Thanks Dave for giving the AABA an ounce of undeserved attention. Also Dave aren't you a part of the media? Hence using your logic you and commish Stern have helped to create and publicize this racist league. Please explain enquiring minds want to know.

I'm not a particularly big fan of basketball, but isn't "The Big Fundamental" a Black man, namely one mister Tim Duncan? Hasn't he won multiple NBA championships and been a repeat all-star? Hadn't heard about this league, but I hope it dies in obscurity.

What gets me about mainstream basketball journalism is how characteristics such as "hustle", "character" and "intangibles" are reserved for relatively unskilled white players. I understand that skilled players of whatever ethnicity can be described with a plethora of other adjectives (e.g. electrifying, creative, unstoppable), but the way these words of moral praise are largely reserved for white athletes is really the other side of the condemnation as thugs reserved for Black athletes.

Of course Dave is part of the media--and boy am I glad he is. But to say that Dave is giving this racist "league" attention just because he wrote a column about it is wrongheaded. Just look at the proliferation of 912ers, Tea Partiers, and the regrowth of the John Birch society. This is a distinct, if small, movement that needs to be seen and addressed, and I would argue that this "league" needs to be included in this pattern of right-wing extremism.

Sean (DC),

You speak true, but the hidden racism in those terms are starting to dissipate over time. When I was young in the 80s you heard that crap all the time and it would be rare for an announcer/pundit to refer to a black man with terms such as 'hustle' and 'leader' or "he's an intelligent player." But this is starting to slowly (albeit far too slowly) change. The coach of my hometown Blazers, Nate McMillan is always referred to with those terms by nearly everyone in the media there, and E'Twaun Moore of my alma mater Purdue is often called an incredibly intelligent player with great hustle and a great work-ethic, and he is, being academic all Big Ten and doing much more with less physical skills than many.

These are only a few examples though there could be many more including Tim Duncan but I do agree there is still much to do on this at every level, but we're making progress against the forces of reaction and regression, and we need to make sure the benefits of this progress are shared as widely as possible and not simply limited to humanizing a few high profile and/or well paid celebrities.

And thanks Trey for the excellent reply to our provacative and gadflyesque friend.

It's a not-so-elaborate hoax by one man: Don "Moose" Lewis-- a failed professional wrestler promoter trying to get a reality show.

Not a single other person has been quoted as being associated with this "league."

But now Zirin has helped give this loser his 15 minutes of fame. You are so courageous Zirin! A vanguard of virtue!

Dave -

Big fan of your work. That said, I was having this type of discussion just this morning with my Celtics-fan friends, in the wake of last night's game vs. Lakers. I was trying to tell them that Pau Gasol is a pleasure to watch offensively, as he is so skilled, polished, and well... fundamentally sound. Immediately my friend called me out for racial remarks. I (like Sean above) tried to justify it by bringing up Tim Duncan. There are plenty of fundamentally sound black players (Carmelo, KG, Kobe, etc...), but for a big man, Gasol (along w/ Duncan) sticks out.

I like watching all styles of hoops, and last night's Melo vs. LeBron battle was one for the ages, but watching Gasol play is a throwback to the pre-Jordan days when talented players white and black could do it all (shoot, pass, go left, go right). Are my thoughts tainted by a racist ideology? Do you have any suggestions as to how I can articulate these thoughts in a way not racially tainted? Please advise.

This is a reply to Celts18% above my comment here.

There's an idea in your last paragraph here which is also in the 'fundamentals' debate.

That is: people who don't play a clean looking fundamentals game don't have fundamentals. That's a confusion. In all sports players have styles, strengths and weaknesses to their game. Good players move beyond fundamentals and, especially in open movement games like hoops or soccer, seem to become unpredictable and artistic. That doesn't mean they don't have the fundamentals.

Also, many players improve by playing to their strengths and focusing on them.

We can't really say all these things are mutually exclusive. Sticking to strong but effective basics is a kind of style too, not necessarily because that's all they can do. It's a joy to see players break their mold at times too. Remember Shaq getting a break away one all-star game, faking out the last man with a behind the back move then pulling a 360 running dunk to finish.

The trap is to start attaching these styles to some kind of limitations and the color of someone's skin. It's not biology.

Jason Williams or Steve Nash play with great personal flair and expression ... while you mention Tim Duncan as a solid fundamentals guy, but I remember his earlier days at SA, his effortless high angled shots in off the back board seemed like poetry to me.

There and hundreds of examples that smash the stereotypes.

@ Tornado:
Lewis is a failed wrestling promoter (and failed boxing promoter) but he also has a long history of being a failed minor league basketball guy and he has tried to make at least two other basketball leagues work in the past (The Global Basketball Alliance and the American Basketball Alliance) and has worked with the reincarnated American Basketball Association (also a disaster).

His involvement in the AABA goes back to December and he may or may not have actually been the founder of this enterprise. It's original model wasn't to be a racist league but to be a single entity, winter season league with a "profit" sharing model for players. It never got off the ground, but it's clear that some time he came up with this whites only stupidity - either as a marketing tool or as a result of his own bass-ackwards politics (or more likely a combination of the two). It definitely was a cash/attention grab, but it also has its roots in his attempt to actually get a league going.

It's an over exaggeration to say that anyone got "punked" as Moose has tried and is still trying to actually make this league work. He is now telling people that he has an offer to star in a documentary film and will be playing teams in Nigeria and Brazil... I suspect he's going to try to play this off as a "I was a racist but traveling and seeing the uniting spirit of basketball has reformed me!" type situation and try to build from there.


It's disappointing that the only time the sports media will talk about minor league hoops is when some idiot like Lewis makes a splash. There are a lot of really shady business dealings that need light shown on them and a lot of really wonderful stories when it comes to minor league basketball. Sports media having some expertise or knowledge of the independent minor league circuit would also allow them to place these sorts of event in context - it was interesting to see reporters and columnists scrambling to make sense of a sporting world they've ignored for decades.

to me the AABA is just another way for racist people to get there word out on how much they hate people of color or other ethnicity. colored players are not the only people celebrating after scoring a basket or a touch down, there are many Caucasian players along with colored players that gloat and celebrate which i don't blame them if the were making millions of dollars a year shoot i would be doing back flips too, to me it's not a bad thing as long as it doesn't interrupt the game it's fine.

If this article is no more than just a joke then may it rot. Now if it is true, then all the people who have a problem with this need to realize that this idea never would been brought up in the first place if the NBA players wouldnt of been acting like children. Now i know sometimes it's cool to gloat especially after a sweet dunk but their is a whole lot more negative things than positives.

basketball is for everyone so all the remarks need to stop.. It does not have to be about black or white

I can agree alittle on how you would want to open an all american team with pure white people, but it does sound kinda of racist. The white caucasian people are not the minority yet in the United states. Now I'm hispanic and we are somewhat the minority in the united states. I think the problem with this is a personal issue, with too many blacks in the NBA. But hey thats just my opinion. If you can pull it off than go for it, Hope you got some great players because the NBA sure does......Thank you for your time....

I think that the AABA is nothing more than people trying to divide the country again by using excuses that are not based on reality. Because people of all races celebrate and do things that other people don’t like. So the AABA should just admit their true reasons. Instead of using other people's flaws to cover up what they truly want

I think that the AABA is just racist people tryin to get themselves and their words across. Basketball is not only for black people. it is also for white any other race. Racisim should of stoped along time ago.