From The New Republic:
Banning Sterling Was Good. A Black NBA Commissioner Would Be Much Better.
The NBA's bigger race problem
BY NOAM SCHEIBER @noamscheiber Share
Don’t get me wrong: I like a good lifetime-ban-of-a-racist-NBA-owner as much as the next guy. Given the opportunity, I would have personally administered the suspension to Donald Sterling, the despicable not-for-long-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. And yet I’m having trouble seeing how NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s punishment of Sterling qualifies him for the hero worship so many are showering on him. ...
More importantly, though, I don’t see how Silver and the NBA have remotely solved their race problem. If anything, the Sterling episode has only highlighted a deeper outrage: that the NBA is a majority-black league which no African-American has a plausible shot of governing. ...
Now here’s the problem: If the NBA is more democratic than was widely appreciated before the Sterling episode, isn’t Adam Silver’s very presence a bit strange? I’m not talking about the way he was single-handedly anointed by his predecessor. (Though there is something creepily patrilineal about that. Stern worked at the same law firm as Silver’s father in the 1970s, which is how the young Adam Silver first got connected with his future patron.)
I’m not even talking about how there’s a white commissioner presiding over a league in which 76 percent of the players are black. White mayors have recently run majority-black cities—say, New Orleans or Baltimore—and there’s no principled argument for deeming that fishy.
Detroit has a white mayor now, too, after 40 years of black mayors. How enthusiastic do you think NBA owners are about following the trajectory of New Orleans, Baltimore, and Detroit?
I’m talking about the fact that, given how the job of sports-league commissioner is essentially a lifetime appointment these days, the NBA is almost certain to go at least 15 to 20 more years without a black leader. (Silver took over earlier this year at the age of 51.)
And just as it would be ludicrous to suggest that an overwhelmingly black league has to have a black commissioner, it seems equally ludicrous to suggest that the league should never have a black commissioner. Especially since policing player behavior is one of the commissioner’s key responsibilities, and since this policing has serious racial overtones. (Silver and Stern have both said the point of being such hard-asses—everything from stiff suspensions to the dress code—was dispelling the notion that “all those N.B.A. players are thugs.'”) But if you’re Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan or Isiah Thomas—men who started their careers not so long ago—that’s essentially what we’re saying: no black commissioner for you.
How has Michael Jordan been working out as front office genius?
Granted, I don’t expect the NBA to aspire to the same sort of democratic legitimacy as a major U.S. city. (Though given the state of racial politics in the south, the NBA is arguably about as democratic today as New Orleans was back in the 1970s, and a lot of people thought it was outrageous that the city hadn’t had a black mayor by then.)
How'd that whole black (actually, Creole of Color) mayor thing work out for New Orleans, anyway?
What I do think is necessary is that one of two things change: Either Silver and the league essentially commit to finding an African American commissioner to replace him when he steps down in, er, 2034. Or, more plausibly, that Silver magnanimously step aside after six or eight years, George Washington-style, to symbolically bury lifetime tenure. But lifetime tenure for white guys—worse, white guys handpicked by their white-guy predecessors—seems deeply noxious to me.
I've found the perfect candidate for future commissioner of the NBA: a black professional basketball player with whom the owners will feel culturally comfortable: Jordan Farmar.
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35 comments:
It's amazing that this article mentions Isiah Thomas as a potential commissioner. Isiah was a horrendous disaster as GM of the Knicks.
Why aren't we just taking this all the way down the slippery slope already?
Send the NBA back to Naismith.
Some things have to collapse.
A commenter on a different thread said basketball in the US has been changed to suit blacks. He mentioned zone defence and the shot clock. Can anyone explain this to someone who did not grow up with basketball and when it happened?
OR we do the rational thing and apply disparate impact to the league itself, hiring enough white guys to decimate that 76% black percentage.
But of course THAT can never be an option, because it flips the victimology formula on its head.
Wait. If NBA teams should be majority black because blacks are better at athletics, then why shouldn't NBA administration be majority Jewish if Jews are better at brainy stuff like management and organization?
It's meritocracy on both accounts.
Also, if one argues, NBA commission should have more blacks since NBA has so many black players, couldn't one make the reverse argument and say NBA teams should have more Jews since Jews are so prominent in the management?
Also, if we're going use the logic used in the article, aren't most NBA fans whites and Jews?
Since the fanbase is so white/Jewish, shouldn't NBA teams have more whites and Jews to reflect the fanbase?
And why not apply this to Hollywood? Since so many crew members, technicians, actors, and etc are gentiles, shouldn't the Hollywood elite make room for more gentiles?
And since women buy most fashion, shouldn't the fashion industry have more women instead of all those homos?
