Originally Posted by
Method Man
But lets be real here they are playing basketball. Thats hardly a typical work environment. You say he has to apologize because kids idol him and you dont want them to get the wrong idea. How many times do you hear Carlos Boozer getting hacked near that microphone on the rim and he yells out a curse. Why isnt he getting fined so kids are getting the wrong idea that its ok to scream what he said, or being forced to apologize. What if he got heated and said the B word opposed to what Kobe said. Either way your degrading somebody. If we are going to treat this like a normal work environment you cant anything thats a curse or derogatory. We know thats not happening. This wasnt a interview, it was in game and they had the camera zoomed on him for a bit too long which is skeptical. Given the situation, you're an idiot if you're thinking he was about to say gal darnit anyway, these refs i tell ya geez la weez.
1) Given the situation, you're an idiot if you're on the bench during a nationally televised game shouting a slur. There's a reason why Michael Jordan and countless other players used to hold a towel over their mouths whenever they were on the bench and making comments they didn't want the whole world to know about. This isn't somebody's cubicle we're talking about. This is a guy practically shouting something in a stadium packed with fans.
Let's not equate curse words with slurs, either.
2) Again, if we object to Mel Gibson making racist & anti-semitic comments during private phone calls, we ought to take exception to this as well. It's nothing new, but that doesn't make it right, either. Yes, the camera focused on Kobe because he's a star player, but you'd suffer a relatively harsher penalty if caught doing the same thing at your place of business, too, so I don't really get that argument. It's offensive any way you slice it.
Meth...all fined money go towards a charity...idk if the player gets to choose though
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It goes to this "NBA Cares" stuff, which is at least in part publicity for the league. [/font]
3) Either way, being
compelled to do something by the league isn't the same as
voluntarily taking action yourself. I think it would be a classy move on Kobe's part to give to the HRCF and acknowledge that he made a mistake. It's not hard to say, "where I grew up, people used this word all the time as an insult and I now realize that it's a deeply offensive slur. That's not what I'm about and I'd like to contribute to the HRCF to help make sure that kids growing up today don't fall victim to the same mentality. I'd like my fans to know that I'm a supporter of LGBT rights and that I truly regret my actions."
4) David Stern likes to put on a big show for the fans to demonstrate that he keeps "his" players well under heel. Many of his penalties are preposterously heavy-handed and seem designed to appeal to racists out there who want to see the Allen Iversons of the world kept in "their place." Rather than begrudgingly accept Stern's punishment, Kobe could voluntarily step up, take the lead, and prove that he's better than this.
1) Several Jordan cuss words slipped through the TV cracks - I know you remember when he fought Reggie Miller and was clearly cursing his sweet little "corporate darling" +%# off (pause) - MJ was just as human as anyone else on the court. Granted he may have been smart enough to cover his mouth at times, but let's not act like he was the poster child for the angelic athlete 24/7. "Stadium packed full of fans" is a tad misleading - they couldn't hear that man way up in the cheap seats. You make it seem like he cut into the National Anthem and called the ref a "!*!$!#' !*%" live on the mic - he didn't.
2) "We" didn't objectify Mel Gibson at all. Mel made those comments during a private conversation - I don't know if that woman was his wife or not - but if she was, we both know that would have been a privileged marital communication, ie, nobody else's !*!$!#' business. Do I agree with what he said? Hell no. But can I crucify a guy for using whatever language he wanted in a conversation that was (and should have been kept) private? No. Dog, I've said far worse about everybody. In closed circles I've personally heard politicians and celebrities say much worse - people say whatever they want when they feel the conversation will never leave the room (or in Mel's case "phone'). Does that makes us monsters? No, it doesn't...but it does mean we're lazy. Too lazy to use the brain power it would take to be as PC in our own homes as we would be at the office. But don't we speak freely at home
because we're forced to be PC at the office?
Anyway, instead of the Gibson/Kobe comparison, Kobe/"Kramer" from "Seinfeld" would hold more weight because his dumb +%# said that stuff in public. But even then, Michael Richards meant to be heard and offensive - Kobe didn't. Naturally one of the premier faces of the NBA has a lower expectation of privacy in the arena that pays his bills, but in Kobe's mind that was a private comment that was only supposed to be heard by those either playing the game or officiating it.
3) This reminds me of my cousin down in Houston. Long story short, "Thug Life" (as we affectionately call him) bought an AK-47 and thought it would be a good idea to shoot it off in his backyard - it's actually not as far-fetched as it seems because he lives way up in the Northside of the H so he has all kinda trees behind his house. Long story short, the worst possible scenario occurred - he let one of his friends shoot it off, they missed the target (an empty bottle of liquor of course) and shot and killed the neighbor's horse. Now as troublesome as my cousin may be, he's always been respectful to those that respected him. He takes his friend over to apologize to his neighbor, and his dumb +%# friend looks at my cousin's neighbor and goes, "N' I'm sorry for shootin' your !*!$!#' horse
".
That "apology" was more offensive than the damn accidental shooting. Now in the eyes of my cousin's neighbor, they "voluntarily" came over to apologize, but that apology was an effort on my cousins part to stay outta jail again. If Kobe gave some BS, public relations-induced apology to the whole LGBT community, that would pretty much be like my cousin's friend apologizing this his neighbor. Like, "You don't mean that !+@% at all - matter of fact - you'd do it again if you had the chance."
4) I actually agree with you about David Stern - dude is like a cum stain on black sheets.
