Posted by
Dana Andjus on Thursday, March 01, 2007 9:36:54 AM
I live near Boston and the locals have lately been bemoaning the fate of the Celt's. I didn't move here until I was past 40 so I am not so invested in the team. But I have distraught friends and 'I can feel their pain'. So I thought I'd watch a game or 2 so I could join in their suffering. After all, they had lost 18 games in a row at that time. My title refers to the fact that the players of the 'Glory Days' like Bird and Parrish and 'Red' and McHale and sadly DJ and Havlecek and Cousy and Russell are not going to return to help them. It's a local saying that I think Rick Pitino started. Anyway I started watching and couldn't turn away. It was like watching a live train wreck or a GWB blooper reel. You know it's a creepy thing to do but you can't stop.
What did I notice? Unbelievably the Celtics have no female players. Neither did the other team for that matter but they were winning. Does that make sense? 50% of the world is female and not a single girl has ever been in the NBA. Millions of them play basketball and not 1 in the NBA? Doesn't there have to be discrimination when you get that kind of disparate result? Then I found out that the 'tryouts' are subjective. The teams choose the players based on some nebulous criteria. They don't take just the tallest, or the best shooters or best jumpers. They take who they want. Lots of room there for their anti-woman agenda. I did find out that there is 'a league of their own', but the salaries are less than 'tattoo money' for the NBA players. With a little more research I found out that historically, white males were underrepresented. Again, would a fair, objective measure of skills yield that result? I doubt it. But give credit to the NBA. It did an interesting thing. It must have felt compelled to correct this through true Affirmative Action. Since they couldn't find enough white males in the USA, they searched worldwide for qualified candidates. They now have males from Germany, Brazil, Canada, Russia, Serbia, Spain, who knows where. They didn't lower standards but attacked the problem responsibly. Non Hispanic white males who represent maybe 35% of the population are still probably slightly underrepresented, but females who represent over 50% have 0% NBA representation. It's a disgrace and must be stopped even if it requires the new definition of Affirmative Action (lowering the standards to achieve balance) or just putting the names of everyone who wants to make $10,000,000 a year in a hat and drawing out the teams. Not fair? Well maybe people like LeBron James who develops his skill shouldn't be punished, but this would help the Celtics--it couldn't hurt--and my friends will be happier. That's all I'm after. Well and freedom and justice for all.