone" knows, "noone" dares speak.

I liked gay folks a lot better when they practiced "the love that dare not speak its name," than now, when they are "the love that will not get out of my face." Or course, as individuals, you have to take them as individuals, that's the only way to assess human beings: one at a time.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

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