[RubberMallet]

Scoop Jackson also thinks Jason Whitlock is a retard

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... son/070228

As the reports continue to flow from the activities during NBA All-Star Weekend, the rage begins to build.

Hip-Hop Woodstock. The Black KKK. Weekend leaves NBA with a black eye.

What? Seriously? For real?

As difficult as it is not to turn this generalization of the entire hip-hop culture into an issue of race, let's be honest, it is about nothing else.

Was part of Las Vegas during the All-Star weekend out of control? Yes. But nothing more than usual considering the circumstances. This was Vegas!!! A place that labeled itself Sin City before the NBA got there. Expecting everyone to act "accordingly" over the weekend is like expecting all married men in Brazil during Carnival not to sleep with another woman. Not saying it's right, but to think that nothing will happen is a little naive -- dumb to be exact. Did people really think that everyone who went to Vegas would act like they were spending four days during an NBA All-Star Weekend in Park City, Utah?

But that's not the issue. That's not where the irresponsibility lies. The irresponsibility lies with those writers and broadcast hosts who failed to do diligent research before they typed a word or opened their mouths.

History verses his story? As usual, we lost.

At some point over the last week, there should have been more balanced reporting. If not balanced, then fair. But this is an unfair sports world we live in. A world, it seems on a regular basis, that is getting more and more comfortable with dispensing covert innuendoes and subliminal messages. Especially when it comes to those of us who have love for and are part of the game of basketball. Specifically the part where young black men are getting paid millions of dollars and don't change the people around them once they get drafted.

But if I screamed the "R" word, everyone would say I'm wrong.

They say numbers don't lie. True. But the people who crunch the numbers sometimes do, and those who fail to look at all the numbers fall into the same category as Bill O'Reilly. With that, let's put the Vegas weekend into a real perspective.

According to reports, there were 403 arrests made in Vegas over the five-day All-Star Weekend (Thursday through Monday). Not saying that's a good thing, not defending the acts that got those 403 people locked up. But in order to see the truth behind that number, we need to look at what that 403 means.

As the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported, according to the Las Vegas Police Department there was an average of 80.6 arrests made every 24 hours in Vegas over those five days. Compare that to New Year's Eve, when 130 arrests were made in a 12-hour period.

Now, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor's Authority, there were 302,000 people in town for All-Star weekend, about the same number of people (300,000) estimated in Vegas for New Year's Eve. That means the rate for arrests for New Year's Eve was more than three times that of All-Star Weekend.

But what happened while the NBA was in town is headline news? This is what becomes the reflection of a people, a culture? This is what constitutes columns and conversations of lawlessness and over-the-top irrational behavior? This is what gives people the right to editorialize and portray us as animals?

Where were these writers and broadcasters during New Year's Eve in Vegas? Where were they when the police reports were being filled out saying that of the 403 arrests, 172 were of local residents and only 231 were from outsiders who came to visit Vegas? Where were they when the police reports said that of those 403 arrests, 239 were for prostitution-related incidents, compared to an average week of 175 arrests for those same crimes. And none of these arrests involved an NBA player.

And I won't even get into, as Harvey Araton of the New York Times wrote, how nobody blamed NASCAR "for the death of a motorist who was shot in a road-rage encounter during a traffic jam after leaving the Daytona 500."

NASCAR ain't the NBA. You know the difference, I know the difference. But an NFL player comes into town, wilds out, tosses $81,000 up in the air, someone gets shot, and it becomes a reflection of the NBA?

Media, please.

Yet we are supposed to sit here and accept this? Accept what is being written and said -- and insinuated -- and say nothing? We should remain quiet as if there's absolute truth to what is being communicated about the behavior of the "hip-hop thugs and their baby mammas" (code: young black people) who went to Vegas and displayed a side of ignorance that had veteran reporters and columnists "scared" to go out of their rooms? But in Dallas a few weeks ago at the NHL All-Star Game these same cats felt safe as kittens.

Racism, please?

It's not even worth me going there.

I was asked on a radio show whether I thought in the next 10 years the NBA would have another All-Star Game in Vegas. My answer was no. But it had nothing to do with the actions that went down in Vegas, as the person who asked me the question was insinuating.

"One," I said, "there's no guarantee that the league will have a team there by then." And two, "neither will New York, Atlanta, L.A., D.C., Philly, Denver, Cleveland, the Bay or any other city that over the last 10 years has hosted an All-Star Game." I reminded him that the NBA doesn't get down like that. It spreads the All-Star Game around to give each city the opportunity to benefit from the attention and financial windfall (reportedly over $91 million over the four days in Vegas) that an All-Star Game brings.

