Love the Game, Hate The People

All of these people...are idiots. 

I hate Lakers fans. I hate Clippers fans. I hate Celtics fans. Heat Fans. 49ers fans. Seahawks fans. Cowboys fans.  Lions fans. Yankees fans. Red Sox fans. Cubs fans. Michigan University Football fans. Ohio State fans. Man U fans. Brazilian soccer fans. Any other team’s fans for that matter. I hate them all! Sad part is, I root for several of those teams. The Lakers, Lions, Michigan Wolverines and Cubs are all “my” teams, but I’m really, really starting to hate the fans.

There’s an old Chris Rock joke that goes, “I love Black people but I hate niggas! Boy I hate niggas so much I wish I could join the KKK!” I love sports, but I hate sports fans! Love the games (and I use the word “love” very loosely,) but hate (and I use that word KNOWINGLY) some of the people that watch the games.

 

This guy has "life issues" that Jesus couldn't  fix.

Fan is short for fanatic. Merriam-Webster defines it as “marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion. “ Let’s break down this definition. “Excessive enthusiasm” means that even when the team is shitty/average a “fan” is always going to be way too excited about the team. Even as the team yields mediocre results, they'll always think higher of them (the team) than they should. (A’la Cowboy fans, Lakers fans, Yankees fans.)  “Uncritical devotion” means that even when the team and/or players on the team, does something wrong, on or off the field, a fan is unable to render any judgment on their players' or team's wrongdoing. (A’la Kobe/Lakers fans after Colorado. A’la Washington Football Fans that excuse their team's CLEARLY racist nickname. A’la 49ers fan after Aldon Smith does…well anything.)

Even when these guys are dirt bags, cheating, lying, lowdown a-holes, "fans" STILL support them. If the name on the front of the jersey is a team they like, fans will wholeheartedly stand by them like a cheating politician’s wife at one of those apology press conference. Like a person dressed in your favorite team’s gear somehow gives them a pass to commit multiple DUIs, slap their wife/girlfriend and even murder people… allegedly anyway. If these men didn’t run, jump, or throw the ball for a team you liked, then they’d be a public outcast like anyone else would be.

My biggest problem is fans are too stupid to realize they control sports. Not the players, not the owners, the FANS! They, the collective body, don’t realize that without us forking over our hard-earned money for overpriced parking, overpriced hotdogs, overpriced beers and VASTLY overpriced seats, game after game, that teams would be NOTHING. Fans don’t get that the greatest message they could send to a racist owner, or perennially mismanaged franchise, would be leaving their 40,000 plus seat stadium empty on gamenight. Imagine if the Washington Professional Football fans voiced their desire for wanting the team name to be changed by leaving FedEx Field a ghost town on opening Sunday. The name would change from “Redskins” to “Fluffy Love Fairies” by halftime. Fans have that much power but NEVER wield it. (Quick tangent about the Washington football nickname. Ask yourself this; would Dan Snyder, anyone that’s a fan of that team or anyone else feel comfortable addressing a Native American as “Redskin”? Didn’t think so. If you won’t call a person a “Redskin”, why the hell would you call a team that!)

Looking on the outside, I see why it’s so easy to hate us Lakers fans. All we do is talk about "our" 16 titles. Hell, we don’t even have the most which is the most frustrating part about "us" bragging about that fact. (The hated Boston Celtics have 17) If we’re talking about things in a historical context then sure, pound your chest Lakers nation. If someone is stupid enough to want to talk about their team's legacy versus ours, then get at them. Of the ten arguably greatest players ever, four have had on a Lakers jersey at one point in their career. (Magic, Wilt, Kobe, Kareem) But if a person is talking about the here and now, we need to do like all the other fans of hapless franchise right now, (IE Bucks, Cavs, Sixers fans) SHUT THE FUCK UP! We suck.

 

New rule: Unless you weren't ON THE FIELD playing the game,
or you're NOT under the age of 8, you DON'T get to act like THIS.

