Miss Hill really outdid herself this time..thanks ESPN..thanks for the gift...

The problem with the 2004 team: Larry Brown.

Alpha, omega. Nothing more needs to be said.

 

This year-old quote is very weak stuff.

 

She's right.

There is a huge, HUGE racial component to the monotonous pissing and moaning about "fundamentals" and "playing the right way." As well as Brown's (and the overwhelmingly white media's) continual kvetching about "work ethic," "discipline" and one of his favorite lines: that the players on the 2004 team "had never been coached" before in their careers. Well of course not, they were dumb ghetto players playing for dumb ghetto coaches, not clean-cut hard-working guys playing for Larry Brown, who would have coached them "the right way."

Don't believe me, ask the black-power advocate David Stern, who was ready to launch Larry Brown with his bare hands midway through the Athens Games.

 

She stretched in some places -- the Bogut stuff was just stupid -- but this is actually a pretty solid take on race in sports. Not saying I agree with her all the way through, but it's thoughtful.

 

I read this piece looking for the horrible. Aside from her being incorrect on reaction the the U.S. Hockey team's action in Nagano -- hey, it got enough pub that she remembered it -- I'm not sure I see the problem. A lot of the reaction to 04 was a reaction against the NBA's culture.
She makes a legitimate point. She supports it reasonably well, except for the hockey thing.
I'm getting the impression that if Jemele had written "Death Of a Racehorse," people would be ripping it to shreds.

 

Re: Miss Hill really outdid herself this time..thanks ESPN..thanks for the gift.

And the genuine feeling that Bolt is the sensation of the Olympics is merely white guilt :

 

Great. She thought about it before she wrote this ridiculous piece of crap.

Edit: Twoback, it's bullshit. How exactly is the culture of this group of NBA players different from the one in '04?

Where is the quote from even ONE of these people she talked to to help her form this opinion?

I don't care who wrote it. Shaky concept. Crappy execution.

 

Re: Miss Hill really outdid herself this time..thanks ESPN..thanks for the gift.

Exactly how shallow does Hill think most black folks are investing any amount of self esteem in the play of a bunch of unrelated strangers on a basketball court? Besides being insecure, Ms. Hill is extraordinarily patronizing.

 

The column wasn't all that bad, but shouldn't it be better for ESPN.s Page 2? She also swuing and missed on two items: Every U.S. Olympic team is "thrown together," for the most part and she must not have read a single paper in 1998. That U.S Olympic hockey team was blasted and ripped every bit as much as the 2004 basketball team.

 

I'll say this for Jemele: she can knock a straw man on its ass as well as anyone.

 

WWWW: What Would Whitlock Write?

 

Re: Miss Hill really outdid herself this time..thanks ESPN..thanks for the gift.

Are white American women also supposed to feel especially good now that the USA Women's Soccer team redeemed itself with Hope Solo rather than Brianna Scurry? Come on Ms. Hill, STFU and have a bean pie