Gender equity in the big leagues

Ed. here. Walt has been down in the dumps, and I don't mean the one in which is located the perpetual Fort Mudge tire fire. He has been pondering the meaning of life but has arrived at no conclusion worth sharing with us. 

The slush pile has melted away, so I've asked Poor Len Canayen, our National Sports (As Long As It's Hockey) Editor, to contribute something. He replied, "Whaddya whaddya... it's another five weeks until the NHL season opens!" But he did attach this little gem from the Patriot Post.

UPDATED: Thoughts on the death of Kobe Bryant

So, farewell then, Kobe Bryant. News of your death in a helicopter crash has pushed the Wuhan corona virus down to second place in both the USA and China. Jack Nicholson thought you were great, but you were really the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). You once scored 81 points in a game against the Toronto Raptors. And you inspired P.K. Subban to be the "transcendant defenceman" that Dave Stubbs thinks he is. [Isn't that another sport? Ed.]

Between now and Groundhog Day, Walt expects to hear "Amazing Grace" sung (badly) many many times. But you won't hear it. Rest in peace.

UPDATE ADDED 28/1/20. The Washington Post has suspended typist Felicia Sonmez for tweeting the link to "Kobe Bryant opens up about how rape charges changed him", originally posted on the NBC Sports website, 16/7/12. De mortuis nil nisi bonum, eh, WaPo?

UPDATED: NBA championship celebrations: a black day for Toronto

Agent 3 was born in Toronto and went to school there for a time, in the daze when it was "Toronto the Good". Now he avoids the self-styled "world-class city" like the plague. A report sent to us last night explains why.

Last Friday, Canada's only NBA team, the Raptors, defied the odds-makers and denigrators of Toronto sports teams (Hello, Poor Len!) by winning Game 6 of the NBC championship series, beating the Golden State Warriors in a very close, seesaw battle. Cue pandemonium in downtown Toronto, including a shooting that took place as celebrations were wrapping up. Inspector Knacker said a 19-year-old man became involved in an altercation with another man, who produced a gun, shot the 19-year-old man and continued to shoot even as the man had fallen with life-threatening injuries.

The suspect then fled with a group of friends, but was stopped by cops who were surveilling [Is this a word? Ed.] the area. Guns and drugs were seized. Charges were laid against... wait for it... Abdulrahman Abdullahi, Kamal Hassan, Ilyas Riyaleh, Jovane Watson, Zachary Cust and Nathaniel Campbell, all from Toronto.

While the [insert adjective] Six were appearing in court on Monday, well over a million basketball lovers were converging on Nathan Phillips Square (= city hall square) for the official celebration. Canuck Prime Minister Just In Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, and Toronto Mayor John Tory (a liberal, in spite of his surname) were on hand to gush about diversity being Canada's strength and how the Raptors were "Canada's team" even though not a single player was born in the Great No-longer-white North.

Just as the circle jerk was getting under way, shots rang out near the south-east corner of the square. Police originally said that that two people were found with serious, but non-life-threatening injuries near Bay and Albert streets. Toronto's head cop (who is black, by the way) later told the meeja that the number of wounded was, errr, four. "Officers arrived relatively quickly," he said, "and as a result of that three people were arrested in total, two on one incident and one on another."

Investigators also said that two firearms had been recovered. No information was provided regarding charges or the identities or diversity of those arrested. Earlier in the day, four people were injured in two separate stabbing incidents near the Eaton Centre, a popular hangout for certain types, just northeast of city hall. Police have not made any connection between any of the incidents, except maybe the common thread which cannot be mentioned for reasons of political correctness.

In a statement released sometime later, Toronto Mayor John Tory had nothing to say about the "incident" except that "it is disappointing and I'm sure a source of anger for more than just me that anyone would carry a gun and discharge it at what was otherwise a joyous celebration. I hope those found responsible will be held to account to the full extent that the law permits."

He didn't say anything about the elephant in the room, which is Toronto's ongoing problem with black crime, which is one of the poisoned fruits of Canada's open-door policy on immigration, begun 50 years ago by Trudeau Père. Hands up, all those who think that the perpetrators (and victims) of the violence which marred the celebrations were white, old-stock Canadians. Anybody? I thought not. Says Agent 3, "I could have cleaned up betting on that, but couldn't find a bookie who would give more than 3 to 1."

UPDATE ADDED at 1617: The Toronto Police Service [sic] has released the names of the three men arrested at the scene of the shooting: They are Shaquille Anthony Miller, Thaino Toussaint, and Abdikarim Kerow. They all face a number of firearms and drug charges, but the coppers haven't hit them with attempted murder... yet.

Further reading: "Raptors parade was a disaster on many levels", by Steve Simmons, Toronto Sun, 18/6/19

Further viewing: "Diversity Our Strength" - stream of consciousness about the "diverse city" (geddit?) with (Torontonian) Faith J. Goldy, 18/6/19

Snoop Dog vs P.K. Subban... next year ???

Poor Len Canayen is having a longer-than-hoped-for summer vacation. But he's keeping his eye on all things Canadien (as in Canada's Team) and noticed a small announcement buried deep inside La Presse.

Seems like the Habs' alleged defenceman, P.K. Subban, knows that knowledgeable hockey types have seen through his act, and has decided to try his luck on the basketball court -- basketball being a game more suited to folks like him. As a warm-up, his PR people organized a friendly match between him and Snoop Dog [Who dat? Ed.], which was to have been held a week from today as part of the "Juste pour rire" ("Just for laughs") festival.

