A couple of things to Ball Atlanta readers:
First, I would not want to see the NBA change its logo silhouette from Jerry West to, whomever.
West was/is a West Virginia Mountaineer. I am a West Virginia Mountaineer. It has been a source of pride for many of us for decades.
If the logo has to be changed, it should be Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, without question. He is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. He is also an activist and a great guy.
And, just imagine how the skyhook would play as a logo.
Kyrie Irving suggests Kobe Bryant as the logo. That is sure to get some pushback from women’s groups.
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So about that Ball Atlanta post on the University of Kentucky basketball team kneeling during the national anthem.
I wrote it because my son’s college roommate, who is Black, told me he was stopped seven times by white cops in 1 1/2 years while going to college at a Georgia university.
So, I sympathize with the Kentucky basketball players who are Black. They are fed up and need somebody to notice how unfair these stops are to them, not to mention all the rest of the violence against Blacks.
They are demanding racial justice, that’s all.
Some other thoughts on the military and the flag:
Our family suspects my older brother Tom died because of Vietnam. He was 82nd Airborne out of Ft. Bragg. He was in DaNang. Agent Orange poisoned his immune system. I fly the flag on Veterans Day
My brother Kip served on the Saratoga. I had a draft card when the Vietnam War ended. Too young.
My father was a Marine and was in Saipan as part of a gathering 1 million soldier force planning to invade Japan in 1945. He was a Foreign Service officer in Saigon in 1966. The embassy had bombings when he was there. Can you imagine, the father of 11, leaving behind all those kids.
I fly the flag. Every event that calls for it, I put that flag out, especially on Election Day.
So about the Star Spangled Banner. Four times in the ballad, which very few people know by heart all the way through, are the words “land of the free.”
It’s why I can understand Black players kneeling. “Land of the free” is a myth to many Black folks in the U.S.
My son’s roommate said each time he was stopped it was the same B.S. He “looked like someone” that had committed a crime. He also heard this, “We got you speeding” except the officer could not show him a radar reading.
I want all of you to ask your Black friends or acquaintances how many times they have been stopped by the police. I’ll be surprised if you don’t hear a story or two.
If you are outraged at Black athletes kneeling, you should be more outraged at the friends of your children, or your neighbors, being pulled over on the side of the road because they were profiled.
I remember going to Clemson in 2018 to work on a story for The New York Times about college athletes and the stipends they receive. Many of the players had families in the military. You think they didn’t respect the uniform?
For years when I stand for the national anthem I would look into my mind’s eye and think about the 18, 19, 20-year old kids that were killed at Normandy. There was plenty of video from the old black and white newsreels. Getting to Normandy was my top Bucket List item. I finally saw the cemetery in 2019. I can’t describe it, but I have this thought:
A teenager, who hadn’t been out of his hometown, knew very little of life, died on the beach. How unfair is that? Those kids are why I believe in God. I have faith they have been taken in.
We ought to be ashamed that those kids died for our freedom under that flag, but that freedom is for whites, not always for Blacks.
Not Kobe. I understand that a lot of folks loved him. The way he died, with his daughter, was certainly tragic. But he sexually assaulted a woman and managed to get off because of his position and power.
To your second point, my son had a similar experience at a major public institution in Georgia. He wasn't stopped but his friend - almost all young men of color - were stopped ALL. THE. TIME. It was eye-opening. We're a military family, too. My dad was a retired general. He is buried at Arlington. We have no problem with kneeling during the anthem. It is a legitimate form of protest.