why are the biggest jerks in sports basketball players....discuss

[enigami]

[ugarte]

1. What makes you say that?

Who did you have in mind?

[H2O Man]

2. I respectfully disagree.

They are merely the highest profile jerks. I think that in basketball, the flashy players have been considered more of a draw. Guys like Tim Duncan should be getting the highlights as far as being what athletes should be like. But there are "jerks" in every sport, with the possible exception of boxing.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Huh? Except In Boxing

Roberto Duran, Mike Tyson, Bazooka Limon, Sonnie Liston, and the list goes on and on. Jerk after jerk.

Sorry, waterman, but boxing is not devoid of jerks.
The Professor

[H2O Man]

16. With the exception

of Charles "Sonny" Liston, I agree with your list, and could add a hundred more easily. I was making a small joke. I will say that I have found boxers as a group to be the most decent group of people on earth. There are, I recognize, some jerks. Most managers are shits, and almost without exception, promoters are parasites.

[HuckleB]

3. Bill Romanowski and Barry Bonds were/are basketball players?

;)

[northzax]

4. because they're black?

and society forgives white people much more than blacks?

nahh, couldn't be that, right?

[H2O Man]

5. ???

I don't follow your logic.

[northzax]

6. yes you do

the NBA has created a thug lifestyle image for it's players who are overwhelmingly young, black and urban. Current US culture os much more forgiving of whites than blacks, it's racist and unfortunate, but true. Think about it. You hear all the time about white players doing things for the community and being leaders in the community than black players. I'm in DC and all the talk's been about Kwame Brown lately. Well, what few people mention is that he spends a large amount of time and money with kids in the community.

The media is, as a general rule, more forgiving of whites than blacks, especially when the NBA encourages the thug image among its players. notice how white coaches get fired and then immediately rehired by another team? notice how black coaches don't get immediately rehired?

look, not everything is about race, but basketball has cultivated this image of urban thug life among the young black multimillionaires who play the sport. And we see them upclose, more so than any other sport, so we feel like we know them. And society is not comfortable with young, rich black men acting out a thug fantasy. they love to cover it, we love to watch, but it scares middle aged white guys, there's the thrill of the thing.

[H2O Man]

7. I know all about

the problems with racism against black basketball players even at the high school level. I have some nephews who were held to a very different playing field than their white team mates and opponents. They were also treated differently in literally every other sport, from pee-wee league baseball up. I'm not sure that this translates into the OP being anti-black. It may indeed be the case, but I didn't see any evidence of it. People can find the current behavior of some athletes in basketball offensive without being racist in the least. The obvious example, I would suggest, would be black fans who would prefer than those players you mention conduct themselves in a different manner.

[northzax]

8. you're right, I never meant to impugn the OP

in any way. I am just talking about society as a whole. We (society) encourage this behaviour and then profess shock. Look at, say, Carmello Anthony. He is filmed in a movie encouraging the killing of witnesses, and his shoe sales go up. LeBron may actually be good enough to avoid needing 'street cred' to sell himself, but few other athletes are. Society rewards them, just as society rewards Rock musicians who trash their hotel rooms and rap stars who act like Snoop, the more credibility you have, the more you sell.

[H2O Man]

9. Okay.

I'm old and slow. I mistook you meaning at first. Sorry. But I agree with what you are saying. One of the athletes that is the most impressive in all of sports is Tim Duncan. But the media ignores him to a large extent.

My favorite sport is boxing. There are some funny things in the media reporting on fighters. Now, Mike Tyson has done some fucked-up things. But no matter what he does today, the media will only try to mak him into a freak. Yet Evander Holyfield, who can be a creep, is made to look like a gentleman.

[northzax]

10. and they will likewise lionize

the next big slow white guy to come along, right? I mean how much did the main stream media (I don't read the boxing press) lionize those Russian twins, for being brilliant and all? and the next big thing.

and how much were they not the next big thing?

[H2O Man]

12. Great White Hope syndrom.

Jerry Quarry, Gerry Cooney, and on and on. Watch the interest when Tyson's fight comes up in June. "Can McBride win?" Yeah, it's there in boxing .... from amateurs to pros.

I remember watching Ray Leonard fight a Soviet boxer in the 1976 Olympics. I was in a bar, and a number of people were cheering for the Russian. They felt they had more in common with him than with the black American.

[ProfessorGAC]

15. You Can Count Me In

I think it unseemly and preposterous for any multimillionaire to act like a street thug, trying to "keep it real".

I notice they all drive $100k cars, and live in $2 million homes. Not exactly keepin' it real, are they?

I find it offensively stupid. Not threatening, just ridiculous. And, anybody who thinks it's because i'm racist will have words with me.
The Professor

[ThorsHammer]

20. My thoughts exactly (nt)

[democracyindanger]

11. They're tall?

[joeybee12]

13. Because they have only 5 starters, not 9 like baseball, not 22+ like

football.

There's lots of reasons, but I think in sheer numbers since you only have five prima donnas there's more attention focused on them, and the more some of them lap it up and act the part.

Could it also be that you can play in the NBA without going to college? Can't do that in football--no high school senior is big enough to make the leap. And in baseball you need to make the minor league route to get up to speed. In other words, you're older and wiser and have taken a few knocks before you get to the big times.

[Yupster]

17. thought of this too Joybee

Basketball teams are dominated by 1 or 2 players much more than football or baseball.

Maybe you can make exceptions of quarterbacks and some running backs, but most star football players are unknown since they are linemen etc. Few baseball players ever dominate a team.

However, almost every basketball team has 1-2 recognizable stars - well unless you're the Hawks.

I also disagree to a point about only pushing the bad guys. I think NBA players who are good guys are recognized more than similar baseball or football players.

Examples of long-time stars with very good reputations would be Michael Jordan, David Robinson, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Reggie Miller. I don't think the average person would recognize as good guys a similar group of baseball or football players.

Or maybe it's just me since I watch basketball more than the other sports. I enjoy the history of baseball more though.

[joeybee12]

18. I'm not much of a pro basketball fan--I love college basketball, but

can't get into pro.

Anyway, basketball seems to have hit a low point over the last year, and maybe we're focusing on it more. The trials of Kobe Bryant, added onto the cat fights within the Lakers was what the media focused on.

We'll see if the steroid "investigation" goes anywhere in baseball--maybe the focus will change?

[theboss]

19. No other athletes are coddled at so young an age

Baseball players aren't really identified until high school. Then they have to go to the gulags of the Minor Leagues for a few years.

Football players are coddled by their high schools and coddled by their colleges. But they still have to go through a pretty elaborate system to get to the NFL. And then, they are one of 11 people on a side and are covered in armor. Aside from the very best, they also aren't paid nearly as much as basketball players and can be cut at any time.

Basketball players are identified in 6th Grade. They are coddled by street agents, AAU coaches, high school coaches, college recruiters, and are given millions at age 18. And every dollar they sign for is guaranteed. You can sign a $70 million deal, get fat, and play ten minutes a night. And they can't touch the money.

How can you possibly have a normal worldview?