Note the tense there -- "was to have been held". The squib seen by Poor Len announced that the duel has been postponed until... wait for it... the summer of 2017. The official reason given is so that they could stage the event in the Bell Centre, and get bigger names, thus bigger crowds. As well, 2017 will be the 35th anniversary of "Juste pour rire" and the 375th anniversary of Montréal. Makes sense, eh.

Poor Len discounts the notion that the postponement has something to do with the uncertainty of Subban's future with la Sainte Flannelle. Less than four weeks remain until the no-trade clause in his contract kicks in. Stay tuned.

NBA rookie fears getting attacked in Toronto because he's white

Walt got taken to task for suggesting, in "Atlanta Hawks owner shares his thoughts about black fans vs white fans" that professional basketball is a sport played by black men for black fans. OK, don't take my word for it. Check out the following article, picked up from The Sports Exchange today.

Sacramento Kings rookie Nik Stauskas, who said Sunday night that the Toronto Raptors were attacking him because he was white, is surprised at reaction to his comments.

The former Michigan shooting guard drafted eighth overall in the NBA draft said he was not looking for sympathy Sunday when he said: "I understand that I'm a rookie and I'm white, so people are going to attack me at all times. Just coming out there in the game, I felt it right away."

After another game with the Raptors on Tuesday, Stauskas tried to explain his perspective without backing away from the statement.

"I was very surprised," Stauskas said in an interview with a Kings' blog site, Cowbell Kingdom. "People kind of took it too far with what I was trying to say. I wasn't trying to get anyone to feel sorry for me. I wasn't trying to be controversial or anything like that. I was just trying to keep it real."

"As a rookie in the NBA, you're going to get attacked on the court, you see that tonight," Stauskas continued. "People make a point to go at me. It has a lot to do with reputation and kind of stereotypes of what your game is. For me, I look at my reputation, people look at me and obviously, I'm not the best defender in the world, so people are going to make a point to go at me and try to attack me as much as they can. That's really what I was trying to say."

Stauskas said his feelings were based on experiences on the court and he does not apologize for treading on sensitive ground.

"I've said stuff like that before and I don't take that back, because I'm not trying to offend anyone, I'm not trying to be controversial, I'm just saying that's just really how I feel," he said. "Some people may have a problem with it, some people may not, but if you've ever played the game of basketball, you understand that there's certain stereotypes and certain reputations that certain players have and based on that, people are going to play a certain way against you."

Atlanta Hawks owner shares his thoughts about black fans vs white fans VIDEO ADDED: Mob of black yoofs go nuts in Memphis

A little over two years ago, Bruce Levenson, owner of the NBA Atlanta Hawks, was musing about his difficulties in building a substantial fan base, selling season tickets and attracting corporate sponsors. Unfortunately for Mr. Levenson, he chose to put his observations in the form of an e-mail, which he has now been forced to repudiate.

Such is the pressure of "public opinion", as shaped by the lamestream media. It's one thing to say the unsayable, but woe betide you if you put in writing the notion that there is any difference of culture, behaviour and so on between white folks and black folks.

What Mr. Levenson wrote, in August 2012, was that he had concluded that "southern whites" were uncomfortable at Hawks games. "My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base.

Mr. Levenson said he often heard fans say the area around Philips Arena in downtown Atlanta is dangerous. "When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place," he wrote, "I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games."

Hawks crowds are 70% black, said the team's owner. The team's cheerleaders are black and hip-hop music was played at games. But, he said, "There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority.... Then I start looking around at other arenas. It is completely different."

Though he said he disagreed with the conclusion, he said he told team executives to add white cheerleaders and music "familiar to a 40-year-old white guy."

What Mr. Levenson said two years ago, as Walt reads it, is that basketball is a black game played by black men for black fans. No kidding! But now, for the sin of making this "racist" observation public, he feels compelled to sell his controlling interest in the team, and will be doing so on Saturday. Here's part of his grovelling mea culpa.

"I wrote an e-mail two years ago that was inappropriate and offensive. I trivialized our fans by making clichéd assumptions about their interests (i.e. hip hop vs. country, white vs. black cheerleaders, etc.) and by stereotyping their perceptions of one another (i.e. that white fans might be afraid of our black fans). By focusing on race, I also sent the unintentional and hurtful message that our white fans are more valuable than our black fans.

"If you're angry about what I wrote, you should be. I'm angry at myself, too. It was inflammatory nonsense. We all may have subtle biases and preconceptions when it comes to race, but my role as a leader is to challenge them, not to validate or accommodate those who might hold them."

Any suggestion that Mr. Levenson's eating of this heaping platter of crow [No racist remarks, please! Ed.] is in any way connected to the financial difficulties of the franchise is, of course, completely unwarranted.

Comment from Poor Len Canayen: I don't think it's a race thing. Atlanta sports fan like football and baseball and that's all. Look at the fortunes of hockey in Atlanta, where not one but two NHL franchises -- the Flames and the Thrashers -- both failed to draw flies. And hockey is a white man's game!

VIDEO UPDATE: If you can't understand why white people would be nervous being surrounded by a mob of blacks, check out this video of what happened on Sept. 6th at a Kroger store in Memphis TN. According to witnesses, a mob of teens attacked store employees at the front entrance to the store, then an elderly customer in the parking lot. [If the video won't load, you'll find a link below. Ed.]



Speaking of being afraid to tell the truth, this video was posted to Facebook by "a witness", but has since been taken down. And now, for some reason, Ed. isn't seeing it here, even though it seems to be there when we preview the page in Blogger. If it's not working for you either, you can see it here on LiveLeak.

You may be interested, too, in the report on WMC-TV, detailing the official response from the police and other community leaders, who managed to avoid mentioning, even once, that the perps were black yoofs!

If you find any of this hard to understand, check out the video in yesterday's post "Racial violence in the USA: the real story".