Basketball ban on bling is racist, claim black players

Telegraph ^ | 10/21/5 | Catherine Elsworth

[highlander_UW]

Can't we pass a constitutional amendment that prohibits everyone but Mr. T from wearing silly amounts of "bling"?

And I thought I'd read something about him stating that he's cutting back as well (I think it was something to do with concern over poverty in the world or some such...if so, good for him).

[hispanarepublicana]

Need your Aw Geez photo.

[hispanarepublicana]

Did that other thread get pulled?

[RetiredArmy]

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.

[goodnesswins]

Well...it's kind of like requiring UNIFORMS for school kids.....maybe they'll rise up to the challenge? And act older than jr hi kids? We can hope.

[pepperhead]

I got a suggestion. Don't show them getting off the busses at all. Let them wear what they want going into the stadium. Only show them when they are on the court. If they are hurt and can't play and are sitting on the bench then it changes. Either they wear a suit or some kind of nice dress clothes. If they don't want to wear that they will be given the option of wearing the team warmup suits.

[goodnesswins]

Well...that would be nice....I've seen certain women of a certain race wearing sweat pants that have the word BLING in large letters across their backsides.....NOT impressive. (And, Yes, I think the same of young girls who happen to be white with certain words plastered across their backsides, too.)

[swarthyguy]

I keep the memory of Larry Bird's Celtics and Larry Johnson's Lakers, and to think we thought Bill Lambeer of Detroit was a thug.

Was being a little sarcastic in terms of management's options.

[RetiredArmy]

Yup. They all carry the race card in their wallets. Then, no matter what, stopped for speedings, whatever, they pull out the ole RACE CARD. Member since 1965.

[rdb3]

Did that other thread get pulled?

Nope. Here it is.

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Also, please see The Backside of American History
You'll love this 187 page .pdf (1.99 MB)

[Panic in the Streets]

People temd to act nicer if they're dressed nicer.

There is a reason why som many companies are getting away from the casual dress code...because employees were goofing off more instead of working.

[JohnnyZ]

They've got no argument against the dress code except that it is racist.

There actually haven't been too many complaints about it. The most common criticisms have been reasonable:

* enforcing a dress code when the team is on a (long) airplane ride
* enforcing a dress code for someone walking from their car or bus 200 ft into the stadium hours before fans are around
* the chains -- what's considered dressy in one segment of society is considered .... what, ghetto? in another. One player eschewed the 'racist' line and said there was a 'racial component' or something like that.
* the nature of the players' market worth is partially dependent on their status as entertainers, especially wrt endorsements (though that wasn't spelled out) -- as entertainers they should be allowed to be flashy

[LibKill]

If someone was paying me a few MILLION DOLLARS for doing something that I do easily and well, I would wear a pink tutu if they wanted. :)

[JohnnyZ]

to think we thought Bill Lambeer of Detroit was a thug.

He was.

IMO the Bad Boys started the downward spiral of the NBA, with Jordan masking the trend during part of the 90's.

[yobid]

My employer has a dress code. If I choose not to follow it, I'll suffer the consequences. Does that make them racist?

[Mr. Mojo]

I loved it when college outlawed the dunk many years ago

They outlawed it in the late 60s because of the dominance of UCLA Bruin Lew Alcindor (aka Kareem Abdul Jabbar). Coincidentally the ban was lifted right after the Bruin mega-dynasty ended (in '76).

[TUAN_JIM]

[swarthyguy]

Can't be the NBA.....

[Continental Soldier]

A dress code to do what? To persuade the public that the NBA is a civilized sports organization, that it is not populated by thugs and punks, that it really deserves the revenues it wants, that it is not merely a lawless ghetto-on-hardwood? I think it might be too late for that.

[PRND21]

There's no accounting for taste...