Posted on 11/27/2004 8:54:40 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh said that a November 19 brawl that broke out during a National Basketball Association (NBA) game was "hip-hop culture on parade." Limbaugh asserted that the fight -- which involved Indiana Pacers team members and Detroit Pistons team members and fans -- was "gang behavior on parade minus the guns," and that NBA uniforms are "now in gang colors. They are in gang styles." In making the comments, Limbaugh conceded that his remarks were likely to be "tagged as racist." Limbaugh also appeared to compare the brawl to the unrest in Fallujah, Iraq, suggesting that Detroit be renamed "New Fallujah, Michigan."
Limbaugh delivered his remarks on the same day that he touted his receipt of the Winston Churchill Statesmanship Award from the conservative Claremont Institute. Previous award recipients include former President Ronald Reagan, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. San Diego Chargers owner Alex G. Spanos, who presented Limbaugh with the award, noted that it is given to "those who look up to the sky for the noble principles of justice, right and liberty."
From the November 22 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show:
And that comes right out of the hip-hop culture, and it's not just that. You look at NBA players and the uniforms, you don't have to go back very far. The uniforms have changed totally. They're now in gang colors. They are in gang styles.
[...]
But there's a reason this is happening. I'm not saying it's nothing to be concerned about. There's a reason. But I don't think anybody ought to be surprised, folks. I really don't think anybody ought to be surprised. This is the hip-hop culture on parade. This is gang behavior on parade minus the guns. That's the culture that the NBA has become. So if anybody will be honest with you about it in the NBA, and a very few will have the courage to, because saying what I just said is going to be tagged as racist, but I, my friends, am fearless when it comes to this because the truth will out, and that's what's happening here, and part and parcel of this gang culture, this hip-hop culture, is: "I'm not going to tolerate being dissed. I'm not going to be disrespected," and "disrespected" is now so broad that it includes somebody looking at you the wrong way.
[...]
CALLER: This is not a new thing with the Piston fans.
LIMBAUGH: I know. That's why I say call it "New Fallujah, Michigan."
I don't know any of these players, so I'll gladly take your word. Now, if your son makes one of them a 'role model' or a 'hero', does he watch the games? Do the thugs play also? Is the ad driven media pouring ideas into the childs head that he otherwise wouldn't get?
As for me, I'll just stick with NASCAR.
HA!!
Amen to that.
...someone had to say it. ;^)
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.
I think that you underrate the 'talent' of the European players. Why is it that we consider a big man that posesses an accurate jumper from the perimeter (think Larry Byrd) as remarkable here in the States. The Europeans Leagues are loaded with them.
The problem with the NBA is that the courts have destroyed the feeder system. The really good high school talent is already looking at the NBA, either directly or after getting a cup of coffee in college. They are missing 3 - 4 years of development.
Far too many American Sheeple live for sports, or movies, or "reality" TV, or music, or whatever. They then give you a look of "what's a Ukraine" when you try to engage them in an intelligent conversation. The young people I work with were all aflutter over the Pacers-Pistons embarrassment, watching the replay on ESPN over and over, cheering every punch Artest landed. When they made the mistake of asking me what I thought about it, I told them it was disgraceful that some of the best paid people in the nation were such babies. That made their jaws drop. Then when I asked if any of them knew about reports that Border Patrol agents are catching more and more Middle Easterners crossing the border illegally, they gave me the "what's a border...is it near Taco Bell?" look. Sad, pathetic.
We've created a mess, and it's going to bite us in the a** in any number of ways in the not too distant future, I'm afraid.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
"I think you underrate the 'talent' of the European players."
Amen to that. Amazing that the ability to shoot the ball is not considered talent. I've often contended that NBA players are the most overrated athletes in the world. The range of skills they possess is incredibly limited. They can jump. Whoop dee doo. Hell, their major "skill" is being tall.
A Kentucky Wildcat fan! I'm one of those rarities, a Tennessee Vol fan who likes basketball a lot more than football. You guys are going to be tough when Tubby gets the new guys up to speed around mid-late Jan. As for us, Lofton, CJ and Scooter will shoot us to a few wins, but I'm begining to lose confidence in Buzz.
Wow...being as how those squabbling crybabies are on strike, this really isn't your year for sports, is it?
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
You make good points, but I thought the baggy thing mostly came in with Michael Jordan (most overexposed athlete of all time), not to reflect gang wear. As far as the Sacramento Kings, they've traditionally been one of the "whiter" teams. To me this doesn't look a like a gang-banger, but maybe I'm just oblivious.
I agree that I wouldn't want my son to emulate the superficials and hype attached to the sport. But there's good guys among the players. Even during the brawl, the majority of the players were trying to keep the peace. Even Rasheed Wallace. I know you realize that they all aren't thugs. but I'm just sensitive because I've followed a lot of the players for years and they aren't generally thugs. I followed Allan Houston since he was at the University of Tennessee. A great guy and a good student-a math major no less. His partner in the Vol backcourt graduated from Harvard Law cum laude and is a successful lawyer and church deacon in Memphis. The great center David Robinson was a graduate of the US Naval Academy. If we can look beyond the hype and superficial image, we can see there's a lot of success stories playing basketball.
I again agree with you. Most folks are melting their minds sans drugs. All of my boys grew up to be good men husbands and fathers and two of them followed me into the Army both being in career status currently and on active duty.
One poster brought up the olympics. I kinda think Jim Thorpe began to spin in his grave when "dream teams" became legal simply so the US could dominate some sports that we were getting beaten at like basketball and hockey.
One thing that turns me off from watching olympic coverage is not with the olympics themselves or its governing body but with the network "coverage".
Anybody ever notice that competition in the shooting sports still exists but is seldom shown or shown on a delay that puts them on screen at 0300?
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.
Exodus 28:42 And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach
Gator fan?
Racist? No but judgmental and ignorant yes absolutely. You have no idea about the lives of these players, and you judge them by the actions of a few.
Exodus 28:42 And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach
Michael Jordan was inspired by Exodus! Strange but true?
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