All those "Cases in Point" have been well covered in all main stream sporting sources.

Thanks for bringing the obvious, but I think people enjoy Zirin's work for the outside the box analysis.

JJ - you don't know shit. I read Zirin all the time and he has mad cred on taking on homophobia in sports. Check the archives or just ask John Amaechi yourself. Zirin also is an anti-racist. People like you who attack white people for fighting racism are in my experience just happy to live on a cloud of white privilege. Pathetic and tired. Go read espn.com and feel right at home. This is the edge, son.

Yeah OK JJ. Think about what AI had to go through growing up. One winter he went without heat and had to deal with a sewage leak in his house. He was dirt poor and it was him and his Mom. He was thrown in prison as a teenager for a scuffle in bowling alley where there were no serious injuries.

This is real life shit, not making poor decisions about practice on a professional sports team. Get with it.

If people in society could battle these kind of circumstances with such amazing success, society would be much better indeed.

Glossing over AI is ridiculous on two levels. First, he's simply a reprehensible character for all the reasons stated (minimizing his role in the bowling alley brawl is despicable - since when is assault justified when you fail to do 'serious injury'?).

Second, he's a cancer on whatever team he ends up on. He's the worst example of a selfish, stat-obsessed, ego-driven player. It's funny that some people try to justify this using some stale and tendentious argument about 'hip-hop culture'. It's the same garbage people use to try and justify Michael Vick's behavior (Surprise! Guess who AI hangs with?)

I hope AI shoots himself like Plaxico Burress and ends up broke like Mike Tyson. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

sometimes warriors grow weary. It's draining being a major dynamic in all of those sports-life tussels that pitted AI fans against the others Dave named.

JJ - You seem proud of your 'case in points' but they seem a bit stale and without context.
A rap album? LOL That one almost deserves no aknowledgement. Of course now that Goodell has thugishly established the 'ownership' rules that govern more than the players jobs (or even almost defensible tengential stuff) it seems perfectly reasonable not to expect any pro-athlete to dabble in any art and do so flexing all their human freedom. That argument is soooo Tipper Gore early 90's too. Boooo.

Concealed weapons charge? Puhleeze. You'd probably be the same cat shouting about the 2nd Amendment from the rooftops if the 'circumstances' were different.

Next up...drunken public pissing. Yeah, it's pretty foul, but a good ole boy wouldn't be told to "Shoot himself like Plaxico" like one of your fans did in another comment.

His bodyguard whooped someone's ass apparently. Now he must be palin' around with terrorists huh? LOL

As for being held in low regard 'by all accounts'. I'm actually am not sure what the consensus is amoungst all of his former teamates, but you've got the MSM media trick of 'some say' locked down playboy. And maybe it's true, but let's compare how he's been covered by the press and treated by observers like you to an ex-pill-poppin recently unretired QB shall we?

As for society being worse if we were all AI...society is worse for not realizing that we all are AI. Human and complex, hypocritical and compassionate, warriors, whiners, winners and capable of learning and teaching.

This was a reminder of how much I will miss him at his prime. Funny Dave that you should start with the end of the cornrows...I remember so vividly the moment he debuted them at that All-Star game where the 50 Greatest were introduced. It was an Olympic Fist moment for me as an 80's baby...it may seem shallow contrasted with the Civil Rights era that was the backdrop/impetus for Smith & Carlos, but it gave a moment of validation to soooo many people who knew that they were more than how society reflected 'their look' back upon them. It was important an step...eventually we got Jay-Z giving 'Voter Registration' concerts with Lebron. Eventually we got a President that didn't have to hide the fact that hooped and had hip-hop on his Ipod. Our culture was/is real and was/is still changing the world.

Why whites gotta have your own kind of guilt man??? That sh*t ain't fair. LOL!!! *snark alert*

Well said. Where's your blog???

One note: I'm glad Obama has hip hop on his iPod. But I wish he had single payer health care on the brain!

