LeBron James on Equality

Tarheel State Must Jump Thru LGBTQQ? Hoops to Host NBA All-Star Game

Reacting the North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory (R-NC) signing HB2 "The Bathroom Bill", the National Basketball Association has threatened the Tar Heel State that Charlotte is in jeopardy because the law discriminates against transgendered persons from using whatever bathroom they feel like visiting at that time.



Other sports leagues have threatened to boycott places to pressure governments to change their laws, like the NCAA's 15 year ban on South Carolina hosting sporting events over the Confederate battle flag flying on state capitol grounds in Columbia, or the NFL threatening to move a Super Bowl from Arizona over the state enforcing federal law on illegal immigration.

It is curious to see how the NBA is going to great lengths to protest this "discrimination" of people having different genitalia using separate waste evacuation facilities which has been in place for generations and is rife for confusion and abuse. 

This sort of progressive pressure again demonstrates that sports has been politicized by the tyranny of liberal fascism.

On Unteachable Skills

Louis Farrakhan on Basketball

During an annual Savior's Day Convention in Detroit, Michigan, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan compared well compensated pro basketball players to slaves.

The 82 year old Farrakhan seem to take particular umbrage at how players are drafted by teams. Farrakhan told the crowd at Joe Louis Arena:

 
Well, that’s that what you do in sports. You run up and down the field, show them how swift you are, how clever you are. And they’re sitting there, watching you, timing you: ‘That’s a good one. I’ll get him. I’m drafting him.'

Perhaps Farrakhan condemnations might not have been so harsh had his grandson Mustaffah Farrakhan done better in the NBA draft.   Alas, for now the 27 year old languishes in the NBA Development League with the Oklahoma City Blue 

R.I.P Meadowlark Lemon: Athlete; Entertainer; Evangelist

Basketball legend Meadowlark Lemon died at age 83 in Scottdale, Arizona on December 27, 2015.  Lemon was the court jester of the Harlem Globetrotters for 22 seasons before venturing off to play for the Bucketeers, then later with the Shooting Stars and in 1988 starting "Meadowlark Lemon's All Stars".  In 1994, Lemon played 50 games for the Harlem Globetrotters while still playing for his own touring team.

In Meadowlark Lemon's prime, he played 325 games a year. After missing one game in Germany after a bad meal of goulash in 1955,  Lemon played  7,500 consecutive games for the Harlem Globetrotters, which was the equivalent of 92 NBA seasons. But Lemon was known for more than his perfect attendance on the courts.   

Wilt Chamberlain played with Meadowlark Lemon for the 1958-59 season on the Harlem Globetrotters.  Wilt Chamberlain lauded Lemom shortly before his Wilt's death in 1999:  “Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I've ever seen.  People would say it would be Dr. J or even [Michael] Jordan. For me it would be Meadowlark Lemon.”  Lemon could make unbelievable behind the back half-court baskets and was known for his long range hook shot. 

Supplementing his superior skill set at basketball fundamentals, Meadowlark Lemon was a showman.  He enthusiastically embraced being the "Clown Prince" of basketball, by doing a regular shtick of throwing a bucket-full of confetti and pulling down the pants of referees.  Meadowlark Lemon was inducted into both the Basketball Hall of Fame and the International Clown Hall of Fame. 

Aside from being an athlete and an entertainer, Meadowlark Lemon had a spiritual side.  Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and a Doctor of Divinity in 1988 from Vision International University.  Along with his second wife Dr. Cynthia Lemon, he founded  Meadowlark Lemon Ministries with a mission "Changing lives to change the world" by   leveraging his books, media, evangelical outreach along with Camp Meadowlark basketball camp as inspiration to stay focused and finish strong message aimed at keep kids away from the path of substance abuse. 

Meadowlark Lemon Ministries has a special outreach to youths in detention facilities and prisons.  Meadowlark's message to these troubled souls is that you are not alone, you are uniquely special, God has great plans for you and you are forgiven. 

Through his excellence on the courts and comedy, Meadowlark Lemon could entertain and elevate his fans.  Parlaying his successes on the court to his ministry, Meadowlark Lemon helped elevate himself and others to a higher level. Rest In Peace Clown Prince of Basketball. 