What Dinkins did for NYC, and what Obama is doing for America, the first black NBA commissioner could do for the NBA.
Sure, I'm in. Let's do it.
Matra...
Like ALL things... NBA has been "liberated."
Think of something as simple as dribbling...
Watch the old films and you will see WHITE players that played by the rules that had one push the ball to the floor from the very TOP of the basketball. Over time, this changed and so the ability to dribble outside the rules "progressed" until one can now literally hold the ball for a split second, sweep the ball laterally from left to right or right to left and take steps in between dribbles. "We" see this as the new, wonderful athleticism of "blacks" when it was merely a liberating of the rules...
The NBA end is near and an all "black" leadership is just what America should order.
"A commenter on a different thread said basketball in the US has been changed to suit blacks. He mentioned zone defence and the shot clock. Can anyone explain this to someone who did not grow up with basketball and when it happened?"
What he probably meant was that present NBA rules are structured to give the audience an offensive game--points, points earned by either the dunk, a very exciting "in your face" play, fast breaks, or by three point shooting (long range shots produce 3 points a basket rather than 2.)
The rules don't allow a zone defense because zone defenses can cut down on the scoring, something which the NBA feels would kill viewer interest.
The shot clock makes a team take a shot w/in 24 seconds of their team having attained possession of the ball, another rule intended to speed up the game and encouraged more scoring. The shot clock set that low means that a team with a large lead can't "sit" on it, a tactic that the league feels would lead to a boring stall.
"I've found the perfect candidate for future commissioner of the NBA: a black NBA player whom the owners will feel culturally comfortable with: Jordan Farmar."
More like "Blackish," as Sterling Archer would say.
Unless someone drives a stake through Adam Silver's heart he is good for several centuries as commish
In other words, get an Obama for the NBA as smoke-screen to hide the real power and influence that is Jewish.
That is truly hysterical! You are lucky that you have no desire to be a social climber, your "unorthodox" views certainly would invite some subtle criticism, and overt…
it's meritocracy on both accounts
Jay Horvarth will not this up with put. Seeing as she is free she could be the next commissionher.
Quadroon?
Octoroon?
The Fed chairmanship and the NBA Commissioner seat have a lot in common.
I wonder if the author has a problem with a black guy presiding over a nation that is only 13 percent black.
"A commenter on a different thread said basketball in the US has been changed to suit blacks. He mentioned zone defence and the shot clock."
it has, but zone defense and the shot clock had nothing to do with it. in fact the game is boring without the shot clock - it was perhaps THE single most important rule change in the history of the game. people now want to the change the NCAA clock because it is too long.
palming and travelling did though, or rather, mostly the elimination of those as fouls. in FIBA games those are more enforced and the african players from the US don't do as well there, although they are still best on average.
the old joke is that the introduction of the 3 point shot in 1979 was to help the other players.
some NBA fans will decry the elimination of hand checking although i think that is a neutral change. does not really help any particular group. old time fans claim it does make the game easier for perimeter players.
"Isiah was a horrendous disaster as GM of the Knicks."
More to the point, Isiah has already run one basketball league into oblivion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_Basketball_Association#1999.E2.80.932001
Matra said...
" A commenter on a different thread said basketball in the US has been changed to suit blacks. He mentioned zone defence and the shot clock. Can anyone explain this to someone who did not grow up with basketball and when it happened?"
The shot clock was introduced 60 years ago because the game was essentially score and hold the ball, like soccer. It was dying of low scoring. That was not changed to suit black players, who were few at the time, but to save the game.
However, the short 24-second shot clock in the NBA (rather than 35 seconds in college and, until recently, 30 seconds in international basketball), and the gazillion time-outs presumably suit West African blacks better, because their energy systems are best suited for short, intense bursts of activity that are difficult to sustain without frequent rest.
The zone defense is an organized way of defending to protect slower (read: white) defenders, so playing man-to-man also suits the quicker West Africans more than it does White players.
Hey, if "conquistador-Americans" can be the vanguard leadership of the burgeoning Hispano-proletariat, then why not?
Anonymous kaganovitch said...
"Unless someone drives a stake through Adam Silver's heart he is good for several centuries as commish"
The next NBA commissioner after Silver will be Goldberg.
Whoopi Goldberg...
While Steve's sly offering of Jordan Farmar (a "black Jew") is great, Whoopi is much blacker and more female, allegedly....
So, a real triple package....
It will also refute Donald Tokowitz's observation V. Stiviano that there is a "100 percent ... difference between white Jews and black Jews in Israel".
