The racist side of the NBA

Sad. It ' really sad to be here in 2014 , writing about racism. Even more so in an environment like that, in the NBA where the integration (it seems) a done deal , where the timing of the gyms prohibited blacks ( seemed ) long gone . Yet the case is too big and too conditioning go unnoticed. In short: Clippers owner Donald Sterling , the longest owner of an NBA franchise after the death of Jerry Buss, in a phone call with his girlfriend , he would say they do not like the presence of African-Americans in his palace when  the Clippers play , referring specifically to Magic Johnson. The conditional is used here only because they are still ongoing investigations into the veracity of the tape, but it nevertheless seems that more authentic. About the question are expressed in many. Baron Davis recalled that Sterling is not new to such words , and how once in training called " bastard ," President Obama has harshly criticized the incident. They talked about MJ , Magic ( who is said to have expressed the desire to take over the Clippers just to get out of a racist by the league ) and of course the new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has reaffirmed its obligation to listen to all sides before they can express themselves . And the Clippers ? Well, in theory, would be engaged in the most beautiful series of the playoffs, in practice they lost Game 4 and performed without heating the whole team sweatshirt and socks and bracelets with blacks . Unfortunately this is not the only case of racism in the NBA, and African-Americans are not the only victims of history . We have collected all 5 cases , to try to understand a little better a phenomenon that continues to be too American .

1-The "Linsanity" to the contrary. 

Jeremy Lin was the first Chinese / Taiwanese-fledged American to play in the NBA. The thing is not to be going down at all, and while in many arenas of America the "Linsanity" explode, three journalists amused themselves in racist epithets like "chink" and "stick" (referring to the penis of Lin). Did not help either champion Floyd Mayweather who asserted that "it had been black, would not have had all this success." In short, despite the NBA continues its expansion to the East, not all seem to like the idea.

2-Doc River house burned down 

The tweets of Jeremiah Rivers on the matter Sterling / clippers, and the assumption of a boycott of pertite home team, have brought to light a very bad episode of almost twenty years ago. Doc Rivers (father of Jeremiah and coach LAC) had just moved to Texas in San Antonio, when his house was burned, and his dog killed, because of the color of his skin. This is the tweet of his son a few days ago "People want to # BoycottClippers Because of one man? Has Been My house burned to the ground, animals tortured and burned as well. "

3-Racist tweets. 

Do not think that the fans of the NBA are sweet salt. Of course, no banana was never introduced in the field, but to think of it, maybe it was made worse. After Sebastien de la Cruz, Mexican eleven year old prodigy, she performed the American national hymn during Race 3 of the last Finals between the Spurs and Miami Heat, the twittering morons have not been slow in coming. "This kid is Mexican, why is he singing the national anthem. Yournotamerican # # gohome" and "Miami = cute white girl sings national anthem. = San Antonio gets a little Mexican to sing it ... I thought this was America! "I do not think deserve comment.

4-Pat genius and the dress code. 

There have also been cases in which racism is expressed in ways slightly more veiled. This past March, the Sen. Pat Garofalo had the brilliant idea to tell his idea about NBA players with a delicate tweet "Let's be honest, 70% of teams in the NBA Could fold tomorrow + nobody would notice a difference w / possible exception of increase in streetcrime ". The fact that NBA players are 80% color attributes to tweet a good chance of racist accusation. 
 The history of the dress code is rather old. In the 2005-2006 season was instituted a dress code memo, which essentially forbade to wear (at official) any garment on the hip-hop culture. Iverson didn't appreciate the idea, and maybe the episode is not even to be considered too racist, but it was worth it to report the incident.

5-The Lord Of The Rings against racism. 

Racism is an ugly beast really does not look at anybody, not even the biggest winner in the history of the game, who created the immortal legend of the Celtics, who was named the MVP award seen as a partial compensation of a career of 11 NBA titles, and even no one from the best player in the league, even though he deserved it in so many occasions eleven o'clock. The fight against racism Bill Russell comes from far away, when his college away in South Carolina, a hotel reservation refused because of the color of the skin of customers. Since the house was destroyed by vandals racist. All this led him to join the Black Power, to support Ali (when the latter refused to go to war) and not go to the ceremony for the withdrawal of its number, the mythical 6 of Lord of the Rings.