Micheal Ray Richardson is not Michael Richards
Can we just start the Final 4 already?
I already wrote a little bit about the Micheal Ray Richardson comments for the D.A.Y., and I was just going to let it die off, but a funny thing happened on my way back from Subway. (I no longer frequent Quizno’s ever since the suicide episode and the expose in the Times.) The Mitzvah tanks are out in full force, which happens every year around Passover time. As I was crossing the street, a young Hasidic boy, who must have been 12 years old at the very most, accosted me and asked if I was Jewish. I froze up and forgot to lie, and he started following me across the street, asking all kinds of personal questions.
He was really annoying me, and would not take no for an answer. He almost got hit by a car crossing the street after me, and finally gave up and found someone else to harass. But, I feel that his presence was a sign for me to write this post. Micheal Ray Richardson has been suspended because he made generalizations based in perceived reality about another race. Why he said it, I do not know. The best take I have seen on this issue is from Joey over at Straight Bangin’, and that’s only partially because he’s been at the forefront of pointing out the Jim Jones movement to make sure people know his lawyers are Jewish just like Jim would want people to know his car is a Mercedes. Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski has a slightly more doomsdayish approach, but I’m with Joey on this one.
Micheal Ray’s words are not nearly as bad as the Reggie White racial philosophy course, Tim Hardaway’s seminar on his personal convictions, or his unfortunate semi-namesake Kramer’s summertime ramblings. Micheal Ray’s words are more of a “What do you possibly have to gain by saying this?” moment. This whole story makes me wish it was the weekend already and the Final 4 was on right now. By the way, the National Championship is on Monday night, which is the first night of Passover. If there is a Jewish power conglomerate that runs the NCAA, they really need to hire some better schedule makers.
44 Responses to “Micheal Ray Richardson is not Michael Richards”
Mar.29 at 2:34 pm
yo says:
numero uno
Mar.29 at 2:45 pm
Co Co says:
Um First
Mar.29 at 2:48 pm
Nadav Mor says:
Wojnarowski is pretty crafty.
Mar.29 at 2:48 pm
Max Airington says:
Joey’s right, I think he thought he was being complimentary. He certainly wouldnt claim a Jewish wife and kid if he had kind of animosity. Too bad alot people arent going to remember that these were really good basketball players instead of really bad public speakers…and what about MJ?
Mar.29 at 2:50 pm
Co Co says:
Athletes former and present have got to stop generalizing entire races and groups publicly! Save it for your homeboys!
Mar.29 at 2:55 pm
Co Co says:
Off the subject, but is anyone from Slam going to be at the Oscar Robertson College Player of the Year Awards Breakfast at Philips Arena in Atlanta tomorrow?
Mar.29 at 2:55 pm
Matthew says:
Four words from the immortal Michael Ray….. “The Ship Be Sinking”
Mar.29 at 2:58 pm
mutoni says:
speaking of crafty journalism, check out wojnarowski’s o.j. mayo column
Mar.29 at 2:58 pm
Co Co says:
Damn you yo
Mar.29 at 3:07 pm
Chris says:
It’s amazing though that Richardson had no idea about political correctness. Even after being warned by the press that his statements could be construed as racist he didn’t stop and think to himself, you know, maybe I’ll quit while i’m ahead. Bottom line is don’t categorize an entire group of people as anything. It’s like when college coaches get in trouble for saying we need black athletes, everybody understands what they’re saying, and it’s not malicious, but it’s just not something you say in a public forum. Now whether or not society is too sensitive is a whole ‘nother topic
Mar.29 at 3:16 pm
jbn74sb says:
Good point Chris. And god knows that I would be in a boatload of trouble if anyone actually cared about the things that come out of my mouth. We all make generalizations all the time, and many of these are based on perceptions of race.
Mar.29 at 3:29 pm
Boing Dynasty says:
Doomsdayish. Yes!
Mar.29 at 3:30 pm
jbn74sb says:
Sam - Sharpen you battle axes, aka pen, well keyboard anyway. Simmons is openly cracking on Slam today in his OJ Mayo post. “Like it or not, Mayo’s style of game resonates with a certain demographic, with his final high school dunk symbolizing the divide between traditional fans and the budding generation that was weaned on Slam Magazine and me-first “superstars” like Stephon Marbury and Vince Carter (neither of whom have played on a 50-win NBA team, by the way).”
Mar.29 at 3:35 pm
Chris says:
Simmons is calling you out. I guess he’ll play the winner of the Dime/Slam battle-for-best “hip-hop” basketball magazine game
Mar.29 at 3:42 pm
mutoni says:
who’s simmons?
Mar.29 at 3:46 pm
jbn74sb says:
I hope you’re kidding mutoni. Simmons = The Sports Guy.
Mar.29 at 3:51 pm
mutoni says:
i’m joking. formulating some thoughts and possibly gonna write a rebuttal today or tomorrow.
Mar.29 at 3:52 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Oh, you mean the guy who writes 40,000,000 word columns about hanging out with his meathead friends in his converted garage?
Mar.29 at 3:53 pm
mutoni says:
no, i think he’s referring to the one who writes 40,000,000 word columns about hanging out with his friends in lambeau field.
