I didn’t know until today that it was construed to be a negative racial stereotype.
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It would be a shame if this is the beginning of the end of Coach Beilein’s NBA dream. He is a wonderful man, but in today’s world such errors often define you more than does your life’s work.
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You’re literally cutting a sentence in two in the very middle to cherry pick that out though. Like… read the rest of the sentence where I say that I acknowledge its connotation and you’ll get your answer.
For a lot (most?) coaches I’d never buy the “slugs” excuse, but for Beilein I legitimately can believe it.
But I think the bigger issue here is that it leaked out, which suggests that there are guys on the team who preferred to tell the media (knowing it would probably make Beilein look bad and create a controversy) to telling Beilein himself and clearing the air in private.
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If Kevin Love has his own shoe, tuebnext version should be dubbed the jackboot.
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I find that the least surprising part of the story.
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If you don’t think JB is racist, or meant to say something racist than this is a total non-story. Thug can certainly be used in a racist context, and if a person has a history of questionable behavior on race than it can/should be used against them. If a person has no history of it, than every sane person should understand that there’s nothing to this at all.
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John Beilein didn’t think there was nothing to it. So much so that he apologized multiple times in private to his players. He acknowledged that his words were harmful, even if it was a misstatement. Doesn’t mean he should be raked over the coals - and based on the coverage from it, I don’t think he is. Only people I’ve seen that are saying it is nothing are Michigan fans.
3 years ago, I never in a million years would have thought John Beilein would be getting the wrath of NBA twitter, but here we are. We all here know Grandpa Beilein doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, but to NBA only type fans, they are never going to hear that and unfortunately, he has caught a stigma with that crew.
Luckily, typical NBA fan attention span is about 48 hours and it’s moved on to having a quick sob about Russ’ homecoming before whatever other thing happens this weekend.
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There are articles being written by national writers about it. Its on ESPN. The fact that its getting coverage is insane. If you say something that offends someone, especially if you didn’t mean to say it, you should apologize. JB doing that is fine and appropriate. No one outside that locker room should even know about it though. The fact that its a story reflects poorly on a person of impeccable character.
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Yes there are stories about it. Because it is a valuable discussion to be had! I haven’t seen anyone calling for his head or saying he’s a wretched person. I think we all know JB has a reputation of being a great guy. That doesn’t mean he can’t be criticized for a mistake. People make mistakes. And it’s ok to acknowledge them and talk about them. Shutting down the conversation is silly. I think it’s a good thing it’s a national discussion. Let’s face it, there are alot of white coaches across the country coaching teams with players of color on them. If they see this and think, “Hmmm. I should be really careful about how I use my words. I didn’t know certain words had certain connotations.” How is that a bad thing?
Again, he’s not getting blacklisted. He’s being critiqued. And that’s a good thing.
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Sound warning. They are stealing our water thing!
Also, first comment somewhere else “Slugs when the rain finally comes”.
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We all do make mistakes, but our mistakes are not, and should not be, for public consumption. JB is not a lawmaker or a politician. He didn’t even make the remark in a press conference or on the sidelines during a game. There is now a not insignificant number of people who think poorly of the man. That’s not worth contributing to whatever “conversation” you think is valuable.
In pro (or college) sports, basically everything you do is going to be viewed in the public eye. It doesn’t matter if it is in a press conference.
JR Smith threw a bowl of soup in a team meeting, should that have been kept private? Maybe, but it isn’t. Everyone involved knows this.
There are a million things that happen in locker rooms that you, nor I, will ever hear about. Its asinine to say that anything a person does, because of their job, is worthy of press coverage.
You run a popular website, compared to most people you’re a public figure. That doesn’t mean a mistake you make justifies media coverage that damages your reputation.
My larger point was that no one in Beilein’s situation or anyone on the Cavs roster really cares about the public perception piece. The far more important thing to Beilein is what his players thought. Seems like he has dealt with that very well.
You won’t make it very far in the public eye if you are worried what public perception of you is.
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Not to belittle comments here, but I’d be more interested in how the comments are being viewed in the black community down the road a bit than in whether Brian Cook, for example, thinks Beilein screwed up. From what I see in my own community, people tend to draw a bead and decide whether someone’s alright. Reactions aren’t likely to be knee jerk–John’s obviously old school, but I don’t think people would have been entrusting their kids to him for so long if he didn’t elicit considerable respect.
I missed that point. Well taken.
In a perfect world, this right here would put an end to most of it.
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