Vanderbilt "too white" to win Friday, 03/19/04 Comment that Vandy 'too white' creates stir Radio commentator stands by remarks Vanderbilt's men's basketball team is black and gold and too white, according to Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan. Ryan said Wednesday on ESPN Radio's nationally syndicated Tony Kornheiser Show that the Commodores had ''too many white guys'' to beat Western Michigan in today's first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The show airs locally from 9 a.m.-noon on WNSR-AM 560. Kornheiser, a longtime Washington Post columnist, paused and seemed to try to help Ryan get past the remark. Ryan then reiterated, saying ''they have too many white guys, they always do.'' Vanderbilt's starting lineup for its first-round game today against Western Michigan in Orlando, Fla., includes three black players: guards Russell Lakey and Mario Moore and forward Corey Smith. Additionally, forward Julian Terrell, who also is black, has started 17 games this season. ''I'm disappointed someone would make a comment like that,'' Commodores coach Kevin Stallings said. Ryan explained his remarks last night to The Tennessean without backing off his original remarks. ''The audience at ESPN is presumably a sports-savvy audience which means that in terms of basketball they know the code, ethics and culture of basketball, which is, in case anyone is new to the game like some of these idiots that apparently have responded in a negative fashion, the code is it's a black man's game and the white man is privileged to be allowed to step on the court,'' Ryan said. ''That is known by both blacks and whites. If it weren't easy to joke about this in the culture, you would not be able to have a move entitled White Men Can't Jump. ''It's beyond my comprehension that anyone who likes basketball would be so dense and ignorant and just clueless not to understand where I was coming from.'' Boston Globe sports editor Don Skwar said he believed Ryan meant no harm. ''I think Bob was attempting to be humorous,'' Skwar said. ''Sometimes humor is tricky and sometimes people take it the wrong way. What he said is something that is on the radio with banter going back and forth. Sometimes that can happen, maybe more easily than in any kind of written context. My judgment of it is he was trying to be funny.'' According to an ESPN spokesman, the network received no calls or e-mails about Ryan's comments. Ryan said he had received two e-mails critical of his comments. Ted Johnson, vice president/general manager of WNSR, and station manager Jeff Kolb could not be reached for comment. Don West, host of the Afternoon Press Box from 3-6 p.m. daily on WNSR, said he received some feedback from callers wanting to express their opinion of Ryan. ''I got a couple of calls on my show where people just think he was an idiot,'' West said. ''I absolutely agree. I mean, Bob Ryan is the idiot who made the comment about beating Jason Kidd's wife. I just think this guy is overrated. He's a little too full of himself.'' Ryan was suspended by the Boston Globe for a month without pay in May 2003. The suspension came after he told a Boston TV station that someone should ''smack'' Joumana Kidd, the wife of New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd, because he felt she used their young son, T.J., as a prop to get herself on camera. Ryan made those comments two years after Jason Kidd was charged with striking Joumana in a domestic dispute when the couple lived in Phoenix. Ryan, who also was told by the Globe not to appear for a month on television — he's a regular on ESPN's Around the Horn and The Sports Reporters — or radio, issued an apology through the paper for his comments about Joumana Kidd.
You know, I admire Bob Ryan as a sportswriter, and I think he's wonderfully talented... But more and more he's turning into one of the "talking heads" of sports media (TV and radio) and losing his integrity as a true journalist.
This is EXACTLY why writers should stick to WRITING. It gives them a chance to reflect on what they wrote and edit themselves before being an ass. Sports writers are trying now to create celebrity for themselves as commentators but the truth is that most of them have no business going near a microphone.
Part of the problem is that all these guy's want to host the Next PTI or SportsReporters. Most of those shows drive me nuts. They try to hard to be funny when they are mostly a bunch of out of shape old white guys that could have never performed in the events that they report on.
As a Vandy alum, I am shocked and emotionally scarred from this. I will expect this racial attack to be followed by a class action lawsuit and a fat check.
Bob Ryan made the same dumb ass mistake last year when he when talking about Jumana Kidd. When someone tried to help him out he kept putting his foot in his mouth. I missed Bob Ryan on the Kornheisor show for the first time in two months so I'm pissed that I missed him saying that. I usually listen to guy, he's very smart, and he forgotten more about sports history than most of will ever know, but he's turning into a rambling old man.
We need more humor in this country and less political correctness. If he was cracking a joke....big deal. DD
Who exactly did Bob Ryan's comments create "a stir" with? I really don't see the problem with them and think they're pretty harmless. Shallow comments, but harmless.
Did you hear the one about Grambling's debate team? It was a real knee slapper! Oh, BTW, wrong forum.
Actually, Texas Southern had a nationally recognized debate team a few years ago. I know what point you are trying to make, but I just thought it was kind of ironic.
Certainly foot in mouth, but if anybody dared do a scientific study, I would certainly be interested in the results. I highly suspect he is correct.
Am I allowed to say that x university can't beat our Lacrose, tennis team, golf team because they are too black? I'll check for sure with Freije (sec preseason player of year.. 2nd best player at end of year), Hundley (6th man of the year) etc.. and make sure they were white when they beat kentucky, miss st, etc... or maybe I can say some type of sterotype of why our team is mostly white? Who does it hurt? The players for one.. when you have people who never even watch vandy games calling freije the next dan langhi strictly because he is a white guy who went to vandy.. by the way, I told Freije he needs to become a rocket the other day
I find his justification for the comments to be the most interesting part. I think he is right in a lot of ways that basketball is a "black man's game." It is and has been dominated by blacks for decades now. And, it's future seems also to depend on blacks. So, the "White Men Can't Jump" stereotype (that he was depending on for his so-called joke) is a common and easy reference to link joke-teller and listener. Also for this reason, I think he is right that it is something worthy of minor note when one finds a white man who can excel at the game because it is uncommon -- though the way he says the person is "privileged" (as if a committee of blacks decided to let him in) is wrong. However, what carries the comment from a laughing matter to a reproachable racist comment is that he's taken a general, statistical truth and applied it to the individual. At this point, he's no longer saying white players tend to not be good; he's saying these players are not good because they are white. He's not recognizing a statistical truth; he's pre-judging particular players based on a statistical truth.
How many black guys do you see playing hockey(pro)? I've seen one that I can definitely recall, but it's definitely a white majority sport. I do believe that certain sports attract different colors of people. I've seen only one Asian playing football and that's for the Cowboys. I don't follow teams that much but it surprises me when I see something that makes me do a double take such as black men in hockey and Asians in football. Baseball and football are the only team sports that are largely racially integrated. I guess this is one place where stereotypes stem from.
double post: I dunno about it being thicker though.... but yes, people need to stop being sensitive and freaking out about everything.
You'll never get Another Brother to believe that. (And for the record, blacks are largely under-represented in baseball.)
Just curious...what do you mean by 'under-represented'? Do you mean proportionate to the population? Something else?
