Anti-Semitic Remark Gets Former NBA Player Suspended

In before it goes to the D&D!

So... what he's saying is that he blames "the jewish people" for finding out he did drugs?

 

Are people really that offended by "good" stereotypes?

Jews - Good with money
Asians - Really Smart people
Black guys - Big penis, good athletes

Why do Jews get upset when people say that they're good with money?

 

Anyone else think "Patroon" sounds like an ethnic slur of some kind?

 

Because you're not saying we're good with money. You're saying we're greedy and cheap, as Sishir said.

 

people in general don't like stereotypes because the person with said stereoptypes is pigeonholing the person into something that they may or may not. u know that saying "u don't know me"? I'm sure every person who feels pigeonholed by people making assumptions of them based on their color.

Furthermore, people who have "good" prejudisces about certain races, will most likely just as easily have "bad" prejudices about said races, all it takes is one bad incident with someone. from personal experience, anyone who can form an opinion of another race based on "good" prejudices can just as easily form a bad opinion.

 

...

... Did any Jews say they were offended by his comment?

Similarly, are any of the Jewish people on this bbs offended by his comment?

 

Anyone with any basic knowledge of, oh, the last 1500 or so years of Jewish history in Europe & elsewhere would realize why these kinds of statements cause problems.

 

perhaps, but michael ray prolly doesn't fit into that category. i don't think he's a bigot as much as he's uneducated and stupid. this definately will be in d&d soon. that's the appropriate spot.

 

agreed with gary. I can easily imagine this portion of the interview.

Reporter: Say Michael, what's the capital of Zimbabwe?
Michael: Man I don't know that sh*t, keeping it real!

 

Why do I think of The Family Guy? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajeOsOYAn48

 

Marlon Brando would agree with this...



DD

 

Anyone know if Les Alexander is Jewish? I think he is but I'm not sure...

 

wasn't really talking about MRR...just countering the thought above that "hey, it's a compliment".

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...?slug=aw-richardson032807&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Sugar's sour note
By Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports
March 28, 2007

Adrian Wojnarowski
Yahoo! Sports

The panic percolating within his voice made his stutter sound like a runaway train. He should've been at his office preparing for Game 2 of the Continental Basketball Association finals, but he was yelling into his cell phone now, trying to spare himself the indignity of fading into the nevermore of the abyss.

Welcome to the last stand of Micheal Ray Richardson.

"There's not a hateful bone in my body!" the coach of the Albany Patrons pleaded from upstate New York on Wednesday afternoon, just after his franchise suspended him for the rest of the CBA championship series. "People who know me know this is false. He took it out of context. … Oh man, why am I talking to you?

"Why am I talking to you guys again?"

Maybe it was a little late to stop talking. That's always been Richardson's problem. He's never known when to stop, when his excesses and impulses would send him on a self-destructive spiral. On Tuesday night, moments before the start of the CBA finals against the Yakima Sun Kings in Albany where he had been the coach of the Patroons, Richardson started on a rambling, anti-Semitic rant with respected Albany Times Union columnist Brian Ettkin.

Richardson didn't stop there, capping "Buy one slur, get one free" night at the Washington Avenue Armory with an anti-gay snap at a Patroons heckler in the stands.

"Ah man," Richardson sighed on the phone, "This (suspension) isn't right. I didn't say any of that stuff."

A month ago, Richardson, a three-time All-Star in the 1980s with the Knicks and Nets, had gone on and on with me in his office, trashing his general manager and owner with whom he had been carrying on in fiercely entertaining feuds. Richardson had assured me that he was on his way out of Albany this summer and on his way back to an NBA scouting job in Europe. His sounded like the kind of complaining about management that could've been overlooked had he won the championship. The Patroons were four games away, and Richardson was talking with Ettkin about a contract extension that will never come now.

He's going to get fired, and he's going to be done in American basketball. NBA commissioner David Stern gave him a lifetime banishment for drug abuse in 1986, but this could turn out to be his ultimate one-way ticket out of sight, out of mind.

