9.26.2005

Clipping the Bush



Our man Zach at IdleAtWork put us on to this picture of Baron Davis and Diana Taurasi presenting what looks like a Clippers jersey to Laura Bush. I like to think that the Association is making a subtle political statement here by presenting the First Lady with the jersey of the worst franchise in the history of the NBA. Clearly, if they wanted to show their support, they would have given her a Spurs joint. They're the champs, and of course, they're from Bush's adopted home of Texas (lest you forget the Bushs are old school New Englanders). Even a Wizards jersey would have made more sense. At least they made the playoffs. Yeah, I know the Clips are red, white, and blue, but so are the Pistons and the Knicks Sixers.

15 Comments:

At 9/27/2005 1:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How did baron and diana get tapped for this? Neither made a huge splash last season, nor are they even playing in the same city. Are they openly republican or something? And if so, is baron davis now "unhip"?

 
At 9/27/2005 7:26 AM, Blogger Brown Recluse, Esq. said...

god, i hope b-diddy isn't a republican. i'm pretty sure the event had to do with literacy and reading, so i figured they were both involved in that. if you weren't aware, reading is FUNdamental.

 
At 9/27/2005 10:02 AM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

dude, the knicks have orange in them. you're thinking of the football giants.

from what i remember, the baron is fairly intelligent and progressive, or at least has something of a brain and the willingness to have an opinion or two. i really wish he'd stay healthy, because he seems like a good guy and his game is straight up electrifying. i sometimes forget this, but i'd as soon watch him as almost anyone else in the Association.

 
At 9/27/2005 10:13 AM, Blogger Brown Recluse, Esq. said...

shit, you're right, the knicks are orange and blue. the sixers were red, white, and blue, before they went to the black unis. the whole sixers thing is patriotic, though.

baron went to high school with kate hudson, and he's also friends with the game. black wall street is a little republican sounding, i guess. i don't think he rolls with the GOP, though.

 
At 9/27/2005 10:22 AM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

i thought black wall street meant that you co-opt wall street for black purposes, not that you buy your way into that world as a black person

 
At 9/27/2005 12:14 PM, Blogger Ken said...

No, it means you're in the Bloods and sell crack.

 
At 9/27/2005 12:52 PM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

i forgot that "black wall street" was the name of the game's label. . .embarassingly enough, i was getting deep with the history, and overlooking the pop culture of the moment.

(actually, i read some shit in "black enterprise" when i was at the ENT a few weeks back)

 
At 9/27/2005 1:04 PM, Blogger Rocco Chappelle said...

I don't know exactly what the Game's intentions are in co-opting the name, but Black Wall Street is a reference to a prosperous middle to upper-middle class black area of Tulsa, OK in the late 19-teens. From what I understand, that black community was relatively more affluent then the surrounding white areas, so you can probably fill in the rest of the story, but a mystery white women gets raped and obviously it becomes time for some niggas to die. The lynch mob merc'd a bunch of folk and burned down pretty much the whole community. So it goes.

 
At 9/27/2005 1:13 PM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

that's what i was thinking of, though i think it was a more generic term at the time. part of durham was called "black wall street," too.

 
At 9/27/2005 1:34 PM, Blogger Brown Recluse, Esq. said...

i think it generally means black folks with money.

 
At 9/27/2005 2:14 PM, Blogger Dr. Lawyer IndianChief said...

FreeDarko: A place to discuss, race, class, Megabusive, and some basketball!

 
At 9/27/2005 3:23 PM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

i think that the free-floating sense of it as "black folks with money" stems from those very real business districts that, when no one believed it possible, proved that black folks could make money.

 
At 9/27/2005 3:26 PM, Blogger Bethlehem Shoals said...

and as much as i want to believe that this thread is somehow at the very heart of what FreeDarko is all about, it also happens to be one of the deadest NBA news/time of ongoing states that warrant comment ever.

i guess it matters that the pistons, like cuban, now seem uninterested in taking advantage of the NBDL.

 
At 9/27/2005 4:51 PM, Blogger Rocco Chappelle said...

Maybe I'm off base here, I mean I'm not exactly clear on Free Darko's vision statement, but the thing that primarily drew me to FD is that it's a not really a "basketball blog". To me it’s more a blog about what I believe to be a peculiar yet shared worldview of contemporary American culture, with basketball as a contextual unifier. Sometimes the inspiration for basketball pieces may be lacking but I don't think that should hinder the exploration or investigation of the culture from this perspective. I think Shoals alluded to this point pretty effectively in his magnum opus on Terrell Owens last month, it's a shame that nobody commented on that post. I think most folks were a little intimidated by its sincerity and a full month before I blossomed into a full fledged comment board groupie.

In short, Gilbert Arenas as a human being or basketball player is much less interesting than Gilbert Arenas as a metaphor for life in the United States if the federal government ever granted black folks reparations for slavery. I can envision seeing that post on Free Darko and nowhere else. Keep it up fellas.

 
At 9/27/2005 5:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/03/tulsa.riots.probe/

about the riot in tulsa

 

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