USA Basketball and Racism

As most know, the USA men’s Olympic basketball team has struggled (and just lost to Argentina, which means they will play for the bronze). I’ve been rooting against them…well not so much them as the system that put together this “team.” I shared an article from ESPN (linked below) in a chat room with some friends. The following conversation was the result (I am “rott”):

14:12:44 [rott] e, you’ll like this:
“I must’ve missed the memo — the memo that went out to the red-blooded American sports public and explains exactly when it became OK to throw patriotism out the window and openly root against a U.S. Olympic team.”
14:15:14 [emarx] I totally disagree with the race card
14:15:50 [emarx] I think it is more an issue of heart, and the lack of an outside shot
14:15:55 ksose enters this room
14:16:10 [emarx] Whitlock seems to play the race card quite a bit, he is black himself
14:16:37 [emarx] but he obviously has a different background so it is hard to argue
14:18:30 [ksose] people aren’t unhappy with the team b/c they;’re black, but rather b/c they don’t seem to care
14:18:43 [ksose] not saying that b/c of the way they’ve played….
14:19:02 [ksose] more the image the media has given them. focussing on AI as the “image” of the team
14:19:56 [ksose] whether or not the olympics are the pinnacle of the sport, americans are largely idealists…..
14:20:15 [ksose] which means that they expect their representatives/athletes to be as well….
14:20:33 [ksose] I think they expect their athletes to want to win more than anything else, including $
14:20:36 [rott] I disagree with race card too. It’s a cop out
14:20:46 [rott] he’s got some good points, but racism isn’t viable here.
14:22:07 [ksose] Argentina never trailed in the second half, leading by as many as 16 points. The closest the Americans would get was six points.
14:23:32 [rott] I kinda wish there was a comments board on espn, but then again, I’m glad there’s not.
14:26:19 [emarx] at least half hearted americans can still be full hearted passionate Spainards
14:26:28 [emarx] be = beat
14:27:07 [ksose] true. even a blind squirrel finds a nut (or a 3 point shot) every once in awhile.
14:28:19 [rott] you know, I’m not really against the players or coach, I really think they just got outplayed.
14:29:07 [emarx] NBA is a 1 on 1 game, need to learn how to play like a team
14:29:16 [rott] more so I’m against the system. The selection committee presumably had a list of 30 or so players (that are already popular and help sell lots of merchandise) and picked ‘em
14:29:20 [tbone] I wonder if Whitlock would grant me a waiver since I don’t care about the regular season NBA either, even the white guys
14:29:35 [rott] no regard for team, because they assumed it didn’t really matter with the talent we have in those players
14:30:06 [rott] you must be racist.
14:30:11 [tbone] I wonder why he thinks patriotism is reflected in who we root for anyway. Nice straw man. Or something like that. I just like saying “straw man”
14:30:22 [rott] see?!? it’s easy to say! Come on everyone together: “you are racist”
14:30:46 [tbone] It’s the sports equivalent of saying, “You don’t like George Bush, you unpatriotic hate monger!”
14:30:53 [rott] exactly
14:31:20 [rott] intolerance, I’m lovin’ it.
14:33:06 [cornbread] this is late, but i wouldn’t compare team usa in basketball to a blind squirrel, ksose…
14:33:38 [rott] he probably meant to say “a blind black squirrel”
14:33:58 [rott] because he’s racist.
14:34:08 [rott] see there it is again! ok…i’ll stop