The radio host heard me but wasn't feeling me.

Which is more irritating than anything in this recent campaign to make an entire culture (and part of a race) of people look or seem less than zero. No one wants to do the math. No one wants to look at all 360 degrees of the issue. No one wants to be responsible in their jobs.

Unbiased? Please. Please. Please.

What went on in Vegas didn't stay in Vegas. And I'm not saying it should have, but if people are going to be responsible for putting out info about what went down, the least they can do is understand their facts before they start calling all us kettles black.

[ALUmnus]

Great, counter one idiot with another. Not the best way to make your case. Scoop is just another liberal turd espn hired to gain their street cred and show their enlightenment. Scoop is just as much, if not more, of a moron than whitlock.

[RubberMallet]

Great, counter one idiot with another. Not the best way to make your case. Scoop is just another liberal turd espn hired to gain their street cred and show their enlightenment. Scoop is just as much, if not more, of a moron than whitlock.

i actually enjoy scoop for the most part, a heck of alot more than jason whitlock....

you are just a racist

[Sly Fox]

Let's hope that is tongue in cheek, RM. You know the rules about personal attacks.

[LUconn]

I don't think he's ever been serious in his life.

[Sly Fox]

I've detected that by his posting history. But dropping the r-bomb is not something I take lightly.

[RubberMallet]

Let's hope that is tongue in cheek, RM. You know the rules about personal attacks.

its obvious that you've never met alumnus or luconn in person....you can just feel the hate in the air...

[thepostman]

Well...the only reason the New Year's eve stats weren't brought up is because its not the NBA...professional athletes are going to be a bigger story then a bunch of average people getting wasted on new year's eve...it could have to do with race a little bit, but very little...

The NBA has an image problem and that problem does come from the hip hop culture...I have always hated calling it the hip hop culture because there is so much hip hop out there that is perfectly fine...but there is this culture in the nba where they try to give this image that they have street cred....

Now, it is not nearly as bad as some reporters make it out to be...most NBA players are perfectly fine people...not perfect...but fine....the fighting thing never really bothers me except for the whole going in the stands thing....

There could be some race involved...but its very minimal, that is for sure.....

[Libertine]

Personally, I cringe every time I hear the term 'hip hop culture'. I have a problem with that phrase because there is really no such thing as a single 'hip hop culture' and it's a term has been coined by -- the mostly white -- media as a catch-all for any scene that seems to have a bass beat in the background and an extra splash of melanin in the foreground. On that basis, a lot of completely innocent people get lumped in with the thugs.

Am I right, P-Dog, or am I right? Where you at, son?

[PAmedic]

(for Medic's sake, I was speaking about FBS)

thank you.

I was already starting to hyperventilate.

trying to catch breath.

find the happy place, find the happy place, find the happy place.

[TIMSCAR20]

Personally, I cringe every time I hear the term 'hip hop culture'. I have a problem with that phrase because there is really no such thing as a single 'hip hop culture' and it's a term has been coined by -- the mostly white -- media as a catch-all for any scene that seems to have a bass beat in the background and an extra splash of melanin in the foreground. On that basis, a lot of completely innocent people get lumped in with the thugs.

Am I right, P-Dog, or am I right? Where you at, son?

Is my man P-Dogg on here? I didn't know that. He is a good dude. Hip Hop culture is really a dumb term as Lib said. Question...Why is it ok to fight and send guys to the hospital every night in every hockey arena in North America? There are probably 5 fights in a year in the NBA and 4 of them are "girly." The Pistons/Pacers brawl is the only one like that of its kind in 75 years of NBA basketball yet it gets brought up as an example of all that is wrong in the NBA....I don't like watching the NBA, I do like Hip Hop music (some of it) I am not nor have I ever been a Thug, Not all Hip hop music is about being a thug but I do think a lot of it sends the wrong message but so do all the secular songs in every other genre (generalization I know). If you held the all star game in Lynchburg VA you would still have a wild time because there are a lot of people with a lot of money trying to impress and that is what usually causes the altercations. I don't like Whitlock either and I think he is a hack and I can't stand him on anything on ESPN including the Sports Reporters. I don't really have a point overall but I did want to get in on the discussion.

[Libertine]

I don't know if P-Dog is on here or not. I hope so.

Whitlock lost me the first time I read his annual pimping of 'his boy' Jeff George.