|
When I first saw this story, I thought it had been planted by Bill Parcells to get the heat off.
First off, Bird is from small-town Indiana, despite having been a millionaire all these years. While he is not a racist, he is a product of his environment and will express things in a way that may not always seem politically correct.
There is a segment of the population that will no longer watch professional basketball now that black players frequently make up the entire rotation for many teams, with white players in largely mop-up roles. But these morons will not come back for one or two token white stars, and the NBA is better off without them, anyway.
There are fans that would root for players of there own background, whether ethnic or geographic, but very few under 30 who see things simply in such black and white terms. The younger fans don't remember any other situation and are just watching the game. In this respect we have something to learn from them.
There are people in power in the NBA who think in black and white (witness the Knicks' Scott Layden bringing in all the Utahans and foeigners, and Isaiah Thomas's swift dispatching of them, for example), but I think they don't understand that in today's world, people just want to see the best players.
|