I don’t think you are a racist, but I do think you are prejudging this team, based upon stereotypes that don’t apply.
I don’t buy your examples of primadonnas, especially LeBron. He didn’t use his celebrity to do anything. People were falling over each other to gain his favor.
You still haven’t addressed your accusation of “tattooed, freakish, criminals.”
Here is a biography of Lebron James.
I think James is far from innocent and certainly not worthy of all the hoopla. However, I’d agree that would be tough to be a teenager, come from a poor background, and maintain my usual sense of normal life with all this attention.
Lebron is not an Olympian. He cares more about his shoe deals, multimillion dollar contract and I predict he’ll end up in court just like Kobe Bryant. I just hope like hell he doesn’t come out with a rap album.
Okafor seems classy as well. I don’t remember any details now, but he was an excellent student who graduated college a year early and has no arrests that I know of. And no visible tattoos. 
Incorrect; Airman Doors, USAF is in no way illustrating Whitlock’s point. Whitlock’s accusation isn’t that the public is upbraiding Team USA because of a stereotyped-view of basketball players, but because the team is filled with black American millionaire basketball players. Here is what he wrote:
And then, immediately after that faux memo, he stated this:
Whitlock levels the racism charge a few times throughout his column; in fact, that’s the overriding point. And it is to that accusation that Airman Doors, USAF responded.
Having read that (and having a sense of him from watching the season), I have no idea what the hell makes you say that. Kobe has always had a selfish streak that I don’t see in LeBron, and contrary of what you said, any number of sportswriters and sportscasters on ESPN have said he’s the only guy on the team with real enthusiasm for the Olympics!
Heh. I read this article today, thought it was pitworthy, and went to the straight dope. Lo and Behold, airman beat me to it. Curses!
I love how he admits that they are all overpaid superstars getting beaten because the team game sucks ass, but we hate them because they are black :rolleyes:
Of course, he ignores that the NHL has sent highly paid professionals to the winter olympics to play for their countries, and they consider it as important as the stanley cup and their contracts to win the gold medal for their countries.
It’s not the money. It’s the players. They’ve forgotten how to play a team game. I hope they win, but they deserve to lose. It will teach them something to watch the pistons win the nba championship with a team game and to lose the game to a better team.
You give a link to an outstanding biography of Lebron, and then diss him. Incredible.
He IS worth the hoopla. As to the rest of your speculation, it’s just that. And I say you’re wrong.
He certainly belongs on the team.
[sorry for the hijack]
Okay, Jason Whitlock is a tool. He is a black man who has gotten through childhood, high school, college and a very insular profession to become a highly paid and prominent person in a city that by his standards is racially biased against him. Under these circumstances, given his age, white people must have played, on average at least, a fairly benign role in his life. Nonetheless, he uses his platform to decry racism against other black men who are – very well paid, successful and admired by the public in their communities, which, according to him, are similarly biased. I mean, there’s racism in the country, and it’s defeat is worth fighting for, but it isn’t productive to whine about the plight about the most advantaged of the minority group you claim to represent. However…
If the impetus behind the column was that the U.S. Olympic basketball team’s lack of success is seized on because of its make-up as an excuse for some to trot out the old racist stereotypes, then I say there is a point there, though I admit Whitlock didn’t make it in this column. And, Airman Doors, I must say, you do nothing to win the rhetorical battle by saying that you admire one of the black U.S. players, Tim Duncan, and give as one of your reasons that he keeps his “doesn’t talk.” That gives no one a reason to believe racism is a thing of the past. On the whole, however, I think you have corralled more truth in your posts than Whitlock did in his column.
In any case, it’s beginning to look like they finally got their shit together and are playing like they mean it… I will however attribute their having discovered the concept of being in this together as coming out of fear of being together tagged as losers, as opposed to desire to be part of a greater thing, but hey, whatever works.
But Whitlock is, indeed, an ass. It’s not racism. It’s the schadenfreude of watching The Big Swinging Dick Of The Town get some mud on his face. Human nature. And of course the American tradition of loudly bitching and moaning at every slightest discomfort. I think most of the HS graduates believe it’s in the Bill of Rights. (*)
Notice this did not happen in the case of the real Dream Team (which had Barkley, Jordan, Magic, etc.), who were cheered on even by the other teams… because they WERE the All Time Greatest. They went in acting as if invincible because they WERE, so it was not begrudged.
In any case the big “villain” here is The System, which throws together teams as if it did not matter who you sent, and allows players to carry on as if the world revolved around their convenience. But The System is an amorphous, faceless entity – Iverson, Boozer, Marbury and Larry Brown are on the court and recognizable.
