Pooh
06-19-2004, 11:01 PM
Larry Bird didn't see NBA commissioner David Stern's appearance at halftime of Game 5 on Tuesday. He didn't see Stern's response to the Indiana Pacers president's recent comments on the benefits of having white superstars: "On this one," Stern told the network, "Larry's just flat-out wrong."
"I don't watch the NBA Finals," Bird told me Thursday. "Unless I'm in them, I don't watch. Except in '80, with Magic; I watched that one."
Still, I suspected Bird might have caught wind of Stern's comments. You know, heard them secondhand. Read them on the Internet.
Here's what Stern told ABC's Mike Tirico:
"Well, I listen to (great players). I don't always agree with them, as great as they may be. I think that was the conventional wisdom when Larry came into the league in 1979. If anything, the last 25 years, the years of Magic and Michael, Kobe, Shaq, this Piston team, our great American fans love winners and people of great talent. You look at Tiger Woods and the like. On this one, Larry's just flat-out wrong."
Bird's response Thursday?
"He's right," Bird said of Stern. "That's all I'm going to say."
But it wasn't.
For more than a week now, Bird has been part of the great daily sports conversation. We thought the issue was dead and buried a few days ago. But then there was Stern, who took more than a week to offer his carefully scripted answer, taking issue Tuesday with one of the two men who made his league viable.
Now Bird is back to apologizing -- sort of -- for something that doesn't require an apology. He ought to tell everybody to shove it. But he won't.
"If I offended anybody, I'm sorry," Bird said.
I asked him, do you think what you said was offensive?
"No," he said. "But if I did offend anybody, I'm sorry."
Has anybody come to you and said, "I was offended by your statements?"
"Not one person," he said.
"People see things differently," Bird said. "I was just speaking my mind. I was probably better off not saying it. I'm not real politically correct."
He laughed.
"But I've known that for a lot of years," he said.
A pause. "It'll go away," he said ruefully.
It will go away. It should have gone away some time ago. What Bird said wasn't racist, wasn't offensive, and, at least in my view, wasn't wrong. In this country, though, the first whiff of racial discourse sends people into a frenzy.
Let's go back and consider the question that was posed by Jim Gray, one of the few TV journalists willing to ask tough questions.
"Does the NBA lack enough white superstars in your opinion?"
Now, I think that's a fair and reasonable question. It was more loaded than a conventioneer at closing time, but it was fair and reasonable. Like it or not, there are fans out there who feel that the game has become too black, both in terms of the game's racial composition and its current culture.
How else is Bird, or anybody else, supposed to answer that, at least without insulting our intelligence?
Well, I think it's great that Brad Miller was the only white player in the All-Star game. It would be cool if I was remembered as one of the last great white players.
I don't think so.
Frankly, the problem isn't a lack of white superstars. It's a lack of white American superstars. Let's close the borders to these foreigners.
Uh . . . maybe not.
The way I heard the interview, the essence of Bird's answer was, "It would help the NBA appeal to more of its audience if some of the top players looked like its audience."
Makes sense, doesn't it?
How many times have we said, "Gosh, open-wheel racing would really benefit from having more American drivers"? Does that make us raging xenophobes?
As a follow-up, Tirico asked Stern, "So, in your opinion, does the NBA need a white superstar to help the growth of the league?"
That's when the commissioner, who is usually the smartest guy in the room, spouted a lot of pompous nonsense.
"I don't understand how we could grow it," he said. "Our ratings are up, our attendance is up, our sponsorship is up, everything is up."
Really? So why is it that unless the Lakers are in the Finals, the TV ratings are atrocious?
Consider this the final word from Bird. He's done with the issue. Can you blame him?
"From this point on," he said, "I'm finished with it."
My fear, though, is we'll all stop talking about these things. Because the price has become just too damned high.
Link (http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/155764-6640-179.html)
"I don't watch the NBA Finals," Bird told me Thursday. "Unless I'm in them, I don't watch. Except in '80, with Magic; I watched that one."
Still, I suspected Bird might have caught wind of Stern's comments. You know, heard them secondhand. Read them on the Internet.
Here's what Stern told ABC's Mike Tirico:
"Well, I listen to (great players). I don't always agree with them, as great as they may be. I think that was the conventional wisdom when Larry came into the league in 1979. If anything, the last 25 years, the years of Magic and Michael, Kobe, Shaq, this Piston team, our great American fans love winners and people of great talent. You look at Tiger Woods and the like. On this one, Larry's just flat-out wrong."
Bird's response Thursday?
"He's right," Bird said of Stern. "That's all I'm going to say."
But it wasn't.
For more than a week now, Bird has been part of the great daily sports conversation. We thought the issue was dead and buried a few days ago. But then there was Stern, who took more than a week to offer his carefully scripted answer, taking issue Tuesday with one of the two men who made his league viable.
Now Bird is back to apologizing -- sort of -- for something that doesn't require an apology. He ought to tell everybody to shove it. But he won't.
"If I offended anybody, I'm sorry," Bird said.
I asked him, do you think what you said was offensive?
"No," he said. "But if I did offend anybody, I'm sorry."
Has anybody come to you and said, "I was offended by your statements?"
"Not one person," he said.
"People see things differently," Bird said. "I was just speaking my mind. I was probably better off not saying it. I'm not real politically correct."
He laughed.
"But I've known that for a lot of years," he said.
A pause. "It'll go away," he said ruefully.
It will go away. It should have gone away some time ago. What Bird said wasn't racist, wasn't offensive, and, at least in my view, wasn't wrong. In this country, though, the first whiff of racial discourse sends people into a frenzy.
Let's go back and consider the question that was posed by Jim Gray, one of the few TV journalists willing to ask tough questions.
"Does the NBA lack enough white superstars in your opinion?"
Now, I think that's a fair and reasonable question. It was more loaded than a conventioneer at closing time, but it was fair and reasonable. Like it or not, there are fans out there who feel that the game has become too black, both in terms of the game's racial composition and its current culture.
How else is Bird, or anybody else, supposed to answer that, at least without insulting our intelligence?
Well, I think it's great that Brad Miller was the only white player in the All-Star game. It would be cool if I was remembered as one of the last great white players.
I don't think so.
Frankly, the problem isn't a lack of white superstars. It's a lack of white American superstars. Let's close the borders to these foreigners.
Uh . . . maybe not.
The way I heard the interview, the essence of Bird's answer was, "It would help the NBA appeal to more of its audience if some of the top players looked like its audience."
Makes sense, doesn't it?
How many times have we said, "Gosh, open-wheel racing would really benefit from having more American drivers"? Does that make us raging xenophobes?
As a follow-up, Tirico asked Stern, "So, in your opinion, does the NBA need a white superstar to help the growth of the league?"
That's when the commissioner, who is usually the smartest guy in the room, spouted a lot of pompous nonsense.
"I don't understand how we could grow it," he said. "Our ratings are up, our attendance is up, our sponsorship is up, everything is up."
Really? So why is it that unless the Lakers are in the Finals, the TV ratings are atrocious?
Consider this the final word from Bird. He's done with the issue. Can you blame him?
"From this point on," he said, "I'm finished with it."
My fear, though, is we'll all stop talking about these things. Because the price has become just too damned high.
Link (http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/155764-6640-179.html)