Btw, Tokowitz's views are completely in line with both extant policies of the "Jewish State" and the greatest Jewish philosopher Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides), who did not consider "kushim" (black Africans) to be human.
Read his passage in Book 3, Chapter 51 of The Guide to the Perplexed.
That's why this whole Tokowitz thing had to squashed, and quickly, and that's how Donald T. became a Southern redneck.
It won't stop until ALL leadership and managerial positions are purged of White guys. NAMs smell blood in the water and serial weakness invites aggression. This has been obvious from the start. An all Black league in everything run by Jay Z, Oprah, Diddy, Kanye and Kim, Mayweather, Lil Kim, Rihanna, and .... Michelle Obama what could go wrong?
And seriously those on the outside like above see no downside and the frenzy will be whipped up until all power changes hands to the Black aristocracy.
I agree whiskey...
There should be no gloating over the handing over of professional sports to the goons of the radical "black" collective.
Blogger Whiskey said...
"It won't stop until ALL leadership and managerial positions are purged of White guys. NAMs smell blood in the water and serial weakness invites aggression. This has been obvious from the start. An all Black league in everything run by Jay Z, Oprah, Diddy, Kanye and Kim, Mayweather, Lil Kim, Rihanna, and .... Michelle Obama what could go wrong?
And seriously those on the outside like above see no downside and the frenzy will be whipped up until all power changes hands to the Black aristocracy."
Well, the majority, Jewish owners of NBA teams won't surrender their teams any time soon. Which is a pity, because I would love to see how long an all-black NBA (advocated recently by Larry "Grandmama" Johnson) would last. I would predict it would fold in 2 years. Nobody wants to watch AAU ball while paying more than $6 for the ticket, unless it's your kids who are playing.
Why not Barack Obama as the next NBA commissioner? He'll be free, and he'd love it.
"Also, if we're going use the logic used in the article, aren't most NBA fans whites and Jews?
Since the fanbase is so white/Jewish, shouldn't NBA teams have more whites and Jews to reflect the fanbase?"
60% of TV viewers of the NBA finals last year were non-white.
It's a riot to watch all these black stars promoted to the level of their incompetence fail in their front office positions, while the stupid, melanin-lacking Hick From French Lick thrives.
Not as dumb as people thought.
It's odd that although many Americans (and all iSteve readers) now understand that blacks have much lower IQs, people still don't think that's a valid reason to oppose them for high office.
Rather fewer people know that blacks have less intelligence because they have smaller brains. But even that fact is not considered relevant.
Strange. If I were to say that I would not vote for a black man because he was a black man many people would condemn me. But I got my Sample Ballot in the mail last week and I have to vote on dozens of people whom I don't know. What criteria should I use?
I never vote for Peace and Freedom candidates. In fact I nearly only vote for Republicans. But there are now several Republicans running for the same office.
Why not have race for my second round selection criteria?
I did some original research on this issue last year. It took me about ten minutes. I looked up the rate of ethical violations committed by congress critters by race. I found that blacks average two to three times as many allegations and proven ethical violations as other races. Black politicians are as a rule crooks.
I doubt if many people will be surprised at this finding but somehow still think it's improper to act on this information. All other things being equal, a black office holder is likely to be less competent and more dishonest that a white or Asian.
My advice - unless you know something more than the average voter - never vote for a black guy. They don't work out.
Patrick Boyle
Funny how nobody ever suggests that Jews are over-represented. It's always just generic "white people." You know, NBA Commissioner Nigel Williams III.
At least the old WASP elite viewed itself as an aristocracy. The most exasperating tendency of American Jews is this passive-aggressive self-image of victimhood.
Yeah, who needs losers like Robert E. Lee when you can have real heroes like Muhammad Ali?
I don't know how white Southerners can abide being constantly sneered at by people who despise them.
"It's amazing that this article mentions Isiah Thomas as a potential commissioner. Isiah was a horrendous disaster as GM of the Knicks."
That's why it would be so great.
Stop wishing for things to be better. Sit back and enjoy the collapse.
Since it looks like the idea of Condoleeza Rice for NFL Commissioner seems to have died, why not Ms. Rice for NBA Commissioner? And if that doesn't work out, then how about Ms. Rice for MLB Commissioner once 80-year old Bud Selig steps down; after all MLB, is only 8% black.
@Dave Pinsen: Why not Barack Obama as the next NBA commissioner? He'll be free, and he'd love it.
I understand he even plays the game.
60% of TV viewers of the NBA finals last year were non-white.
If that is true, it means NBA TV advertising revenue will decline.
NBA b-ball: a favorite sport of WalMart shoppers. Upscale retailers need not buy ads.
Blackish? Maybe (or not) but certainly not black. Far from it.
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