I think people get stuck on one narrative about athletes and forget that these people can change and grow as well. We have insight into these people lives for such a short period of time it is almost comical that we don't reexamine our assumptions on the actions of young people. JJ is criticizing him about an album he never heard which was performed under the pen name Jewelz. If he had wrote a fictional book saying the same things it wouldn't be an issue. The gun charge is laughable because he is a target in poor communities across the country and because of overzealous and probably racially tinged prosecution in Va he can't get a legal handgun. As for peeing in a casino garbage can. I doubt that was the first or the last time those cans saw urine and is that the worst crime ever?. As for th bodyguard was he directed by AI to administer the beating?

I live in Denver these days. So, I had a close up look at AI and the effect he has on a basketball team out here.

When he first arrived, I was excited. A rarity with me and the NBA. Denver already had a brilliant young forward in Anthony. Now they had an excellent guard to go with him. Surely this would produce magic on offense, even if neither played any defense.

Instead, it produced horrible basketball. You never seemed to see the two working together on the court. Instead, the Nuggets offense was stagnant and predictable. Mainly it would be AI dribbling the ball uselessly out front and then taking a bad shot.

Then, the Nuggets somehow convinced Detroit to trade AI for Billups. The effect on the Nuggets was obvious immediately. As soon as AI was gone, the Nuggets became a much better basketball team. The offense became looser and free-er and more brilliant. We actually now had a guard who set up other players. Amazing. And, the whole team suddenly had a new attitude that included playing defense with enthusiasm.

Denver and Detroit traded AI and C.Billups. Detroit immediately went from constant contender in the NBA-East to a doormat. Denver went from an underperforming doormat in the NBA-West to a new contender challenging the Lakers in the West final.

Its no wonder that no one wants AI on their team. It has nothing to do with cornrows or tatoos. It has to do with the fact that AI these days makes for a very bad basketball team. And that just by benching him and getting him off the court the team suddenly gets better.

"My heroes don't wear suits?"

All the results in Google return to this article? I can't find any source of AI saying it anywhere and would love to see it...

I can respect your basketball argument totally. I don't think it's necessarily representative of his entire career.

Sometimes I just think he's tired and the irony of his 'uniform' becoming his own 'corporate suit' of sorts has worn down his competitive spark. None of us can deny the flammability of that spark and how it lit the 76ers on fire.

Also, I don't think that guy enjoys being West of the Mississippi at all.

Dave Zirin dissed by John "sellout" McWhorter? That's a badge of honor.

This is gonna be good! McWhorter is a heavyweight when it comes to linguistics and the celtic contribution to english grammar, but when it comes to race relations, a weak-ass Cosby-esqe bootstraps argument will prove a glass jaw, and DZ can throw intellectual hands with the best of them. Ding Ding Ding!

Much of what Dave says here resonates with me. Enjoying freedom of expression, I have always had much love for AI's personal flair and much disgust for dress codes. Also, Iverson's rise from nothing to superstar is inspiring, and his quote about his heroes not wearing suits is something the whole damn country ought to consider (though I, too, would like to know the source--I have heard it before other than from Zirin.

As a white man, I have a love-hate relationship with the white guilt concept. On one hand, romanticizing black people and black culture isn't any better than any OTHER kind of romanticization, and, as a teacher, I always tell black kids who play the race card when they get in trouble in class, "No: if I let you off the hook on this, THEN I'd be racist." On the other hand, I am aware of my heritage as an American (and Dutch descendent) and the blood in the soil I walk on--to paraphrase Faulkner, the past isn't gone; it isn't even PAST. We've got things to answer for and be cognizant of, even if "my grandfather never owned slaves."

I have had disappointments with Iverson. I was thrilled when he went to the Nuggets, where I thought with that cast and Karl involved, they'd be tremendously exciting and dangerous even if they didn't win. I took my wife to Memphis to watch the Nuggets play the year of the trade, only to watch in horror as the man who's left more on the floor than most players in hoop history DOGGED IT the entire game--the Nuggets got KO'd by an undermanned Grizzlies team playing hungry rookies and subs. And I thought he'd man up in Motown. Not so. Still, it doesn't diminish his earlier accomplishments for me. He's a complicated guy, as we all are, I suppose.

