Hey, Bryant, how's your mom doing?
From Black Sports Online:
Bryant Gumbel calls David Stern a "Plantation Overseer"
I am not a fan of David Stern. I have often referred to as Napoleon Stern and question his motives in trying to make the NBA less “hip hop”, but at no time should he be compared to a slave owner.
Not when Gilbert Arenas will collect over 100 million in basketball salaries. Nothing about the NBA should be equated to slavery. I don’t know if Bryant Gumbel is trying to get his “black card” back, but he went to far.
What follows is the entire closing comments, courtesy HBO. Know that some players are saying very much this same thing when the microphones are off. Hat tip to Paulie Pabst (of the Dan Patrick Show) for pointing this out.
“Finally tonight, if the NBA lockout is going to be resolved any time soon, it seems likely to be done in spite of David Stern, not because of him. I say that because the NBA’s infamously egocentric commissioner seems more hell-bent lately on demeaning the players than resolving his game’s labor impasse.
How else to explain Stern’s rants in recent days? To any and everyone who’d listen, he has alternately knocked union leader Billy Hunter, said the players were getting inaccurate information, and started sounding chicken-little claims about what games might be lost if the players didn’t soon see things his way.
Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner, who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer treating NBA men as if they were his boys. It’s part of Stern’s M.O. Like his past self-serving edicts on dress code or the questioning of officials, his moves are intended to do little more than show how he’s the one keeping the hired hands in their place.
Some will, of course, cringe at that characterization, but Stern’s disdain for the players is as palpable and pathetic as his motives are transparent. Yes, the NBA’s business model is broken, but to fix it, maybe the league’s commissioner should concern himself most with a solution, and stop being part of the problem.”
The sad part about these comments is if he leaves out the Plantation part they are valid points, but because he included it the entire message is lost.
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