John Wooden on Prudence

Mike Kzyzewski on Responsibility

Chris Rock on the Final Four

Geno Auriemma: Men's College Basketball Is a Joke

University of Connecticut Women's Basketball Coach Geno Auriemma had harsh words for Men's College Basketball, pronouncing it a joke.  Auiemma believes that bolstering offense is the key to keep hoops with the times. 

Those were fighting words to ESPN commentator (and former University of Detroit Titan coach) Dick Vitale,who has made his career on college basketball, thus he thinks the current men's basketball game is, to use his lingo, AWESOME BABY.

Does Coach Auriemma think that having a three point line (which is significantly closer than the pros) does not add to the offense?  How about the shot clock, which mooted the Tar Heels infamous Four Corners offense?  Is Auriemma's objection to the recent  NCAA rule on charging which no longer sanctions physical play driving to to basket?  Does the UConn Coach consider that the NBA has drifted away from scoring free for alls that were commonplace during the 1980s?

For me, what makes the college game exciting is the rawness of the talent.  Most men's teams do not sport three starters who will make it into the pros.  Many need to develop their skills and rely on teamwork to be successful.  For men's college football, the strategy coming from the coach is key. If college basketball becomes a scoring-centric sport, strategy will become negligable 

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Cantankerous Knicks Owner Sent Poison Pen Piece to an Angry Fan

James Dolan, the CEO of Cablevision and owner of the New York Knicks (not the Archbishop of New York) has a reputation for being cantankerous.  Dolan embodied that idiosycrasy in his email exchange with an angry Knicks fan.

Irving Bierman, a 73 year old Knicks fan sent Dolan a cri-de-coeur as the Knicks are 10-41, which is the worst record in the NBA.  Bierman wrote:

60 year Knicks fan Irving Bierman [photo: Mike Spencer for New York Daily News 

"I have been a Knicks fan since 1952. At one stage I thought that you did a wonderful thing when you acquired EVERYTHING from your dad. However, since then it has been ALL DOWN HILL.  

Your working with Isaiah (sic) Thomas & everything else regarding the Knicks. Bringing on Phil Jackson was a positive beginning, but lowballing Steve Kerr was a DISGRACE to the Knicks. The bottom line is that you merely continued to interfere with the franchise.

As a Knicks fan for in excess of 60 years, I am utterly embarrassed by your dealings with the Knicks. Sell them so their fans can at least look forward to growing them in a positive direction Obviously, money IS NOT THE ONLY THING. You have done a lot of utterly STUPID business things with the franchise. Please NO MORE." 

Granted, Bierman's critical sentiments must have been hard for the Knicks owner to hear.  But Dolan would take no guff from a plebian fan of the Knicks.  So Dolan retorted with a poison pen piece.

[Front-Center] New York Knicks owner James Dolan

"Mr Bierman. You are a sad person. Why would anybody write such a hateful letter. I am just guessing but ill bet your life is a mess and you are a hateful mess. What have you done that anyone would consider positive or nice. I am betting nothing. In fact ill bet you are a negative force in everyone who comes in contact with you. You most likely have made your family miserable. Alcoholic maybe. I just celebrated my 21-year anniversary of sobriety. You should try it. Maybe it will help you become a person that folks would like to have around. In the mean while, start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you."

 Wow.  How to win friends and influence people--not!  It might have been a satisfying cathartic to put an angry fan "in his place" and tell him to switch allegiance but to pull out from your nether regions an ad hominem insinuation that your interlocutor is an alcoholic is remarkable.




Irving Bierman offered a measured response as he noted that he has not drank alcohol since he was 18. Bierman still stands by his critique: "[Dolan] has the audacity to tell me to become a Nets fan - you got to be kidding me.  He gets belligerent because I expressed an opinion.  It's a valid opinion." Bierman's wife was a little more colorful calling Knicks owner Dolan "a sick puppy".

Assuredly this exchange was not private as it was shared via social media. Last season, the NBA forced Donald Sterling to sell his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers due to some untoward comments made in private. But Jimmy Dolan nixed a longtime Knicks fan in the arena of public opinion.