Look, I understand that sports can be something more. Something greater. Programs like ESPN's 30-for-30 and E-60 or HBO's Real Sports do an awesome job of showcasing how a game can become something more than, well, more than a game. But for the most part fans need to remember, these are grown men playing a game, not fighting a war or curing cancer mind you, PLAYING A GAME that (BARRING YOU HAVING WAGED YOUR HOUSE ON THE OUTCOME, which is a WHOLE OTHER article), has ZERO effect on your life! My brother didn’t speak to me for weeks after the 49ers Vs. Seahawks game. I don’t care what he says, I KNOW THAT GAME HAD AT LEAST SOMETHING TO DO WITH HIS MOOD. You’d think Richard Sherman personally came in our apartment and slapped this negro the way he was acting. You’d think he was on the field in the  number 7 jersey throwing passes the way he was depressed. Nothing outside of something happening to my children, mother, girlfriend, family or friends could get me that upset.

You see, it’s a problem that after Green Bay Packers losses, domestic violence goes up 45% in the state of Wisconsin! Really?! Why do people put such importance on the outcome of a meaningless event, in the grand scheme of life, that they themselves HAVE NO CONTROL OVER? I’ll never understand that. I mean I get “rec league guy” getting all crazy because he’s there, in the moment. on the court. He’s still crazy but at least he’s going crazy over a game he is ACTUALLY INVOLVED IN AND HAS A CHANCE TO EFFECT THE OUTCOME.

Again... idiot.

Maybe it’s because I’m happy and I don’t have to put sports on this weird pedestal a lot of other fans do. I have two great kids. I have great relationships with my friends and family. I think I have the world’s best job. I’m really lucky I guess, because most people don’t have these “luxuries”. I mean, if I hated one or a few of those things in my life, then maybe, and just maybe, I would try to replace it with something else. But I would not replace it with something I couldn’t control like professional sports.

So from here on out, I’m no longer a Lakers “fan” or a Michigan “fan, or a Lions “fan”, or a “fan” of any other sports team. I’m a Lakers “watcher”.  A Lions “viewer”. A Cubs “observer”. Which Merriam defines as “a person who watches or notices something”. Because the only thing that I have an “excessive enthusiasm” for or an “intense uncritical devotion” to is a little girl named Aaliyah and a little boy named Dominic. (Those are my kids.)

Nothing Ever Changes: Racism and the Role Social Media Plays To Keep Us Voiceless

Will the NBA force Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers amid allegations of racism?

So by now you know what this piece is going to be about. This country’s most uncomfortable and STILL most-glaring problem; racism. I'm starting to realize if there is something for Black folks to miss about pre 1960’s America, it’s the fact that we knew where we stood with White people. White people could just “straight up” tell you they didn’t like you and they didn’t have to hide their feelings about you. Which is what made the few White folks that were kind, and who genuinely believed in change, so much more amazing than  the "kind" White folks today (By kind in the sense of being good to Black folks). Back in the day, a White person could be publicly shunned or worst,  killed for supporting Black people. Because in 2014 when I interact with some white people, mostly those over the age of 50, I can’t help but wonder the same question. If it was 1964 would you be beside me, enduing my struggle or in front of me, impeding my progress? I’m going to guess there are more closeted racists in 2014 than there are closeted gays. It's the not knowing that sucks.

It’s the not knowing that led to the NAACP Los Angeles chapter awarding Donald Sterling the lifetime achievement award a few years ago. The not knowing ALMOST led to him being awarded it AGAIN this year. I’d rather have Sterling be the “nigga” hating a-hole he is than some fake a-hole who pretends to give a damn about me or my people. The worst part about him is for someone that can't seem to even tolerate the presence of Black people, and other minority groups, he doesn’t seem to mind sleeping with women of color, or making money off the sweat of men of color. That is a mentality he shares with Edwin Epps, the villainous slave owner from 12 Years A Slave. They don't look at Blacks as equals but rather view Black men as tools to make them money and Black women as nothing more than a bunch pleasure “holes”. So in other words minorities are only good for two things; Filling his pockets and excuse me for saying this, "emptying his sack". But what should be done about this?

I think there should be a full and total boycott of the Los Angeles Clippers while he still owns the team. Not just Black American Clippers fans either. All Clippers fans that found Sterling’s comments sickening shouldn’t step a single toe into the Staples Center until Sterling sells that team. Only the fans can do something because the players are going to play. Although I think they shouldn’t. Think about it like this, if your partner cheats on you, which of these sends a stronger message. A, saying your "disappointed" in them but coming back home? Or B, packing your stuff and never returning?

Doc Rivers and all Blacks on the Clippers
have a chance to send a strong message.

