Basketball

by Dick Mac

I grew-up in Boston, in the 1960s and -70s.

In the Boston sports world there were some names that stood out:

Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Satch Sanders, Red Auerbach, K.C Jones, Dave Cowens, Jo Jo White, Carl Yastrzemski, Tony Conigliaro, Jim Longborg, Reggie Smith, George Scott, Carlton Fisk, Jim Nance, Jim Plunkett, John Hannah, Babe Parilli, Bobby Orr, Derek Sanderson, Phil Esposito, Derek Sanderson, Ted Green, and Gerry Cheevers come to mind as I type.

The NBA players were particularly revered, even if the NBA wasn't exactly embraced like the other three major sports. In my early years, the Celtics won six championships between 1964 and 1974.

The Celtics were a sports dynasty in every sense of the word. In America, only the New York Yankees, could boast a championship culture like the Celtics.

The NBA might not have been very popular, but my hometown team was pretty much the greatest basketball team ever!

As a young adult, I was hypnotized by Larry Bird and his foil, the wonderful Earvin "Magic" Johnson.

Bird and Magic brought the NBA to a level of respectability that had only been forecast, but never realized. These men were class-personified on the court. Their rivalry was the stuff of books and fairy tales. They showed a mutual respect and mutual admiration: Bird in his very quiet, almost meek style, and Magic in his happily boastful and hugely entertaining style. When they looked at each other, you saw the respect, the admiration, the intensity. It was a beautiful thing. They were class personified.

This is the kind of rivalry that makes a sports league. You can't plan it or plot it or manipulate things to make it happen; you can only hope you capitalize on it when it happens.

It happened, and the NBA made all the right moves.

As time passed, newer players were promoted and marketed by the NBA. Most notably, Michael Jordan.

Jordan is not class personified. In fact, he is the antithesis of class.

The NBA changed with Jordan. It has become un-watchable. I sometimes enjoy attending a match, but I never watch it on television anymore. Attending a basketball game at Madison Square Garden is amusing. There are an amazing number of stops in the action. Besides the actual time-outs that are called by the teams, there are the breaks between quarters, and most importantly, the TV time-outs.

At the arena, music blasts at ridiculous decibels, scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court, acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess, the music blasts some more, then scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court, then acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess, and then again the music blasts even more, then the scantily clad girls 'dance' on the court some more, then acrobatic young athletes perform amazing feats of physical prowess with members of the audience. Then there is some basketball played.

But it's not the basketball I remember from my youth, it is the NBA, which means the rules are bent a little. The more famous you are, the more steps you can take. The more popular you are, the more often you are allowed to change your pivot foot. The richer you are, the more you are allowed to physically abuse those less famous, popular, or wealthy.

The NBA is a joke. Now, two-plus decades into the post-Bird/Magic era, the influence of the NBA on youth basketball is appallingly obvious.

Professionals influence the way children behave.

Charles Barkley famously whined that he wasn't a role-model, thereby absolving himself of any responsibility as he acted like a total fucking asshole on and off the court. He WAS a role-model and many of his youthful admirers also became total fucking assholes on and off the court as they emulated him.

I know you've changed, Charles, but you blew it back then, and have to do a little more work apologizing and making the world a better place before you will gain my respect. Unlike Michael Jordan, I believe you are becoming an upstanding adult citizen and will one day be considered a positive influence on America's youth.

Not Michael Jordan. This is his legacy:

In Washington state, a high school student decided to record a basketball game to highlight the problem of bad officiating in the league (the high school league).

As the writer points-out in the article linked below:

As it turns out, the clip did more than just spotlight an officiating problem; it also made seniors Cole Vanderbilt and teammate Kennan VanHollebeke look like the dirtiest players on the court.

Here is part of the video, which I think perfectly highlights Jordan-era basketball at its most vulgar:



That is not the basketball played by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, or any of their predecessors. That is the basketball of Michael Jordan and the rest of the millionaire thugs that make-up the NBA.

Read more here: Video of flagrant foul no-calls at basketball game goes viral

Scumbags Of The Week

Please note that in the Comments section of this article below, the son of the coach explains part of the story that had not been originally reported.

by Dick Mac

Mendenhall High School football coach Chris Peterson and Simpson County School District attorney Daniel C. Jones are two happy men, now that the lawsuit against them has been dropped and an agreement has been reached with high school senior Coy Sheppard. Sheppard was ridiculed by his high school football coaches for wearing pink cleats during breast cancer awareness month, and when they dismissed him from the team over the pink cleats, the school district's attorney came to the coaches' defense.

They are insisting that Sheppard's dismissal from the team had nothing to do with pink cleats, only with his failure to follow orders.

It is not clear that the coaches ever issued an order that he could not wear pink cleats or face consequences of dismissal, but it is clear that they ridiculed him for the color of his cleats.

Of course, this scumbag coach and his defenders are back-pedaling as fast as they can in an effort to avoid further bad publicity and potential damages. What isn't clear is that these scumbags have learned anything about (1) how to treat other human beings, (2) the value of honesty when abusing a minor in front of his peers, or (3) that the color pink has nothing to do with a young man's gender identification, masculinity or sporting acumen.

High school football players often supply their own shoes (cleats), and it is not unusual to see a high school squad on the field wearing a rainbow of different shoe colors. It is rare, however, to see pink shoes on a football field. This is rooted in our long-established and completely fabricated notion that pink is a color for girls. And this is what makes the use of the color pink so perfect to promote breast cancer awareness among athletes.

Sheppard's octogenarian grandmother, who is a breast cancer survivor gave him the cleats as a gift, so he could help promoted breast cancer awareness. it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what happened when his coaches saw pink cleats on their football field. Let's see . . . they could have (1) shaken his hand, patted him on the back and congratulated him for supporting breast cancer awareness; (2) giggled nervously and exclaimed that they 'ain't never seen no pink cleats on a football player afore'; or (3) pointed at him and laughed, ridiculed him and questioned his masculinity.

I think it's safe to say that the first option did not happen among a group of good ole boys in Mississippi. I think a sophisticated man in Mississippi (if such a thing exists in Mississippi sports) might have chosen the second option of giggling nervously and remarking on the color of the cleats and let it go at that, but that didn't happen. It's pretty easy to conclude that a bunch of Mississippi leather heads would have ridiculed anyone wearing a girl-y color like pink. So, it's easy to conclude that the third option is the most accurate description of what likely occurred on that practice field.

So, in conclusion, it looks like this: a young man honored his elderly grandmother by wearing a color that raises awareness about breast cancer, a group of adults in authority over this young man hung tightly to their bigoted notion of who wears pink and who wears blue, the young man was ridiculed by the men who are supposed to protect and teach him, these same men decided this was just to much of an attack on their sensibility and fired the young man.

Wow! That's pretty scummy, and for that reason: coach Peterson and attorney Jones, you are the biggest scumbags in the world.

Oh, and Coy Sheppard: thank you for promoting breast cancer awareness, being a great grandson, and admirable athlete.