New York Knicks fans have the highest average ticket prices in the NBA at $129.38 for a hopelessly uncompetitive team.  Some sports franchises do well despite not having success on the playing field. The Chicago Cubs have not won the World Series in over a century (nor played in the Championship Series since 1945), yet they have a fiercely loyal fan base which included storied Bleacher Bums. But Wrigley Field is considered "A Nice Little Place on the North Side" by George Will (2014) and the Cubs has developed connections between the team and the fans. It can be argued that before the Brooklyn Dodgers abandoned the bandbox Ebbits Field, they were liked and considered vital parts of the community.

 Dolan showed his contempt of longtime loyal fans in his bilious bloviation by put them in their place  unjustifiable character smears. What a small man with horrible P.R. skills! What does that say about the man?  With Dolan in charge, is that the sort of franchise you would want to spend your time and treasure?

In the land of the free, people should have the right to say what they want (as long as it is true) even if they sound idiotic.  A league should not enforce political correctness as it did in taking the reins from Donald Sterling.  That being said, that does not mean that fans do not have any sway.

The NBA is holding its All Star Game on February 15th and guess who's hosting it?  New York City (Brooklyn) where Jimmy Dolan urges disappointed Knicks fans to cheer.

h/t: Deadspin

A Tribute to Dean Smith

Dean Smith, the coach of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels from 1961 to 1997, died on February 7th, 2015 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the age of 83.  Smith had been suffering from advanced dementia for years.

Dean Smith retired with 879 wins under his belt with the 9th highest winning percentage in college basketball (77.6%).  During his tenure as the head coach of the Tar Heels, Smith's teams appeared in 11 NCAA Final Four games and won two national championships in 1982 and 1993. While the recent exposure of the Tar Heel Paper Courses scandal took away some of the luster from the 1993 championship, Smith's motto about mistakes offers a positive way forward.  

Although Dean Smith did not have a set coaching style, his Tar Heel teams tended to feature a fast break half court offense that stressed passing along with a trapping defense that created turnovers and easy baskets.  Smith's coaching popularized the "tired signal" of a raised fist, huddles before free throws, having point guards call out set defenses.  Dean Smith innovated several defensive sets, including the point zone, double teaming the screen and roll and the run and jump. 

Dean Smith was also known for employing the Four Corners Offense, which a team with a lead stalled.   The NCAA instituted a shot clock in 1985 to speed up play and discourage ball control offense thereby foiling the Four Corners Offense.

Tar Heels and college hoops fans will mourn the passing of Dean Smith.

Mike Krzyzewski on Strategy

Longtime Duke University and Team USA Olympics basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski was awarded the George Marshall Medal by the Association of the United States Army for his selfless work to support troops and their families.  

During his acceptance speech at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Coach K offered some cogent yet incisive criticisms on current events.  Without mentioning any names, Krzyzewski intimated how strategic thought from the parquet courts could assist formulation of policy at Foggy Bottom or even "in the Oval". 

If only President Obama would spend less time on Barack-etology (sic) during March Madness, and more time on executing his primary duties as Commander-in-Chief, we might be able to achieve results, even without actually putting boots on the ground.  But a leader who insists on  transparently telegraphing strategic taboos  about the red line which he won't cross gives advantage to opponents.

Kobe Bryant on Competition

Tar Heel "Paper Course" to Ensure Eligibility for Athletes Now a Public Fail

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is again embroiled in an embarrassing controversy which now impeaches both the Tar Heels  athletic as well as academic reputation.  To try to settle the matter, the University of North Carolina hired Kenneth Wainstein to investigate scholarly controversies in Chapel Hill.  

What Attorney Wainstein found was that from 1993 to 2009, Dr. Julius Nyang'oro "taught" an African American studies course at UNC.  During those 18 years, 3100 students (among them 1500 Tar Heel student-athletes) took a phantom course with easy grades.

In universities with competitive intercollegiate athletic programs, often there are courses which have an easy reputation where many student athletes are enrolled. These student-athletes may also have tutors to make sure that learning is achieved thereby retaining academic eligibility.  

 Dr. Nyang'oro's "shadow curriculum", however, went beyond the pale.  Students in his African American Independent Studies courses never had to meet with the professor, or their scheduled classes actually never occurred. The grade was derived entirely from a single paper, which was often plagiarized and padded. Then these paper were given a cursory read and generously graded by Deborah Crowder, a non-academic motivated to help struggling athletes.

