Racism and basketball ...
 

in light of the ongoing discussions in the religion thread I thought many here might like this article:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...604096,00.html

Very interesting article. Thanks for posting.

Some BYU fans have opined that Rose's relatively fast-paced offense won't work because of the lack of black players on the team. One of them referred to it as "jungle ball".

I read that article before. I actually thought it was kind of dumb. I didn't really get where JTIII's coming from. I like that if there were racial stereotypes about the Princeton offense that he's breaking them. But I don't necessarily believe that. The Princeton offense is being run at some level in the pro's and also at NC State and a handful of other college teams. The Princeton offense is one I'd choose as a coach if I had a talent differential problem and I had no dominant center. I don't even think it's the right offense for Georgetown. And not because they're not smart enough to run it.

If you have a talent differential issue, you want to slow down the game as much as possible, keep other teams from running on you, milk the clock to limit possessions, shoot from the outside or sneaky back-door cuts because you don't have the talent to create shots inside without a gimmick. The opposite is true if you have talent and/or a big man.

As I close in on a milestone 10th post, I solicit the board's counsel on the use of the term "jungle ball." I've used that term sparingly, but consistently, since high school to describe a highly disorganized, fast-paced and decidedly not-team-oriented approach to the game. It was not intended to be a racial reference, but merely a description of the feral nature of our style, such as it was. We started using the term in high school, an era which followed (albeit not by much) the retirement of the peach basket; spare me the ageist slander.

Anyway, is the term now regarded as racist? Is there even a point to asking the question of an audience comprised predominantly of melanin-free middle-aged males? Despite your suspect credentials, if you so advise, I'll retire the term from my limited inventory.

Well, mighty prolific poster that you are, Peach Basket must be related to its German sister in describing Basketball, Korbball. I remember when we were derided for using that term in Germany, proud to use an authentic German word which much like EDV had fallen into disuse.

Call it what you want to call it. If folks are offended by the term, it is because they choose to be offended.

That definition approximates PAC's usage as opposed to a racist definition.

Don't ever tell any liberal or "intellectual" that....believe me I've tried on here. lol.