One more thing. I don't think folks should jump on JJ about the homophobia angle, necessarily. Zirin's spent a lot of time hold that up to the light. But, for one, it's never come close to DEFINING Iverson--that's a laugh--and, for another...I don't know. I've always felt that there's a book in looking at homophobia and black men raised in poverty in the midst of collapsing urban environments. I think it's something different--not BETTER, just DIFFERENT--that we need to understand better. I think it's a small slice of what Amaechi had to deal with.

@ Ashley - I agree, bring it McWhorter!

@ Rev. Coomers - Great comments!

@ Dave Z - I forgot to scream Touche when you mentioned single-payer on the brain. I'd rather have him listen to Barry Manilow and ram thru single payer health care reform with the intensity of P.E. song :)

Quote: As a white man, I have a love-hate relationship with the white guilt concept. On one hand, romanticizing black people and black culture isn't any better than any OTHER kind of romanticization, and, as a teacher, I always tell black kids who play the race card when they get in trouble in class, "No: if I let you off the hook on this, THEN I'd be racist." On the other hand, I am aware of my heritage as an American (and Dutch descendent) and the blood in the soil I walk on--to paraphrase Faulkner, the past isn't gone; it isn't even PAST. We've got things to answer for and be cognizant of, even if "my grandfather never owned slaves." Unquote.

Rev. Coomer, you are a breath of fresh air and honesty!! You are welcome on my blog anytime!!!

I think zirin just likes spankin' it to tough black dudes. (His previous column on Ron Artest comes to mind).

Apart from AI's gangsta-ness, few coaches would want someone who isn't satisfied with less than 30 FGAs per game (making < 40%)

"Second, he's a cancer on whatever team he ends up on. He's the worst example of a selfish, stat-obsessed, ego-driven player."

What does Brett Favre have to do with this conversation?

With all due respect to those who enjoyed your post, I'm not impressed. First of all racism isn't something from the past. It's very real today... right now... in the present. Don't feel guilty about the past, help abolish and challenge all present forms of racism. Second, everybody that challenges or perceives racism today is not necessarily "playing the race card". Try listening and understanding rather than condescending and maybe you'll relate better to your students. Then you surely won't be a racist.

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To say that baggy pants and other attire associated with hip hop symbolizes thuggery is like saying a pompadora and a leather jacket symbolizes violence. It's a style of clothing, and I've known plenty of people, white, black, etc. who have worn said attire and never committed a violent act. It's not a blue or red bandana. It's hard to view the dress code as anything other than a manifestation of white peoples' fears of people of color.

To see the racism implicit in David Stern's dress code and suspension policies, one need only look at other sports. In hockey and baseball, fights are fairly commonplace. Whether or not the NHL or MLB mete out fines and suspensions, these transgressions are dismissed as tradition and 'boys will be boys'. These sports are obviously associated more with whiteness than basketball. In the NBA, walking a few feet from the bench during an altercation or heated moment on the court merits an automatic suspension.

Black people are, in general, judged more harshly for their transgressions. Want to hear the N-word rear its ugly head? Listen to certain groups of white people discussing a black man's transgression. The day OJ got a acquitted, I heard the N-word from white people I'd never have pegged as racist.

AI is one of the NBA's greatest, though he's been unable to adjust to his new role as a complimentary player. At his age, he's lost a step and can't score at the same rate, and a 5'10'' shooting guard (he's not much of a facilitator) will always be a defensive liability. He's thrived on his quickness and has taken a beating his entire career, and it's taken a toll on him. He's also not half the floor general that Chauncey Billups is, which is why the Nuggets improved dramatically after AI's departure.

Side note: although the 76ers were a mediocre team, they were pretty good defensively.

AI has done and said some stupid things and he shouldn't get a pass for his homophobia, but he's basically a good guy. Further it should be noted that homophobia is a problem that plagues communities of all ethnicities in this country as well as all professional athletes.

Cornrows to an Afro? Zirin may be going a bit far with the argument that saying that "the neighborhood has been gentrified" in relation to Iverson. The Afro is a symbol of the Black Power movement, not exactly something one would associated with, excuse the expression, Uncle Tom-ness.

How does AI plan to catch on? ... PRACTICE!!

How does AI plan to catch on? ... PRACTICE!!