These academic abuses came to light when Nyang'oro retired in 2012. In December 2013, a grand jury charged Nyang'oro with a felony for taking $12,000 for a class which was never held.   These criminal fraud charges were later dropped when Nyang'oro cooperated with authorities like Wainstein, although Chapel Hill did deduct $12,000 from Nyang'oro's final paycheck. 

For several years, administrators in Chapel Hill were content with the conceit that this phantom curriculum was confined to a couple of rogues in the African American Studies department. But Wainstein's investigation, along with academic advisor whistleblower Mary Willingham has revealed a more extensive and sinister customary operating procedure at Chapel Hill for struggling student athletes.

As an academic advisor for athletes, Willingham was a learning specialist designated to help athletes who were not academically equipped for coursework at Chapel Hill to pass their classes.  Willingham sometimes employed phonics reading method so her student athlete could spell Wis-con-sin.  She admits to violating NCAA by rules ignoring cheating which she saw, but the NCAA never interviewed her and they found that the Tar Heels had broken no rules.  

Willingham went public because she could not countenance the fraud of functionally illiterate students passing so that they could keep academic eligibility.  Willingham expected death threats, but she did not expect UNC to disavow her research that between 8% to 10% of student athletes could not read beyond a third grade level.  

Attorney Wainstein's hard hitting report disputed the inference that student athlete cheating were isolated incidents and gave credence to Willingham's data that Tar Heel student athletes were poorly equipped to study at an elite research university, but that a system of phantom curriculum kept them eligible.  Moreover, UNC officials overlooked the number of independent studies courses coming from the African American Studies department, and how many of them were taken by student athletes. 

What was telling was how African American Studies secretary Deborah Crowder negotiated with academic officials as to what grade student athletes required to retain eligibility.  In one case Crowder haggled via e-mail with the Womens' basketball academic adviser about what was the lowest grade that could be given so the player could retain eligibility.

Boxhill, who was the former womens' academic advisor, is now the Director of the UNC Parr Center for Ethics.  Of course, Boxhill was not available for comment.

Wainstein's report reexamined 150 assignments  from this "paper course".  These three outside academic experts found that 25% were plagiarized verbatim from other sources.  It sounds like Montana Senator John Walsh's Masters thesis at the National War College. 

One of the more egregious examples was a paper about the like and works of Nikki Giovanni and African American culture.  This opus simply had a two page introduction and a final page of test and the rest of the paper were transcriptions of poems and texts formatted to fill the margins for the assignment requirements. There is little doubt that the fake class kept many struggling Tarheel student athletes eligible to play.  

The easy grade from the AAS Independent Studies course boosted 169 student athletes above the 2.0 GPA threshold, including 123 football players, 15 mens' basketball players and 5 women hoopsters. So much so, student athletes cajoled their students to get their work in before the gravy train ended:

 "Debbie Crowder is retiring . . . if you would prefer that she read and grade your paper rather than Professor Nyang'oro you will need to have the paper completed before the last day of classes, Tuesday, July 21st."

After Ms. Crowder retired in 2009, the academic average GPA for the Tar Heel football team for the Fall of 2009 dropped to 2.121, the lowest rate in ten years.

The Wainstein report shows that there was a culture of corruption at Chapel Hill and was much more widespread than initially thought over the past three years. Not everyone in charge were willing to play along with the shadow curriculum.  Current Tarheel Mens' Basketball Coach Roy Williams  allegedly felt uncomfortable with these classes and tried to steer his players away from the African American Studies department. However, Rashad McCains, who was part of the 2005 National Championship basketball team, charged Coach Williams of knowing of the fraudulent scheme.

The reason why the Wainstein report is different than two prior investigations into the matter is that Wainstein obtained the cooperation of Nyang'oro and Crowder, the two UNC officials at the center of the scandal.  So far, the Tarheel phantom curriculum scandal has claimed the scalp of Chancellor Holden Thorpe and forced the resignation of Tarheel Football Coach Butch Davis.

The NCAA is also investigating these charges on Chapel Hill cheating. Observers can rightly exclaim that the Tar Heels cheated their way into ten football Bowl appearances and three basketball National Championship under Dean Smith (1993), and Roy Williams (2005 and 2009).  

