No basketball involved, just sweet bloggy goodness, possible veiled racism, and accusations of the same.
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Etan Thomas Versus Andrew Bogut
17 Jul 2007 03:39 pm
Comments (22)
I know I'm supposed to like Etan Thomas, but I just can't seem to do it. I cannot shake the feeling that he's reading Howl in the corner towards some unrelated end.
But Howl is awesome.
I'll give Thomas credit. Another draft of that piece could have easily been headlined "BOGUT IS A RACIST" but he took a decidedly more generous approach. Still it did feel like he was kind of on the verge of making a good point but never actually quite made it before he finished.
I would have preferred BOGUST IS A RACIST myself. The "more in sorrow than in anger" thing is annoying.
I mean BOGUT
"I know I'm supposed to like Etan Thomas, but I just can't seem to do it. I cannot shake the feeling that he's reading Howl in the corner towards some unrelated end."
Umm...what? Every time I hear something from him that doesn't involve getting his dreads ripped out by B-Hay, he's discussing real-world issues like the war, racism, etc. You don't have to like him, but I'm a little puzzled by the idea that one of the NBA players most engaged with the real world is some kind of dilettante disconnected from real life.
All that said, I really hope Ernie can find a taker for his awful contract...
He lets Bogut hang himself with his eurocentric generalizations. That said, Bogut's indictment of American materialism-- and its manifestation in Hip Hop and, resultantly, the NBA-- is not an entirely inaccurate depiction of the trickle-down American dream. By the time the "greed is good" credo does filter down to the streets, it manifests itself in fairly ridiculous ways, such as icy grills and ginormificent, gaudy chains. Grills I blame on overzealous gold miners and chains have to be blamed on Dagos trying to ornament their prodigious chest hair. Aussies are all a bunch of sneering racist convicts anyway. Soused redneck meatheads they are, at least 80% percent of 'em.
Etan's article is passive-agressive in a Michael Moorish kind of way-- not necessarily out of line, but very personal and makes me feel icky even though I largely agree. I think Etan should have gotten Andrew on the phone and had a dialogue, baller to baller, to clarify Andrew's perturbing meaning. Open letters are inherently bitchy.
As boring as the Bogut/Thomas exchange is, it's probably better than watching the two of them play basketball.
Whoops! I meant "bawler" to baller. Pardon my missing pun-chline.
Bogut is just keeping it real, telling it like it is.
The thing Bogut fails to admit is that his European posse on the Bucks, namely (I suppose), Dan Gadzurick,Ersan Ilyasova,and Damir Markota all suck and are all making the league minimum. They should be saving every penny they earn.
Also, I am not sure Gadzurick qualifies as European, and the other two dudes are from non-EU countries. And Bogut is an Aussie. What heck is he talking about. I think this is why Yi doesn't want to play for the Bucks. He won't have anybody to roll with when he wants to blow some endorsment dollars up in da club.
Dan G is making $6 million a year, but why care about facts?
chill Rob, that was a mistake. i meant the rooks.. i gotta work and try to be a smartass all at once.
Bogut is just keeping it real, telling it like it is.
You mean "keeping it rill, don't you?
Yeah dawg, keeping it rill.
Are Euro-basketballers somehow less flashy than Euro-footballers? I don't find that to be plausible. And I know that Euro-footballers are every bit as flashy and high-life-living as U.S. basketballers.
Bogut is an Aussie. What heck is he talking about.
Well, he's of Croatian descent, and there's been long a blurring of national sporting identity between Croatia and Australia. Croatians played soccer, not rugby/cricket/footy, and there were plenty of Croatian-community soccer teams. Even today, you'll find Aussies of Croatian descent playing for both the Socceroos and the Croatian national side.
As for the exchange, it's the sort of thing that wouldn't have been controversial in the days before the interwebs made foreign papers available. It's a 'local boy makes good abroad' piece, and it's subject to all the caveats you'd expect of someone whose life abroad is out of the ordinary.
Plus, you also have to come at this from the Australian perspective. Bogut talks about 'tall poppy syndrome' -- the habit of knocking people down to size -- and his interview is given in that context. He doesn't want to be seen as an overprivileged arsehole by the people back home. Instead, he comes across as an over-generalising arsehole by Thomas.
As a Canadian who constantly hears reports about how no NBA-players from the U.S. want to play for the Raptors because the Canadian school system uses the metric system, I have little sympathy for Thomas' take on somebody essentially saying that they have their own problems with the U.S. system. Deal with it.
Oh, and use the damn metric system, people!
The metric system is the tool of the devil! My car gets forty rods to the hogshead, and that's the way I likes it!
It looks like the original article about Bogut has been edited. Some of the quotes that Etan Thomas cites -- in particular, the one about the effects of growing up in the ghetto -- are no longer there.
Neither of these guys' games are exciting enough to pay attention to anything that they say at length.
Comments closed July 31, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
I know I'm supposed to like Etan Thomas, but I just can't seem to do it. I cannot shake the feeling that he's reading Howl in the corner towards some unrelated end.
Posted by SomeCallMeTim | July 17, 2007 3:46 PM