The NBA is a 'Ghetto Gutter', Says a Vancouver Writer

The Vancouver Grizzlies moved from Canada to Memphis seven years ago, and evidently, some people are still bitter.

Like this guy, Mark Hasiuk, a columnist from that rain-soaked city. Hasiuk calls anyone associated with the NBA every bad name in the book - except, perhaps, child pornographers - and takes the League to task for not helping to improve life in Black America. Because, obviously, that's what the NBA was created for.

The NBA is America at its worst.The once proud league, which peaked 20 years ago during the Bird/Magic/Jordan era, has morphed into a reality TV show, where money and image trump teamwork and athletic achievement. Players like Allen Iverson—perhaps the greatest basketball talent of his generation—spend more energy producing sneaker commercials than winning basketball games. NBA players wear saggy shorts, roll in posses and cuss on camera. Television ratings have dropped steadily since 1996. Basketball icons such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the late Red Auerbach have denounced today's players, calling them "thugs" and "bums."

[...]

To be fair, the NBA, like other professional sports leagues, is a business. And it's not responsible for the endemic problems of black America. But considering basketball's influence on black popular culture, the NBA has a responsibility to produce a "positive" product, not the ghetto garbage we see today.

I'd love to hear about once incident in the NBA this year that would qualify as "ghetto garbage", whatever that means.

You know, it's not very often that a writer is able to reveal his hideously racist side, all the while claiming to be looking out for a particular race's best interests. And manages to do it all within the same column, no less. Bravo, Mr. Hasiuk. You schmuck.

NBA: a ghetto gutter run by money grubbers [The Vancouver Courier] Vancouver Columnist Calls NBA 'Ghetto Garbage' [NBA FanHouse]