Peregrine01 wrote:AEnigma wrote:So tired of Luka being the beneficiary of racism against Jokic.
Know that this is a facetious remark but last year's MVP discourse was ABSOLUTELY racist. And the commentator igniting it not only shifted the MVP award but also somehow kept his job. Just imagine if this was a white guy talking about a black player like that.
I'll co-sign this, but I want to emphasize that "racist" has become such an inflammatory word that applying it correctly can get in the way of understanding.
What's happening here is that there's a dominant majority - Black Americans - who are seeing their dominance challenged by the globalization of the game, and like many dominant majorities that feel threatened, they are acting out in an emotionally biased way.
This is something that White people did with Black basketball players back in the day, and it's also something that short people did with tall people - bemoaning that there wouldn't be a place for short people in the future of pro basketball...and of course they were basically right.
So on a broad level, this is something we should expect, and not something to get the pitchforks out about.
Now, do I wish Perk & SAS didn't exist in the basketball space? Yes, but it's not because they have this Black American defensiveness so much as the fact they are all about courting controversy and using emotional tone and argumentation to get attention for themselves. There are stories, for example, of SAS talking on the phone rathe than watching the first half of a game, and then coming in at halftime doing his schtick where he basically just comments on the box score relying upon his style to make it look like he has some authority on what he's saying. For someone like that to be the most highly paid basketball commentator in the world is just plain bad for the game, and for Perk to be able to come in, copy that approach, and have success, is infuriating.