Don Imus: Stock Up?

by user 71.233.234.152

"Basketball is an easy game to learn and a difficult one to master." - James Naismith

For basketball purists, the best game played in America doesn't appear on the playgrounds or even at the men's Final Four. The best game of pure basketball appears on the women's basketball scene, where below the rim, talented, aggressive, tough young women often play with both athleticism and high levels of fundamentals. The pick-and-roll, give-and-go, and backdoor cuts appear with stunning regularity. And American women still fare well internationally, exactly because they know how to play the game.

Another icon not at the top of his game, Don Imus, embarrassed himself and slandered not only Rutger's but all of women's basketball with his incendiary remarks. E. M. Forster cleverly juxtaposed 'doglike affection' in Passage to India, but Imus' characterization of Rutgers' players as "nappy-headed hos' shows not insensivity but a proclivity to both racism and sexism.

Players whose talent, training, and guts take them to a national championship game deserve far better characterization than Imus apparently can muster. And speaking of misplaced narcissism, well, Imus and most of us have faces for radio.

Firing Imus won't really solve anything, any more than changing nameplates on dictators' changing rooms does. Loyal Imus listeners will excuse the 'I-Man' as just trying to be funny, when this isn't about political correctness as much as slander. No, I'm not recommending tar and feathers, or tieing him to a tree next to a red anthill...which doesn't do much except inflict pain to the ants. Maybe a couple of hours in the stocks in Rockefeller Center with a clown suit and a sign around his neck saying, "I'm a insensitive jerk" would be a more appropriate punishment.  

False ProphetAll-Star

969 days ago

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Imus is a dick, but WOmen's basketball is not more pure than men's

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Ron Sen, MDRed-Shirting

969 days ago

Score 1

Didn't mean to be anonymous, but the women's game (in the US anyway) is far more fundamentally sound than most men play. There are players (like Paul Pierce with a magnificent wing game), Jason Kidd or Steve Nash, but most players live on their athleticism and ability, not their technique (footwork especially) and team play. Which is why (along with some of the best players not competing) the US men no longer dominate international play.

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False ProphetAll-Star

969 days ago

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thats not true at all. The Men have great technique, but have a more physical game leading to more shots without proper form. The US men don't dominate because so many NBA starts don't play for team USA or at all.

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J CunninghamVarsity Captain

969 days ago

Score 1

Actually, Ron and False are both right with regard to the state of men's basketball in this country. In many ways, the women's game is more fundamentally sound than the men's game -- and I can say this having watched both games extensively for the past five years.

I think the trap people fall into, though, is the perception; what I mean is, women don't dunk (Candace Parker aside), so people will point to that and say the women's game is more fundamental and "pure" than the men's game. The problem with that logic is this: basketball, men's or women's, operates under a set of rules. Aside from shot clock differences or a backcourt clock (which women's college basketball doesn't have), both games operate the same way, so one isn't "more pure" than another.

Also, and I think this is one reason the WNBA never caught on, the women's game is often more mistake-prone. Again, having watched both sides for the past five years, I can honestly say you'll see more turnovers, back-and-forth play and the like in the women's game. Is it a lack of fundamentals or coaching? No; I think it speaks to the athleticism Ron mentioned. I'm all for equality of the sexes, but the fact is, the majority of male basketball players are quicker, stronger and more athletic than female basketball players, and thus the difference. There isn't a lack of dunking in the women's game because of a rule against it; there's a lack of dunking because most female players can't.

In the end, do I think one's better than the other? No. I enjoy both games nearly equally, and I sometimes look at them as two different sports, sports impossible to compare against each other.

Oh, and as for the topic ... Imus is a moron, and the more we discuss what he said, the more interest he generates for himself. The best thing we can do to someone who makes asanine statements like this is ignore them. Oftentimes, they say things like this to get a reaction; if there's no reaction, they'll likely stop saying things like this.

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

969 days ago

Score 1

Good call, JC... men's and women's basketball is apples and oranges; Sure they're both fruits from a tree, but a little different in their own special way. They're not apples and triangles.

If you say you're a fan of basketball but you don't appreciate the women's game, you're either a complete fool, a total liar, an ignorant a-hole stuck on 1800's values or just too much a wuss to plain admit a woman can be better than you at something (and it's WAAAY worse to fear admitting loss to a woman than losing to a woman).

Whether you're a man, woman, hermaphrodite or other, a dunk - no matter HOW spectacular, is just two points (the same as a layup, a jumper or two free throws)

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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer

969 days ago

Score 0

Screw Imus, long live Tom Leykas!!!

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Yakob878MVP

843 days ago

Score 0

i hate imus

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