Miscellaneous articles from around sports media.
Mark Hasiuk, Vancouver Courier, “NBA: a ghetto gutter run by money grubbers“
The NBA is America at its worst. … The once proud league, which peaked 20 years ago during the Bird/Magic/Jordan era, has morphed into a reality TV show, where money and image trump teamwork and athletic achievement. Players like Allen Iverson–perhaps the greatest basketball talent of his generation–spend more energy producing sneaker commercials than winning basketball games. NBA players wear saggy shorts, roll in posses and cuss on camera. Television ratings have dropped steadily since 1996. Basketball icons such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the late Red Auerbach have denounced today’s players, calling them “thugs” and “bums.”
…Nope, the remnants of hip hop–flamboyant chauvinism, jailhouse lingo, black ink tattoos–didn’t kill the NBA. It was New York lawyers like Stern, who cashed in on the athletic ability of young black men while ignoring the social realities of basketball in America. According to a New York Times report, more than 70 per cent of black American children are born out of wedlock. Most NBA players hail from poor neighbourhoods–and despite token college careers–graduate from broken public school systems. They are often ill-equipped to handle multi-million-dollar contracts, or the expectations of a community desperate for positive male role models. To be fair, the NBA, like other professional sports leagues, is a business. And it’s not responsible for the endemic problems of black America. But considering basketball’s influence on black popular culture, the NBA has a responsibility to produce a “positive” product, not the ghetto garbage we see today.
Modi, Sports on My Mind, “ESPN White Pass: Brian Giles Beats Girlfriend?“
But ESPN has yet to report on Brian Giles. Not on it?s website or its afternoon shows either. Do they plan to sweep it under the rug as they do most of Brett Myers transgressions? Is their staff too busy writing another Terrell Owens hit-piece? Or just another on Larry Johnson? Hey, where?s Plax at?
This is what the ESPN White Pass is all about.
Joseph Hayes, thetimesherald.com, “Economic woes could place pro sports in peril“
In the past four months, I’ve had numerous people ask me why I continue to support the Detroit Lions as they languish through another season.It’s because I don’t see the NFL existing beyond the next 10 years, and even during that time I would expect a couple of labor shortages or lockouts.
Players are never going to accept concessions on wages, even if the economy grinds to a halt. Owners are never going to fall out of love with money, or settle for “outdated” 30-year-old stadiums when they can make more money by taxing fans and forcing cities already in the red to fork over more money for new stadiums or be threatened with moving their team. And lastly, fans who lose their homes and jobs aren’t going to spend money at games when it could be spent feeding their families.
It all boils down to professional sports ceasing to exist in its current capacity. Sadly, that day might be much closer than you ever would imagine.
