Buzz Bissinger is a racist asshole.
In this column he basically admits as much, saying that the NBA is losing popularity because white fans don’t want to root for black players. What he really means is that Buzz Bissinger (and the people he’s friends with) can’t root for black players because he doesn’t like black people.
Since he basically just went and asked his friends if they liked basically/black people I’m going to do the same thing.
OK I’m back. All I have is dorky white friends and we all love basketball and none of our favorite players are white. Personally, my favorite player was Dikembe Mutumbo before he retired. I know white fans who love KG, Lebron, Kobe and lesser players like Danny Granger. I don’t know anyone who’s favorite player is Troy Murphy or even Steve Nash.
So my group of friends likes the NBA and black players. I think my friends might be racist because none of them like the NHL and all those honkies. Where’s that column Buzz? You ignorant slut.
In short this article is dumb and I feel dumber for having read it.
But also made me angry since I think the topic of race in sports interesting and deserves discussion. The racism in sports is probably just a little more subtle. Why are all crappy white baseball players “scrappy and gritty” but none of the fringe black players are. Why is Scott Posednick scrappy and Juan Pierre isn’t? How racist is the idolization of Wes Welker, especially is a city known in the past for ostracizing its black players like Bill Russell and Jim Rice.
Lets talk about that, lets talk about things that are actually factual, since the NBA isn’t even losing popularity.
I’m serious, the great guys at The Basketball Jones did the research to poke holes in the basic premise of the column.
Here’s what they found:
- Viewership for the NBA’s network partners is up double-digits across the board.
- TNT viewership of NBA games is up 30 percent, ESPN viewership is up 20 percent, and ABC viewership is up 34 percent compared to this point last season.
- NBA games have reached over 86.5 million unique viewers this season, nearly 20 percent ahead of last year’s regular season pace to date.
Boom. Roasted.
To lighten up things, here’s Buzz with an insane rant about blogs:
