Letters to the Editor
convenientparking
Published Letters: 3 Editor's Choice: 1
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racial bias
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]That white refs would call fouls on black players more than black refs do suggests some racial bias. But black refs disproportionately call fouls on black players as well. Is this necessarily racial bias? Are we too afraid to even put the argument on the table that maybe black players do foul more? Maybe they don't, I just think it's something one could consider before saying there's a racial bias. Especially now that so many of the white players in the NBA are from Europe, it seems safe to say that white and black players grew up with two very different styles of play. Nobody questions this when it comes to the Olympics. Maybe black players tend to play a more physical game that leads to more fouls. This is not some argument deriving from racial essentialism, or from an idea of black players as "thugs." I just think we should allow for the possibility that people from different backgrounds might have different styles of play, and proceed from there.
Of course, this is an argument that we won't be able to start with numbers. People who watch a lot more basketball than I do would have to just go off their observation of the game and whether they think this tends to be the case. The risk then is using an outlier or two as representative of an entire race, but just using numbers alone seems to work from the dubious assumption that just because there is no innate difference between blacks and whites there is no possibility that their styles of play could be different.
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nba players--no defense
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Have people who say there's no defense in today's NBA watched much footage from the 80s? I've been watching games on ESPN Classic over the last couple years and been amazed how little players in that era (a Golden Era to most observers) put forth effort on the defensive end. It's like the players didn't care at all. They were just eager for the other team to hurry up and score so they could run down for another fast break.
But I really wonder if people who say there's no defense in the NBA watch games today much at all. The standard complaint about the league among people in the know for at least a decade has been that it's dominated by defense.
The other thing I've noticed? Those short shorts really emphasized how tall these guys are.
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Fisher
[Read the article: King Kaufman's Sports Daily]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Was anybody else as outraged as I was when Fisher walked into the building wearing a T-shirt and jeans? If he isn't fined for that I am going to begin the most vicious letter-writing campaign this nation has ever seen. Don't test me, Stern.