closg00 wrote:I don't know Whitlock, but the content was spot-on about AI. On what points related to basketball did you disagree with Whitlock?
Whitlock's analysis of Iverson as a me-first player is nothing groundbreaking. Iverson's carried that tag around his entire career, and his recent quotes do little to dispel that rep. So, if Whitlock's column was merely a mediocre statement on AI's selfish play, I'd yawn and move on.
It's all the other Alan Keyesian crap that sticks in my craw. He goes through some tortuous reasoning to insert race into the discussion--for no apparent reason. He sets up a straw-man argument--namely, that AI has taken on some sort of mantle of leadership in the urban community--and then chides AI for failing to support a Black coach and mostly Black team in a Black city. He mentions AI's "tatts, swagger, and rap sheet," which frankly, is old news. He'd have mentioned the cornrows too, if AI hadn't cut 'em off recently. He claims that AI regarded Tupac as a role model--also, for no real apparent reason.
But, putting all of that aside, if his only flaw were his annoying predilection for inserting reactionary views on race relations and sports into his columns, he still wouldn't be my least favorite columnist. But just to top it off, Whitlock has the nerve to be a hack of a writer.
Example:
Whitlock wrote:Iverson is a one-man, no-country Army, more than likely the victim of a dysfunctional upbringing that left him incapable of embracing the concepts essential to teamwork, winning and sacrifice for the benefit of others.
We're a nation of Allen Iversons, and the unchecked Wall Street greed that has us on the brink of collapse is nothing more than our chickens coming home to rot.
First of all, he makes no attempt to make a link between AI's approach to basketball and our behavior as a nation. He just puts it out there, and keeps it moving.
Secondly: I'm sure he's proud of himself for paraphrasing Malcolm, but the re-worked quote doesn't even make sense. Whitlock is apparently trying to echo Malcolm's sentiments about people getting their just desserts. I get it. But why he changed the quote from "roost" to "rot"(!?) defies comprehension. Either way, the quote no longer means what he thinks it means. And more importantly, he doesn't bother to offer one scintilla of argument or support for that sweeping statement.
I wish this column were an anomaly, but it ain't. Whitlock is an intellectually lazy rabble-rouser who never bothers to actually lay out the foundation for a cogent argument. He all but presents his assumption as fact and moves on without looking back.
He's a terrible, terrible writer and, but for his cagey career move of cornering the "ornery Black conservative sports columnist" market a few years ago, he would've written himself out of gainful employment by now. He was already fired by ESPN; Is it any surprise that he ended up working for Fox?
I'll sum up with this: he's worse than Tom Knott.
Always remember, my friend: the world will change again. And you may have to come back through everywhere you've been.
