NBA Racist semiotics, pt. 2049234

Anyone probably remembers the great Mo Cheeks/D-Miles dust-up earlier this season, where Miles got Cheeks's goat by hurling a racial epithet at him. Of course, the big question there remains: what was it? Is it racist if Miles calls Cheeks the "n word?" Would it not be if Cheeks were part of the hip-hop generation? Was that Miles's intention? Did Miles get to Cheeks by accusing him of not merely being white, but also doing so in a particularly ungracious manner?

Now, so InsideHoops tells us, we are treated to the slightly less lofty Kirk Snyder/Bob Sura race war. Sura takes issue with some racial language used by Snyder during last night's game. The catch is, it was directed at another player, not Sura. Chances are Snyder said something to Scott Padgett like "you can't guard me white boy" (which, as uninteresting as it is, is probably true). But what if Snyder "dropped an 'n' bomb" on Mike James? Would Sura, who doesn't have the right to read it as anything other than racist, be forced to take offense at it? If Mike James himself took offense, is it Sura's place to take up this cause, or is it, so to speak, an internal matter?

Who said the second half was no fun. Me, I think.