His family is waiting in the south of France for him to return, and that's where he'll go, probably exiled forever.

"I've got big-time lawyers," he said. "I've got big-time Jew lawyers." That started it. When Ettkin pressed him on that verbiage about Jews being crafty and shrewd, Richardson was quoted as saying, "Are you kidding me? They are. They've got the best security system in the world. Have you ever been to an airport in Tel Aviv? They're real crafty. Listen, they are hated all over the world, so they've got to be crafty.

"They know that in this country the Jews are running it if you really think about it. I mean, which is not a bad thing, you know what I mean?"

He kept talking.

He always did.

"They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people.''

For good measure, he reportedly turned and screamed down a heckling Patroons fan with "Shut the f--- up, you f*****."

Someone else might eventually get another chance, but Richardson has long since used up a lifetime of forgiveness for his missteps. When Stern delivered the ban for his drug relapses in '86, Richardson had become synonymous with the sport's social ills. Ultimately, the NBA's commissioner helped him back and gave Denver his blessing to hire him in community relations before Patroons general manager Jim Coyne hired him two years ago. Stern always had a soft spot in his heart for Sugar, and you've got to believe that Micheal Ray broke his heart with this one. Through the years, Richardson has broken a lot of them.

Between our visit in late February and the CBA finals, Richardson declared a league conspiracy aimed at him had caused the CBA to change its playoff format late in the season, eliminating the semifinal round of the playoffs.

"He basically insinuated that I had a vested interest in the Albany Patroons not making the playoffs," CBA director of operations Dennis Truax said Wednesday by phone. "That's totally a falsehood."

Truax is in charge of conducting the investigation over Richardson's comments. It shouldn't take long. No one doubts what was reported because it fits right with Richardson's relentlessly clownish act. Since the CBA's offices are in the Washington Avenue Armory, Truax has had a front row seat for Micheal Ray Theatre. Some show. Through the years, Richardson has had a decidedly self-destructive bent to his personality. There was nothing endearing about his act on Tuesday. No longer could this be dismissed as Micheal Ray being Micheal Ray. He's supposed to be a coach, a leader of men. He sounded like a terminal headcase.

"He's a volatile coach and a volatile man," Truax said. "He speaks his mind and he's done it ever since he's come out of the womb. But sometimes, I think that frankness offends people. There's no way of condoning what he allegedly said. Those remarks are hurtful and spiteful, if he did say those things."

Micheal Ray Richardson insisted that there's not a hateful bone in his body, and maybe so, but there are some ignorant ones. He had a good thing going in Albany, with a chance at a championship season, and he blew it. That's the story of his life. Three weeks ago, he told me, "I'm a winner. I'm a survivor. If I can win a title here, that's going to go a long way to prove myself to people."

So Wednesday, the Patroons suspended Richardson for the rest of the championship series and ordered him to stay out of the Armory. Here was Micheal Ray Richardson, a foolish, frenzied man on his cell phone, yelling, "I have a 20-year-old daughter who is half-Jewish, my ex-wife is Jewish.

"They take things and put in their words …"

Back in 2000, they made a documentary called "What Happened to Micheal Ray?" After all these years, and all the chances, it looks like he finally gave them his answer.

Adrian Wojnarowski is the national NBA columnist for Yahoo! Sports. Send Adrian a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

 

Personally im not offended by it.....I also dont let what other people say or think bother me (i.e. people on this board)

But like it was said before most of the stereotypes about jewish people imply we are "cheap" and or "greedy" which can be offensive...

either way im damn proud to be jewish

 

I think his wife is...

 

Michael Ray Richardson is a great NBA legend. its a great story of highs and lows. We know you were just being funny MRR!!

 

Whenever I hear stuff like this said, I always consider the source.

Considering the source, a junkie whose habit got him tossed from the NBA....no I am not offended.