(*)OUR great tradition in PUR, when things don’t go our way, is making up conspiracy-theory excuses…
If you think that racism doesn’t have anything to do with the near-universal hatred of this team, I’d call you a little naive. Whitlock isn’t accusing each and every non-partisan of racism, he’s calling attention to the odd and overwhelming *collective * reaction to these athletes. Is racism a factor?
Why is the NBA hated above every other league, even though baseball and football are both full of overpaid, selfish athletes? Is it because it’s the Blackest of the professional sports leagues or is that just a coincidence? Eli Manning can refuse to play for the team that picks him and force them to trade them. And yet, I can almost guarantee he’ll receive 1/100 the criticism of Iverson, who plays maniacally hard every night and destroys his body in the process. Baseball players called a strike that ended a season and relief pitchers earn millions, and yet the people’s hatred doesn’t seem as universal.
You have a lot of people who don’t know a thing about sports and don’t know a thing about this team beyond “Iverson looks like a thug” hating them. Which is odd, because Americans are so patriotic. It seems out of character and worthy of attention. I think Whitlock did a good job of touching on the issues.
Thank you Argentina!
USA Basketball–Bronze or Bust!
Hubris, pure and simple. That’s why people are down on most of Team USA (the notable exception being Timmy D.). Iverson may give his all on the court, but his off-court behavior (legal problems, bad rap albums, ditching practice), and those shitty tattoos don’t endear him to most 'muricans. Tim Duncan’s my favorite player in the NBA- he’s black, he’s a millionaire, and I could give a rat’s ass if he showed up with cornrows tomorrow. Why do I like him? Cus he’s humble and won championships by being a team player and NOT SAYING STUPID SHIT (LeBron, you can’t hit a Jennie Finch pitch).
On preview- looks like they just lost to Argentina. Apparently Timmy D. got in foul trouble and down they went.
Would you believe it? people are celebreting as if we have just won a football match against our arch enemies Brazil or England. We live in strange times.
Oh ,c’mon, Airman. Just from the part you quoted, I can tell that you aren’t just a racist for not wanting the basketball team to win, you’re a fucking terrorist! Didn’t you see that Whitlock mentioned patriotism related to 9/11? Terrorists attacked us on 9/11, they didn’t like the United States, and because you don’t want the USA men’s basketball team to win, you’re really no better. Can’t you see that? A racist terrorist. The worst kind. Everyone needs to stop being racist terrorists.
[sub]I’m kidding of course.[/sub]
If you take glee in our ballers losing to Argentina, the terrorists have already won.
To the guys bashing Iverson and his compatriots, I think you are being too harsh. The only difference between you and them is the fame. Let’s examine your lives under a microscope and see how clean you come out. I would bet you all have little ugly details buried in your past, lets keep things in perspective.
Well, I’d go to practice if my coach told me to.
I have no ugly details buried in my past.
They’re all out in the open for anyone to see. 
I find Tim Duncan to be an admirable person, one who I would not mind seeing my son emulate, because he goes to work, he gets the job done, and he does it without putting out a gangsta rap album, whining in the press about how his contract isn’t the highest anymore and how he deserves more money, blaming his teammates for everything that happens, getting charged with wife beating or DUI, or just generally getting into any trouble. He is an admirable person, black or white, as was David Robinson was he played. They both have class, and as a result I had no trouble rooting for the Spurs to win the title a few years ago. They were a quiet, classy team that did all their talking on the court. As it should be.
Being an Australian, I DEFINITELY don’t have a dog in this fight, but nonetheless, even I can see that you’re drawing dots there which don’t deserve to be joined. To my unbiased eyes, “Airman” seems to be saying that a goodly number of this year’s U.S. Olympic Basketball Team have a certain “assholiness” to their character (regardless of their ethnicity) which “Airman” finds unsupportable. The issue is their “assholiness” (or insert more appropriate word if applicable) - and I detected an admirable effort on Airman’s part to avoid the ethnicity factor altogether - and instead, to paraphrase the great Dr Luther King, Airman assessed the team members wholly on their character alone.
Just on another point, in 1992 the whole world was thrilled to see the magnificent NBA players finally make the Olympics. However, nobody could have predicted the superstar “we’re too good for the Olympic Village” attitude they also brought with them. The antipathy which now exists on an international level towards the US Basketball Team has been a long time in the brewing. But in the interests of fairness, it should also be noted that such antipathy exists ONLY towards the US Basketball Team, and not other sports thankfully.