Seems Yao has no intention to leave Houston in the future.

To anyone who is under the impression I was making some kind of racial dig: here's what happened. For the second time in three games, Yao Ming fouled himself off the court with the same repetitive bonehead mistakes. I came into the BBS to express my displeasure. Somebody had started a thread about Yao's parents' Chinese restaurant. I was thinking about dumb fouls. A fairly obvious, if lame, pun came to mind.

If Yao's parents were opening a seafood restaurant or a burger joint, I would not have thought of Peking Duck. OK? The choice of context (as reported by the thread starter) was theirs. And yes, if Clyde Drexler had shown up for preseason overweight after opening his BBQ restaurant and playing golf all summer, I might have accused him of spending too much time on the links. If the point is about basketball, and the joke refers to food, and the food is chosen by the party in question, there's no racial intent.

 

No tiger0330, I didn't find your jokes offensive. I thought it was funny. Maybe I didn't understand the underline meaning, but that's all better for me.

 

Lancet,

Could you please explain how this is borderline racial slur.

I really don't see it, and I would like to understand.

Just curious.

Jack

 

Let's say it's a misunderstanding, and all cleared up already. Just cross the fingers and hope Rockets beat the Magic tomorrow. Meanwhile, we can let this thread die or lock it. If we want to talk about that restaurant, just start another one. Cheers.

 

Ok, let me make this simple. Yao has all those silly fouls. Everybody knew that. Fowls sounds just like fouls. Fowls shows up in Chinese restaurant menus. Will's joke on Yao's fouls is expressed in a Chinese restaurant menu name.

If Yao were Black/White, would Will's joke make any sense? No. Will's joke only made sense because of Yao's chinese background. Now, can you tell me if it is a borderline racial slur?

 

Will's joke was completely directed at Yao's foul troubles- including 16 over the last 3 games at the time. (5.33 per game). Hence, the 6 fowls. Get it?

Do you find this Charles Barkley quote to Stanley Roberts offensive?

"Hey Stanley, you could be a great player if you learned just two words: I'm full."

Exact same idea. If Stanley Roberts weren't overweight would it be funny?

Fowl is a generic term for birds.

 

Yes, if Yao were white, and ran a beer-and-chicken wings joint, it would have about the same amount of humor content, which arguably very little, though I do love puns.

I will leave it to somebody else to take the painful task of explaining the "Links/links" joke to you.

 

The thread was about a Chinese Restaurant. If Yao were white or black and was buying a Chinese Restaurant the joke would still make sense. It has nothing to do with Yao's race but a Chinese restaurant does in fact have fowl on the menu. It's just a bad pun.

 

Yes, if Yao was black or white, and for some reason he decided to open a Chinese restaurant, It would still be funny.

It's seems to be just a play on words to me. ( fowl - foul ) IMHO

 

you know that "fowl" isn't used ONLY in Chinese restaurants, right??

 

Yeah I have seen it show up in Korean/Indian restaurants. But McDonalds surely don't call their Chicken Nuggets "Fowl Nuggets" or "Fowl - Chicken Nuggets".

 

Korean, Indian, so your story is that fowl is an asian word?

It's not.

It's germanic.

Just admit that you f'd up and move on.

 

I am happy to talk about anything basketball on this board. My favorite Rocket is Yao, which is obvious. But that doesn't mean I am not a Rocket fan also. Your original post was very provocative, and the fowl joke sounded racially insensitive to me. Your subsequent defense showed more immaturity, which surprised me since you are a professional journalist and a clutch crew. I am sure Cluth is getting sick of defending for you.

If you didn't mean any racial intent on your original message, then I apologize for my complaining. We all just want to talk about basketball and our favorite player/team here.

 

SamFisher, I don't read your message because you are on my ignore list. But I don't have to admit to anybody that it is my fault that I felt the fowl joke was racially insensitive. There are a couple of posters felt that same way, mind you.

 

It's a deal. We're literally on the same team. And with that, let's close this thread and move on.