Sometimes people do the most ignorant stuff without even realizing what they do is wrong. Like when an old white lady sees a black baby and says something like “Awww, she is so cute for a little black baby.” Some people, however, do ignorant things and know how inane it is, yet they try to make excuses for why whatever it is they’re doing isn’t wrong. Case in point: Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA. Who is this guy, and what the hell is the AABA? I thought you might ask. The AABA is the All American Basketball Alliance that Lewis hopes will have its inaugural season this coming June. And the dream of Moose Lewis is that the league will be an all white league, also excluding anyone not born in the United States. Let the record show that I stand strong in my belief that European pansy players made the NBA soft with their flops and what not (see: Ginobili, Manu). Now there’s no hand checking, and everything is considered a flagrant foul these days, but that’s not the point. I’m all for being an entrepreneur, but trying to create an all white basketball league isn’t really original. Didn’t they try this once before back in the 40’s, but eventually they realized that black people have an extra bone/muscle, which is why we’re blessed with all the talent and athleticism. This extra bone/muscle gives us the ability to make the sport fun and exciting, and people will actually pay to watch us do so, thus making the league profitable.
But of course the guy came out quickly and said it has nothing to do with race. "There's nothing hatred about what we're doing. I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."
Don’t they already have a league that doesn’t allow black men to play and the game revolves around fundamentals? I believe it’s called the WNBA, and we see how well they’re doing. I give them two or three more seasons before they fold. In a further effort to assure us that he has no hatred, Lewis then said he wants to focus on the fundamentals of the game and wanted to eliminate “street ball” played by “people of color.” Or as I read it: “Them niggers is too good.” He believes the white game of basketball is a fundamental game. No arguments here, except that the person that they call “The Big Fundamental” is Tim Duncan, a big black guy. Then again, he is married to a white woman so maybe he gets a pass. Lewis seems to think that this is the game of basketball that works the best. Well when we find a white guy as good as Michael Jordan or one that can run the court like LeBron, maybe I’ll give your reasoning some merit. But I don’t ever see that happening unless a white guy gets cosmetic surgery to insert an extra bone/muscle to make him more athletically inclined.
The last thing I want to mention before I finish is Lewis citing how in the Negro Basketball Association you have certain incidents where the audience is subjected to conduct that may leave them feeling a little unsafe. He went on to say, “Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands? That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction." This is very valid point because no white person in the history of America has EVER attacked innocent people by doing something crazy like….I don’t know, shooting up a random store or other place of business. Nah, that never happens.
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