In what can only be described as 9 minutes of perhaps the greatest athlete interview ever… the FanHouse’s Miss Gossip gets Greg Oden to explain what was going on in this picture.
Let me explain something here: This picture was taken when Greg was like 16 years old. If a girl who looked like that freaked me like that when I was 16… well… let’s just say I wouldn’t have looked that cool in the picture. It probably would have looked more like me needing a change of pants. Kudos Greg for showing NBA level poise with a groupie at 16. You’ll do just fine on the road.
They also talk about his Yarkbarker Blog… and blah blah blah….
Look… it’s Friday… you’re not doing any real work anyway… kill 9 minutes of your time and wach the damn interview.
Now If Only Someone Can Explain The “Boston is Racist” Notion.
Doc Rivers can’t. He’s been here for a little while. Last I checked… he’s black. And I might be wrong here… but I think we’ve got a couple of black players on the team. Yet for some dumb reason… players use the “Boston is racist” excuse to say they don’t want to come here. Doc tells Steve Bulpett he has no clue why that’s the case:
“What’s more important is that most of the guys who have come here want to stay. To me, that’s important. Those are the guys who actually know what the situation is. I mean, did Antoine Walker want to leave? No. Paul Pierce wants to be a Celtic for life. Gary Payton we traded away and he begged to get back. Allen Iverson wanted to come to Boston. So that doesn’t sound like a place with a race problem to me.
Doc is actually pretty good in this piece. I’m not going to be… yes, this is a rant alert… which will commence after the jump. This half of the post has been so much fun… I don’t want to sully it with a race-based tirade. The links after the jump too…
Players who use the race to card to avoid coming to Boston should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. I want to tell those guys something: Race is a serious issue. It’s something that America struggles with every day… and a lot of people who share your skin color, but not your wealth and athletic ability, struggle with real issues regarding race every day. Things have gotten better…. but we’ve still got progress to make.
But no, you hypocritical jackasses want to play the “Boston is racist” card. Really? REALLY?? But you’re happy to go to Phoenix, right? If I’m not mistaken, Arizona was the last state to make Martin Luther King Day an actual holiday… and it took a threatened tourist boycott to do it.
So you’re not willing to come to a town that, by all accounts, is among the most liberal and accepting towns in the US. A city that has now become so open-minded, it’s run by people who are ok with gay marriage. But you’re willing to go to a city in a state that had a GOVERNMENT POLICY of not recognizing the greatest civil rights leaders in American history as soon as 15 years ago.
But hey… don’t ask me. Ask Public Enemy… they were so inspired by Arizona they wrote a song about it.
Give me a break. You A-holes are using race to cover the truth: you don’t want to come to Boston because the team sucks…. but you’re happy to go to Phoenix because they’re a championship contender. Don’t lie to us. Don’t pull that racial crap. It’s irresponsible… and it cheapens ACTUAL racial issues. Like I said before… every city in America is still dealing with racial issues. We can’t waste our time with made up ones like this… just because some rich jerk wants to make an easy excuse.
There… I’m done.
Back to basketball: Why can’t Peter May be this right about the Celtics? He BLASTS Orlando for pulling a classic move: bid against yourself for a player’s services. They gave Rashard Lewis 1 year and about $40 mil more than he was worth.
Other Stuff:
Knicks among several teams vying for Yi | Atkins to Denver | Bibby to Cleveland? | Mo Pete to Hornets?
Amen brother. Power to the people. All kidding aside, you are right on the money. And I don’t say that often.
Decent point on the Arizona thing but a little more perspective for you. The MLK holiday is an easy target but don’t forget, the holiday was approved at the federal level and it was repealed in AZ by the govenor. The people of Arizona were the first to actually approve the holiday by a vote. Arizona is historically very conservative and like many other western states not very diverse. Phoenix hasn’t been a major (5th largest in US) city for very long. Air conditioning and affordable real estate helped the population boon over the last 30 years.
Boston on the other hand is hundreds of years old. There is far more racial history both good and bad to sift through. In Phoenix, it’s bland city culture where ahletes are worshipped and it’s easy to insulate themselves in urban/suburban amenities… and it doesn’t snow. Sports is the primary cultural outlet in Phoenix. All the major sports are there in addition to PGA events, spring training, college bowl games, Superbowls and NCAA tourney games. It’s a great city for jocks. And I met Chuck D when Public Enemy played a show Phoenix in 97.
This wasn’t as much a knock on Arizona as it was something to show the hypocrisy of some of these athletes… and the irresponsibility of their actions.
Players will gladly go to places like Dallas, San Antonio, or Houston… but racism is still RAMPANT in those surrounding areas.
Are there racists in Boston? Sure there are. They’re everywhere. But to say Boston as a city is racist is 100% inaccurate. I want athletes to tell the truth about why they don’t want to come here. Be honest… we can handle it. The team is not good and you want to win a championship.
Excellent points. And Doc deserves some credit here as well. He had no problem stepping up and defending a city that been tough on him the past couple years. But he was able to separate basketball from real life, and he deserves a lot of credit for that.
I will try not to come across as too harsh, but the truth is you completely misread and misunderstand the situation.
Blacks in America have been making the choice to go into overtly or covertly hostile regions of this country since slave times. This choice has had everything to do with the opportunities present in those locations- particularly relative to the situation from which you come.
It is quite simple. If you are an NBA player and you have the opportunity to play in two towns with equally racist (and therefore inherently threatening) images, you choose the one that best benefits your career. Depending on how you define it, that could be money or the chance to play for a championship.
If, on the other hand, you have a so-called “racist” town offering you the same money as some other place that does not have that image, you (a black person) would tend to choose the place that makes you the most comfortable. It is not about making a statement. It is about living and working in a place where you feel comfortable, and where you might feel comfortable raising a family and balances those against professional aspirations.
I think this is true for most people, regardless of race or ethnicity. I think the Yi situation is an interesting case-study.
I know what you’re saying… what i’m saying is that the notion that Boston is a more racist town than some of the places these players are choosing to play is crap.
If you feel two towns are equally racist… then the race issue cancels itself out. I’m fine with that. You play where you feel most comfortable.
But to call Boston “racist”… but to choose a place in a state that resisted recognizing MLK day (Phoenix)… or a place in a state where brutal racial attacks have happened recently (anywhere in Texas)… or a place in a state where police have been investigated for racially charged offenses (New York)…. that’s hypocritical.
My point is that if you’re going to use racial tension as an excuse as to why you don’t play in a city…. then don’t express your desire to play in a place with MORE racial tension and recenty history to back that up.
Unfortunately you are presupposing that people are making decisions on whether or not a place is racist on some recent racial event and not their perception (right or wrong) that Boston is a racist town.
To do so may be wrong, but it is not “hypocritical”.
Word of mouth and anecdotal experience go a long way in these situations. I simply do not think that you are in a position to assert what all black players and their families feel about Boston or any other city. Without such information, assertions of hypocrisy fall short.
[...] of athletes who consider race when choosing or not choosing Boston, C’s blogger RedArmy points out the following double-standard: “[Y]ou don’t want to come to Boston because the team sucks…but you’re appy [...]