If boycotting was good enough to affect change in Black American Civil Rights then it’s surely good enough to get rid of an owner. Boycotting hurts the one thing rich people love more than their own children; their bottom-line. It’s the ONLY play fans have and we're too stupid to realize it. We, me, you, the paying, viewing customers are the ones that afford these players and owners the amazing lifestyles they so lovingly enjoy. WE DRIVE THE MARKET NOT THEM. But because they know "we just gotta have our games", they can do or say whatever they want. The statement that an empty Staples Center would send would be the biggest thing to happen in not only sports boycotting history but in American boycotting history, but it won’t happen. And it won’t happen because this whole thing is a total microcosm of America’s ever growing stupidity and laziness.

In 2014, we are smarter and healthier than we’ve ever been. If you have a smartphone, do you realize that you have the entire wealth of all learned human knowledge at your fingertips? Even still we’ve become a nation of smarter idiots. While social media is great and has effectively shrank the world by helping to connect us better than ever before, it’s also (social media) left us voiceless. Let me explain.

Social media lets us THINK we’re really doing something. It lets us THINK we have a voice, but social media can be AVOIDED whereas a living breathing human CANNOT. You can bitch and moan all day on Facebook about your Congressman, but if he doesn't us social media then what’s the point? If you’re at their doorstep, PHYSICALLY THERE protesting, you can’t be ignored. But when a person can put a two paragraph Facebook post and feel heard because they got a few "likes" why would ever they get off their ass? Unless you're a famous person, ranting on social media it’s akin to you yelling in a room filled ONLY WITH friends and then walking outside trying to yell with tape on your mouth. That’s what social media protesting is.

If the Black Civil Rights movement had to happen in 2014 it’d consist only of angry Facebook posts, “snarky” Tweets, and tongue-in-cheek memes. And that’s the way “The Man” likes it. The government LOVES social media because lets, us, the people THINK we have a voice. It leaves us chained to our phones and laptops and keeps us from hitting the streets where we could REALLY push for change.

This is really simple. Donald Sterling doesn’t like Black people. And that’s fine. He doesn’t have to. Hell, the KKK is still alive and well today because this is America. You can have an opinion here. Be it smart, dumb, or even racist, YOU have a right to YOUR opinion. But since Mr. Sterling can’t stand the company of Black people, I say he shouldn’t get to earn another dollar off the athletic prowess of Black people. Sad part is even if he's forced to sell the team, he WILL STILL MAKE MONEY. Sterling paid only $15 million for the Clippers when he originally bought them some 25 plus years ago. If the Milwaukee Bucks, the worst team in the league by far, just sold for a record $500 million, what the hell do you think a team in Los Angeles with two of the top ten players is going to get? $800 million? A billion dollars! So even when he loses, he wins. Chris Rock said it best, "In America, only the White Man can profit from pain."

I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It! (Episode 15)

No, you're not dreaming, this IS REAL!

After the Lakers put up a billboard, basically begging Dwight Howard to stay in Los Angeles, I had to enlist the help of a Lakers historian to help me break it all down. (I was living in Orlando when they did this for him and it's even more pathetic now. The only thing that screams "I'm thirsty" more than the Lakers "Stay D12" billboard is Ray J's "I Hit It First".)  For the first time, I'm joined on the podcast by my father Zeph Jones. (In my family, my brother, actually Zeph III, is called "Lil Zeph" and my father, Zeph JR, is "Big Zeph" and he's the only person, that I know, that has a better knowledge of the game than my brother.)

We talk about the Lakers past season, Dwight Howard's free agency, Kobe Bryant, the historical greatness of LeBron James is UNBIASEDLY explained, Miami Heat's similarities to the Showtime Lakers, why he thinks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not Michael Jordan, is the greatest player ever, what the Lakers must do to win again and much more. Honestly, this one is in my top three podcast ever and it's probably the smartest basketball conversation you'll hear in awhile. (That's 100% because of my father by the way.) Subscribe, share and join the discussion by leaving a comment below. Feel free to give me a follow on Twitter @ParisLay. Thanks for listening and enjoy the view!

I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It! (Episode 3)

With the NBA Playoffs on the horizon, I thought that I should break down the first round match-ups. That being said, I thought who better to help me out than my good friend, Evan Barnes. Evan's a sports writer here in California and you can find his work by listening to the podcast where he'll give you all the info to his websites. I apologize in advance for the shake quality. The connection was a little "iffy" but it's not too bad. Thanks for understand and enjoy the view!