l am really confused. Seriously.
Earlier in the week, Celtics Coach Ime Udoka was suspended for a year for having an extra-marital affair with a Celtics employee.
AND?
That was my initial reaction: I'm not saying Udoka shouldn't face repercussions. What I'm saying is that you fine him and keep matters in-house, or you just outright fire him. Suspending a coach for a year and then embarrassing him seems really petty.
Then I saw Stephen A. Smith on ESPN:
“Because I got news for you, America. There’s plenty of white folks in professional sports that’s doing their thing. And I say that not complimentarily, I don’t see the information out about them. Why we talking about this now?”
I briefly paused because Stephen A had played the race card....
And he was right.
Fellow Boston area coach Bill Belichick use to work so much, they'd accuse him of sleeping in his office. Despite arguably being the greatest NFL Coach of all time, depositions in 2007 revealed that he wasn't really sleeping in his office, he was "Coach Sugar Daddy." Did Belichick, who was coming off a season where he went to the AFC Championship game, face any professional repercussions? Uh no. With every legal revelation, Belichick just helped sell more and more copies of the New York Post, but the Patriots never said, or did, anything.
You are arguing that the female in question in the Belichick scandal didn't work for the Patriots? Uh, they worked together with the New York Giants.
NBA players are known to have a ship in every port. You can google salacious content about professional sports and inappropriate behavior with just a few clicks of your mouse:
I almost feel like Ime Udoka is being singled out. Even the horrible Lisa Respers France chimed in, asking how Udoka could cheat on his beloved wife. Listen, everyone except Stephen A are missing the point.
I'm not saying what Udoka did was wrong or right, good or bad, or even important or irrelevant. What I'm saying is that the punishment does not fit crime. In a league that is begging for black coaches, to hold one's feet to the fire in this unique way, something more has to be unraveling behind the scenes.
Beacon of Speech believes that this is a nation with some racists in it. Jesse Jackson believes that this is a racist nation. I think that Stephan A believes that America is the greatest nation in the world...for getting Black Athletes paid.
When Stephan A plays the race card in this particular case, you have to ask yourself: When is the last time a coach received this punishment for this indiscretion? I don't think it has ever happened.
So now we're going to hold Black Coaches to a higher standard than nearly all Coaches in the history of sports?
That doesn't seem right.
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