At an ESPN-hosted roundtable discussion with Magic Johnson, LeBron James, and Carmelo Anthony, Larry Bird was asked "Does the NBA lack enough white superatrs, in your opinion?" His response:

"Well, I think so. You know, when I played, you had me and Kevin McHale and some others throughout the league. I think it's good for the fan base, because as we all know, the majority of fans are white Americans. And if you had just a couple of whites guys in there, you might get them a little excited. But it's a black man's game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-Americans.

The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA was I got irritated when they put a white guy on me. I still don't understand why. A white guy would come out and I would always ask him, 'What, do you have a problem with your coach? Did your coach do this to you?' And he'd go, 'No,' and I'd go, 'Come on, you got a white guy coming out here to guard me; you've got no chance,' For some reason, that always bothers me."

In response to his Bird's comments, Magic Johnson said:

"We need more L.B.'s, Larry Birds. I mean, you want that. Bird, you see, can go into any neighborhood. When you say Larry Bird, black people know who he is, Hispanics, whites, and they give him respect."

~Adam

At first I had no problems with Larry Bird's comments, but now I'm thinking:

- why do you need white players to get the white fans excited? aren't they excited enough by the Magic Johnsons and the Michael Jordans and the Kevin Garnetts? I think they are.
- what about Dirk Nowitski, Steve Nash, Peja Stojakovic? aren't they white stars? true, they're not American white stars, but what's good about the game today is all the international players, like Gasol (Spain), Kirilenko (Russia), Parker (France), Nene (Brazil), Ginobili (Argentina) and of course Yao Ming.
- if a new Larry Bird came along, sure that would be great for the game... but I don't think the league is lacking anything. And there are some solid white players like Wally Szczerbiak, Mike Miller, Jason Williams, Keith Van Horn, Kirk Hinrich, Matt Harpring, Brent Barry...

I did like his comments about being guarded by white players. Bird is such a competitor, that he wanted to be guarded by the best player... who was usually not white, I guess.

[ June 09, 2004, 07:45 PM: Message edited by: canmark ]

not exactly..... I know that americans like to whitewash the whole racial thing and pretend that everyone is truly and absolutely colour blind.
But the reality is that race DOES matter.
This doesn't mean that they are racist (as in discrimination) but they are ethno or race centric. (as in they are are proud when someone like them does something well) that's why americans are proud when an american wins an olympic medal and why koreans in america cheer for korean golfers on the LPGA.

so then.. for the same reason, blacks cheer for black players because they identify more closely with black players. Likewise, white fans identify more with white players than black players.

not saying white players can't idolize Magic or Jordan. cuz they do. But for many whites, they still like seeing someone like them (slow white guys shooting jumpers from the 3 point line) in the game.

Both Bird and Johnson's statements as quoted are patronizing. Both assume that a group identity can be extended to individuals. Everyone is different. Everyone is born with certain proclivities. Noone has to be confined to them.
Asians and Blacks and women are still expected to role-play to some extent. Their talents may differ, making them more capable of one role or another, but we all have to be aware that the exceptions should have the opportunity to depart from the stereotype. Prejudice limits all of us.

You know..... not to think too high of myself... as the french say, "il pete plus haut que son cul" (he farts higher than his ass) - anyway ... I consider myself to be fairly intelligent. But I have absolutely no idea what the above is supposed to mean.

I mean.... it sounds like the feel good "everyone should be open and accepted" standard speech I hear so often. But digging below the surface, what does "we all have to be aware that the exceptions should have the opportunity to depart from the stereotype. Prejudice limits all of us" mean exactly? what is the point.... especially as
it relates to Bird's statement?

Yep...I agree...Tiger Woods and the William's Sisters are examples...its been well documented that they brought black fans over to two sports that were dominated by white players and a white fan base. The William's Sisters were even subjected to some overt displays of racism on the courts and by the fans when they first came around....some of it still lingers.

Leave it to my Mom to come up with this analogy....you take an aquarium and dump some gold fish, angel fish and some guppies in the tank....the gold fish go with the gold fish, the angel fish hang with the angel fish and the guppies go where the guppies are.....they're all fish, but they go where they're most comfortable.

People today just don't want to face the facts...very few if anyone is "color blind".

NJ

The quote from Bird was and my response was

Black man's game, white man's world, yellow man's job, brown man's religion - these are all not only gross generalizations that limit people who believe them, but attempts to efficiently categorize others.

They're only true in as far as the individual chooses to believe them. If you ignore the stats and choose what you are really comfortable with in life, you might notice color changes all around you.

[ June 11, 2004, 03:44 AM: Message edited by: sportinlife ]