i personally thought larry bird's comments were inappropriate for a person in his position. it is on par with what george karl did two years ago. then i went to espn and voted. most of the people voting said that all of the comments were not offensive. that is ridiculous.

In what way were they offensive? He said things that were facts, it shouldn't offend anybody if they're told the truth.

Posted - 06/10/2004 : 12:59:12
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Larry Bird said he viewed it as a sign of disrespect when a white player was assigned to defend him.
"I really got irritated," Bird said. "A white guy would come out [and] I would always ask him, 'What, did you have a problem with your coach?' And he'd go 'no,' and I'd say, 'Come on, you got a white guy coming out here to guard me; you got no chance.' "

Bird also claimed the NBA could benefit from having more white players of all-star caliber to please white fans.

"The majority of fans are white America," he said. "And if you had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited. But it's a black man's game, and it will be forever. I mean, the greatest athletes in the world are African-American."

Now there isn't anything wrong with it but what is the reason for his comments? He's right but did he need to say that?

Take it this way if it were coming from a black man talking about white players would it have been blown up?

When you bring race into any conversation it's never good.

to me, i don't see much of a difference between Larry Bird's comments & Jimmy the Greek's comments that got him canned from Sports commentating a few years back...obviously, they weren't as severe, but the message was pretty much the same, & that is that white people are inferior athletes to black people...

if you agree with that generalization, maybe someone should ask Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras, Bruce Jenner, Wayne Gretzky, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Tommy Moe (Champion Skier), Amy Van Dyken (6-time Olympic Gold medal winning swimmer) & countless other decathletes, weightlifters, marathon runners, triathletes, speed skaters, swimmers, etc. what their views would be on this statement by Larry Bird.

look, to Larry Bird, he may have been speaking his mind, but when you make these kinds of generalizing statements without thinking about the actual facts, you are opening up a huge can of worms that you KNOW will be dissected by the media & analyzed by the general public to the letter of what you supposedly are saying...so why even go there? don't these athletes, coaches & other people in the public eye know by now that any comment they say having anything to do w/race will be very carefully scrutinized? (& rightfully so considering the negative connotations that could potentially be derived from any such comments dealing w/race, religion & sexual preference)

in my opinion, all Larry Bird did was to prove that he doesn't know what he's talking about...he's drawing from his limited scope of judging basketball players only & making this all-encompassing statement that blacks are better athletes than whites...he should have thought about what he was saying before he said it, because it was an ignorant thing to say...offensive? who knows...i'm not white so who am i to say?

He should've said blacks are better basketball players. You made a good point about the athletes.

Also, didn't Jimmy The Greek referred to a black player as a monkey?

I don't see why Larry would not be qualified to make that statement. Do you?

Posted by bernard:

But I do take issue with the idea that the game would be more popular w/ more white stars.

I think Larry's statement is shown to be a valid one when you look at Yao's impact in the popularity of the NBA amongst Asians.

Posted by bernard:

I don't think Larry's comments were insulting to African Americans. They were insulting to whites, IMO. Not only the trash talking about white guys covering him. I don't really care about that ... just Larry's version of talking smack. But I do take issue with the idea that the game would be more popular w/ more white stars.

First off, I think it's just plain wrong. Many of the country's most idolized figures in sports and entertainment as a whole are African American, and it's been that way for decades. You don't hear retired rappers saying hip hop would be more popular if we could just find another great white artist. The idea is absurd. This country has enough lingering problems with racism. We don't need to imagine ones that don't exist.

eminem anybody?

Posted by TMS:

you think because Larry Bird played pro basketball that he's somehow qualified to make this type of all-encompassing statement? i sure don't.

This is funny. One of the great professional sports figures of our time makes a general comment about other sports figures and you don't think that qualifies him?

The who is qualified then?

Posted by martin:

Posted by TMS:

you think because Larry Bird played pro basketball that he's somehow qualified to make this type of all-encompassing statement? i sure don't.

This is funny. One of the great professional sports figures of our time makes a general comment about other sports figures and you don't think that qualifies him?

The who is qualified then?

the opinion is shortsighted, & wrong...or didn't you read the examples i gave? you want to make sweeping general statements like this, then you should THINK about what you're saying from a broader standpoint then the limited pool of athletes he's drawing from who have played in the NBA...there are lots of other races of people who excell in other sports who are not necessarily black, or didn't you know that?