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Old Thu Sep 15, 2005, 11:28am
Jurassic Referee Jurassic Referee is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Hell
Posts: 20,211
Re: N word

Quote:
Originally posted by Stripes33
I think that there is no place in the game for either of these racial slurs. However, I don't think this issue is as black and white as our shirts. This is one of those grey areas that some of officials have. I've played basketball in high school and some small college ball. In that time I developed some relationships with my black teammates that would allow me to address them using some terms that a lot of us would probably get killed using on the street and vice versus. I think this is another common sense issue in determinng how the slur was directed. I would not whack a kid for this unless I thought it was a clear case of taunting but I would have a talk to make sure it doesn't happen again. Another part of good game management!
And how exactly do you determine how the slur was directed?

Do you stop play and ask the player "Hey, were you kidding or were you serious?". If he says he was kidding, you say "nevermind"? If he says that he was serious, then you nail him?

Personally, I ain't smart enough to read minds out there, so I don't even try. And I am enough of a cynic that I believe a ballplayer might just actually lie to me if it saved his butt from a T or an ejection.

Sorry, I just can't agree about about the "good game management" part imo. I think it's more a case of you guessing at the player's intentions.

Again, jmo.