Mar.29 at 3:58 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Oh yeah, and the idea of an ESPN shill blaming someone else for the me-first athlete culture is REALLLLLLLY funny. In fact, that may be the funniest thing Simmons has ever written. Because, you know, I’m sure this generation was way more affected by SLAM than, you know, SPORTSCENTER. Bill Simmons sucks.
Mar.29 at 4:02 pm
jbn74sb says:
Russ - great point about ESPN and the me-first athlete. Personally, I like Simmons’ writing, but read it for entertainment rather than for actually learning anything about sports.
Mar.29 at 4:02 pm
Vitor says:
I doubt it Russ. Has Sporstscenter ever shown a Vince Carter dunk or talked about TO? If so, I definitely can’t remember…
Mar.29 at 4:06 pm
Vitor says:
Oh, and you know what’s funny? Simmons keeps bringing up the race point in an argument that has nothing to do with race. That’s been a reocurring issue with his writing lately and that’s why he started writing 40,000,000 million word columns about his friends and opening way for his wife to write in his website
Mar.29 at 4:11 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
Even if you were to agree with Simmons point of view, he really shouldn’t be writing that if he’s getting paid by espn.
By the way, you may notice that the front page of slamonline today is Khalid’s TEAM cover story of the Suns, and Russ has a TEAM story about the Bulls in the issue.
Mar.29 at 4:16 pm
jbn74sb says:
In terms of readership, Simmons unprovoked and misdirected attacks on Slam will probably be a good thing for you guys. And, who knows how his column was edited - perhaps he did blame sportscenter and “they” took it out.
Mar.29 at 4:23 pm
mutoni says:
slam doesn’t care about winning!
Mar.29 at 4:39 pm
SK says:
I think its funny that the guy who wrote “It’s Tanktastic!” urging the Celtics to lose games is complaining that Celtics players aren’t really upset about losing games. By ‘funny’ I mean ‘mind-bogglingly hypocritical’, but you knew that.
Mar.29 at 4:52 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
I liked the Simmons column because it had links to the latest Real World information and a story about a girl breaking into a frat house to masturbate.
Mar.29 at 5:00 pm
dez says:
Bill Simmons doesn’t need to talk about race in his columns. Thats why ESPN bought Scoop Jackson. ZING!
Mar.29 at 5:05 pm
Vitor says:
Maybe now Slam buys a guy to just write about his buddies and reality shows?
Mar.29 at 5:06 pm
mutoni says:
i like the sound of a “marcel quickie”. my girlfriend isn’t a big fan, though.
Mar.29 at 5:27 pm
Max Airington says:
The me first era of basketball started before SLAM was even a thought and Simmons knows that. He’s getting increasingly lazy.
Mar.29 at 5:29 pm
Gilbert0 says:
mutoni, didnt you used to post on the sons of the sports guy site? i remember you being a simmons defender, though i may be wrong
Mar.29 at 5:35 pm
Gilbert0 says:
dont get carried away, it wasn’t a bashing SLAM column. I thought it was one of the better columns Simmons has written lately, he made some very good points.
Mar.29 at 5:42 pm
chiqo says:
championship game is always the first monday in april. it’s tradition. passover? not so much.
Mar.29 at 6:19 pm
allenp says:
My biggest complaint was his comment about the Suns Mavs game, versus Kobe’s recent streak. The Suns/Mavs game was hyped to the rafters, in fact dozens of columnists wrote columns saying that it was one of the few games that actually lived up to advance hype. It also spawned hundreds of columns about whether Dirk was a choker.
Simmons failure to remember that was ridiculous. MOre importantly, Kobe has played amazing all year, and then took it to another level with the scoring binge, which is why he deserved all the credit he got. The column was full of lazy generalizations stated as fact that will get repeated by the millions of people who read Simmons. I miss Ralph Wiley.
Mar.29 at 6:31 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Simmons also fails to mention that our high school diary keeper ALL YEAR was Kevin Love, his new favorite. Thanks for reading, Bill.
Mar.29 at 6:33 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
Not to mention his first link after all that proselytizing is…glorifying a show-off high school dunker.
Mar.29 at 6:33 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
He puts the hip in hypocrite.
Mar.29 at 6:37 pm
scott says:
Stephon Marbury and Vince Carter have more Slam covers then Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki. Damn you Slam you are killing the NBA. Damn you.
Mar.29 at 6:52 pm
mutoni says:
i’m not sure, but i think chuck klosterman hates the internet, or people who write on the internet. check out his latest post.
Mar.29 at 7:13 pm
jbn74sb says:
Klosterman’s writing style is bitten by many. In fact, I think he may ghost write Paul Shirley’s stuff. For extra points, check out how frequently he begins sentences with “As such,…”
Mar.29 at 9:40 pm
sj2u says:
This whole thing started me thinking about how many times I’ve said something that didn’t come out quite the way I wanted it to, and what would happen if it were published. I know Micheal and he’s probably the least racist person I know. And, in the original article, the reporter was the first one to throw out the term “crafty” when referring to Jews. Amazingly enough, no one’s talking about him being racist. Why is it we hold sports figures to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?
Mar.30 at 10:10 am
Sam Rubenstein says:
Klosterman’s first post makes a little crack about XXL magazine, which is very co-incidental with the Slam mention in Simmons’ column (even if that was just a throwaway line as part of his bigger point.) Clearly the overlords at Disney are commanding their writers to try and start little drama/beefs. After some thought, we plan to take the high road this time and ignore it.