Posted on 02/13/2009 11:46:05 AM PST by andrew roman
From The "I'm With You, Reverend Joseph Lowery" file ...
The naivety of Americans who believe that blacks are not still being asked to get in back, or that brown is not given the chance to stick around, is astounding. No matter how much we shake America, she is not responding to our wake-up call. Racism abounds, along with a veritable rainbow of other juicy "isms." The reality that our President is black, that the majority of American athletes and pop music stars are black, that our favorite motion picture stars are black, that the most powerful star and TV talk-show mogul in all of the country is black, is irrelevant.
NBA Hall-of-Famer Elgin Baylor apparently agrees.
Baylor, who played from 1958 to 1971 and subsequently spent twenty-two years as the Los Angeles Clippers' Vice President of Basketball Operations, is suing not only suing the Clippers, but the NBA and team owner Donald Sterling for alleged employment discrimination based on age and race. Baylor was released by the team last fall.
From ESPN:
The lawsuit maintains that Baylor was
(Excerpt) Read more at romanaround.net ...
Utter nonsense.
Baylor is adding insult to injury, the Clippers have sucked since day 1, they have one of the worst records in the NBA. I don’t believe the Clipper Organization is racist, but Donald Sterling is a prick, he owns an apartment building my sister lives in, horrible management, that is why she is moving out next week
You’re right, the Clippers are awful and should fire everyone ever associated with the team, regardless of skin tone or age.
I laugh at the story of radio host Jim Rome. Rome would instruct his listeners to call the LA Clippers on draft day and make sure Elgin Baylor was aware that the draft was that evening. Apparently quite a few callers got through to Baylor.
It’s not about whether it’s true, it’s about shaking the money tree.
RK,
I know, but I get really irritate that this nonsense about ‘race discrimination’ keeps getting repeated. Its been a ‘urban myth’ for two decades at least.
My wife and I are long time Clippers season ticket holders. (I know).
Anyway, I also write for a Clippers blog here in LA. I have a bit of insight on this.
Baylor resigned this summer when he learned that he was to be GM in name only. Coach Mike Dunleavy was taking over GM duties (Dunleavy has been handling most GM duties since his arrival in 2003).
Baylor was unhappy with this arrangement, and turned down a new contract to resign. It is complex.
More information is available here: http://www.clipsnation.com/2009/2/13/758154/the-clippers-are-getting-c
Slightly off topic, but I wanted to puke listening to Mike Tomlin (Steelers headcoach) give an homage to Tony Dungy for "paving the way for Black head coaches to win the SuperBowl." Now that kind of comment usually just slides by with a smile, but explain to me what obstacles that Tony Dungy faced in specifically WINNING the Superbowl that were unique to his race? Did they spot his opponent 2 touchdowns or something? I can see giving Dungy kudos for his conduct as a man & paving the way for Black head coaches in the NFL. But that has absolutely nothing to do with the Superbowl. Isn't every headcoach supposed to try & win the thing?
Sigh...I never thought of Tony Dungy in terms of race to be honest.
And I guess thats a sad commentary on Mike Tomlin....
Well, I don't know as much about Tomlin as I know about Dungy. Maybe Tomlin was just trying to pay tribute to Dungy in the wake of his own (Steeler) Superbowl win & his words just got garbled. I can give him a 'pass' this time, but I'll be watching his future statements a bit closer just in case. It was one of those, "Things that make you go hmmmm? Moments".
Tomlin thinks in terms of race.
I don’t.
They are right, the white players are woefully under-represented on the round ball court. Let’s get an affirmative action program going right away.
In Baylor’s 22 years as GM, the Clippers won 619 and lost 1153, a winning percentage of 35%. They made the playoffs only 4 times and won only 1 playoff series.
In his defense, the Clippers have a wacky owner, who hasn’t always been willing to spend, but when you lose 65% of your games and survive 22 years, to cry “racism” and “agism” is despicable. Most GMs would not survive 5 years with a record like Baylor’s, much less 22.
My favorite Elgin Baylor story (I can’t remember where I read this) is that during the 1971-1972 season, he kept complaining about everything, from playing time, to how often he’d get the ball, and how the Lakers seemed to bend over backwards to accommodate teammate Wilt Chamberlain (To be fair, Baylor had a number of knee problems that season). Baylor eventually threw his hands in the air, and quit in mid-season.
The very next game was the first game in a streak of 33 that the Los Angeles Lakers won, a streak that has never been matched in any major American team sport. The Lakers also went on to win the NBA title that year, something Baylor never accomplished.
In the early ‘90s, he actually got Donald Sterling to spend some money and put together a decent Clippers team with Mark Jackson, Ron Harper, and a couple of other free agents, but they lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs when the Rodney King riots delayed some of the games a couple of days.
If only Baylor were gay, he would hit the trifecta, racism, ageism and homophobia.
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