The problem is that justice delayed is justice denied.  Adjudication (and stonewalling) this situation for so long makes tarnishing the Tar Heels reputation kind of academic.  What would be the just thing for the NCAA to do?  Ultimately, what should the University of North Carolina do to convince the public that it educates its student athletes rather than exploits them with an ersatz degree in exchange for four years of eligibility? 

 Right now, it looks like Chapel Hill's shadow curriculum is a big public fail.

h/t: NY Times 

     Fox Sports

UPDATE 01/01/2015  The Tar Heel "Paper Course" scandal has claimed the jobs of two more prominent Chapel Hill academics.  Timothy McMillian, who was  a senior lecturer for 17 years in the African American and Diasphora Studies, resigned in the wake of pattern of no-show courses and gift grades.  

UNC Chancellor Carol Fort also revealed that the university has taken steps to terminate   former faculty leader and Philosophy professor Jeannette Boxhill  for her role in the student athlete scandal.  Despite the fact that termination could take years to adjudicate, Boxhill was named  "in light of the extraordinary circumstances underlying the longstanding and intolerable academic irregularities described in the Wainstein Report, as well as her role as chair of the faculty council during a period of time covered by the report."

On the day the Wainstein Report was issued, former football counselor Beth Bridger, who steered players towards bogus classes, was terminated from her job at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington the day the report was published.

What justice is this?  A low level person gets canned on the day of the report, Professor Nyang'oro retires and receives immunity for cooperation with Wainstein, McMillian "retires" after 17 years and Boxhill's involuntary departure from an ETHICS Center attached to UNC is dropped on New Years Eve.  Considering Boxhill's biography, will she be eligible for full retirement benefits for time served.

And what of the athletic achievements during this period?  

Kevin Durant on MVPs

Kevin Durant, a 26 year old 6'9" forward for the Oklahoma City Thunder, won the 2013-2014 NBA Most Valuable Player award.  What was striking about Durant's 25 minute speech is what he chose to highlight.  Durant has been top scorer in four of the last five seasons.  But Durant  highlighted how he was molded by his upbringing coming from modest background in PG county (Prince Georges county outside of the District of Calamity) and how Durant appreciated all of the support that he received.

[L] Kevin Durant embraces his Mama at NBA MVP  (photo: AP/Susan Ogroki)

Durant personally recognized all of his teammates in his MVP speech, which recognizes that he could not achieve without the help of others.  But Durant reserved the highest praise for his mother, who he called the "real MVP". Wanda Pratt, a.k.a. @MamaDurant , expected to be mentioned in her son's speech but had no idea about the magnitude of the recognition.




This tribute has struck a chord with the public at large a demonstration of humility, an example that single-mothers can make a difference.  The NBA even made a commercial with selected snippets of Durant's speech

 However, on the second Sunday in May, it is an especially appropriate tribute to mothers.

Kevin Johnson on "What Sports Can Do"

Mayor Kevin Johnson (D-Sacramento), a former NBA All Star point guard for Phoenix Suns, endorsed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's lifetime ban of Donald Sterling for taped racist comments made in private to V. Stiviano.

Johnson confidently asserted that the swift and severe reaction to reprehensible comments shows what sports can do.



 However, it is questionable if sports allows people to talk about real issues, as history is instructive.  During the French Revolution, the goal of establishing a "Republic of Virtue" was thwarted by the mob rule from Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety which oversaw the "Reign of Terror"  when those accused of being "enemies of the revolution" were purged and eliminated.

As deplorable  as Sterling's utterances sound, they were made in private and did not correspond to how he conducted affairs as the L.A. Clippers' owner.  Sterling was accorded little to no due process as NBA Commissioner Silver swiftly acted to politically correct calls for action and deprive an "owner" the ability to attend, much less run, his business.

Does this sort of mob rule for political correctness encourage an honest exchange of views?

Mark Cuban on Political Correctness

When the Donald Sterling tapes first surface, Dallas Mavericks owner distanced himself from the L.A. Clippers owner's racist rant but noted that in this country people are allowed to be morons.  However, Cuban also noted the dangers of a slippery slope on ad hoc applications of political correctness.

But after new NBA Commissioner Adam Silver lowered the boom on Donald Sterling and basically banned him from basketball, the Mavericks owner changed his tune.

Phil Jackson on Wisdom

John Thompson on Passion

Abe Lemons on Practice