How in the world anyone could root against their own country is beyond me. Yes, that team is chock full of some of my least favorite NBA players but as long as they have USA on their jerseys, I'm rooting for them. It's kind of like fighting with your siblings but pulling together when times get tough. Hell, they could send the utah jazz over there as our national team and I'd root for them too. Well, on second thought.... As far as the race thing, it never really occured to me.
I think that gets into what Baqui was talking about: he's a bad writer. Is this article about how Americans are a bunch of racist mother****ers or is it about how international competition has gotten a lot better? I'm not sure if they two are sufficiently related and the article reads like it has two theses. Even if both were true, the structure is poor. But, I think it is a little presumptuous to say that it is obvious that racism affects the perception of our basketball team or the NBA. Obviously, he's not talking about everyone, since basketball does have a fanbase. Presumably, he's excusing young black male fans because they share a common bond with NBA players. Instead, he talks about the Other; in his article he refers to them as "patriots." He puts a face on this group with an ex-soldier who makes a cognitive link between professional players and muggers. This is his characterization of the people who don't like Team USA. So, being one who doesn't like Team USA, he's effectively saying I'm an alleged patriot betraying my country because I have an unfounded racist hatred for blacks that has centered on Team USA because they sport harmless tokens of their cultural heritage like cornrows and tattoos and I'm envious of their riches and luxurious lifestyle. In addition to being more than mildly insulting, the accusation is false on essentially every particular about me personally, and I expect about millions of other Americans. And what's his evidence here: a nonscientific internet poll and the fact that Team USA is all black. I think it is far too much to say he's obviously right. I would say that it is far more likely that a genuine survey would find most Americans rooting for our basketball team and only a small minority would begrudge them due to a racial animosity. That's my assumption, based on about as much evidence as Whitlock had.
No, you miss the point entirely. It wouldn't matter if the US team was all black or if Brent Barry played on it or what -- like Larry said, the NBA is perceived in the US as a black man's game. It has been for a long time. Acknowledging that race and racial stereotyping affects the way we view the NBA does not equate to racism in the sense that you interpret it as . "Jason Whitlocik is calling me a racist! What!! I'm no racist!!!!" I don't understand how any american, black or white, racist or non, can see a group of, tatooed young black males with headbands and baggy clothes, and not make certain assumptions on some level, consciously or not, that are inherently linked to race or stereotypes. It's called being a human being. Did you even read the rest about the hockey team or did you just get stuck on the race part like everybody else? I'm mildly surprised at how defensive and dismissive people get whevever a black sportswriter brings up race and the NBA -- stereotypes at work again.
All of a sudden its okay to hope your country loses to another country. If thats not unpatrotic I dont know what isnt. It is funny how when people question George Bush's judgement on going to war, but back our troops since their there anyway. Folks say you hate America or your un patriotic. I could careless if George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney were starters on Team USA, for the simple fact that they are american I will not root against them. To a far less extent, our basketball players can be compared to our soliders. How they got their is always open for debate. Now that they are their a TRUE American should stand behind them 100%. Not to mention the fact that these foreign teams are truely catching up. Talk about Hypocrits.....
Well, now we've managed to bring Iraq into this dialogue...its officially a D+D thread. Nice job, guys. By the way I am sad to say that we are getting schooled by Argentina, and it makes me nauseous.
I have had the impression that the team that was sent to Athens didn't care. They didn't care that they were representing their country,They didn't really care when they lost in the first round,They didn't care who their opposition was,They didn't care about winning until it was too late. I root for and support my country,but this is embarrasing and pathetic. There is no way US basketball should lose to ANY country. I'll still support them,but they better get their S**T together. There is no excuse for not winning the Gold.
I disagree, I think they wanted to win badly, they just didn't know how in the end. The only one who for sure really acted like he didn't care was Carmelo.
I did patiently read the whole article. I found the part on hockey to even be somewhat educational. I don't mention that part much only because I don't have a problem with it. The reason I'm stuck on race and getting defensive is because what he's saying is wrong and it's offensive. I am not denying that the perception of basketball is tied up in perceptions of race (and vice versa). I will concede that. But Whitlock is characterizing that perception as some sort of monolith as if the majority of people (and, obviously it's white people he's thinking of) all think the same way about it. Everyone (or, all them white people) thinks basketball players would be muggers and dealers if it wasn't for the NBA, is what he's telling me. Perhaps I have racially-based and possibly unfounded assumptions about ball players, but they aren't what he's telling me they are. I don't dislike cornrows and tattoos. I don't think players are lazy or even overpaid. I don't dislike Allen Iverson (in fact, he's one of my favorite non-Rockets). What he has said does not apply to me, but he's done nothing to define his pool in such a way as to exclude me.
It's a bit condescending to assume everyone gets so stuck on race, don't you think? Just because someone objects to a part of the article doesnt mean they stopped reading at that point. If we were liek that, then people would walk out of movie theaters the minute something came up that they didn't like. The problem with people like Whitlock is that they are no worse than the racisst they proclaim others to be, in that he generalizes and lumps people in the same way that the "others" do. Like Whitlock, you assume that people must agree with you on your opinion of race and the NBA. For you there is no gray, we must all agree with you. Just because you make assumptions about "tatooed young black males with headbands and baggy clothes" doesn't mean I or JuanValdez make those same assumptions. I don't have a problem with the tattoos or baggy pants, its perfectly fine with me. You don't know what JuanValdez or others think of the tattoos either. The people in my generation and the next generation have grown up in an era heavily influenced by hip-hop and urban lifestyles, so I can't see how watching a basketball player with baggy pants and tatoos can make us think bad about them. To generalize and say that everyone must make assumptions about people merely based on their looks is, for lack of a better word, just plain ignorance of the mindset of a lot of non-black Americans.
