How to Steal from the Rich

Carmelo Anthony, like Ron Artest before him, was just hit with a fine that is nearly $1 million dollars, for a game fracas that he did not start but unwisely got involved in. He also was on track to garner the honor of leading the league in scoring this season – now that is probably a moot point given the length of his suspension. This is a case of VERY rich White owners, legally stealing from NEWLY rich Black players, using a contrived concern for civility to do it, in a sport that is far less violence-prone than football, hockey or baseball. I guess the millions that the owners are stealing with these outrageous fines, can be used to make further campaign contributions to their favorite political parties or however else they care to use it. For them it's a better investment than giving it to Black players who are considered merely rich slaves on their NBA plantation, with David Stern as their overseer. During slavery, the owners brazenly and criminally stole their slave's labor and wages. Today in the NBA, the owners still brazenly steal their slave's wages - nothing much has changed!

It is inconceivable that they would similarly try to steal $5 million from a Larry Bird or a Bill Walton as they did from Ron Artest in his year-long suspension. Everyone knows it would never have happened to them, Stern and the NBA would have found some way to mitigate even the most egregious behavior, had it been Bird, Walton or some other White player.

As one White sportswriter pointed out, “baseball's players are 60 percent White and only 8.5 percent Black. The NHL has 2.5 percent Black players, while the NBA is about 80 percent Black. But I'm sure it's insignificant that the players in the NBA fighting this past weekend were Black. After all, we're a color-blind society, right? We treat everyone the same, and comparing professional hockey or baseball fighting to basketball fighting isn't really fair. And the race of the athletes has nothing to do with how we respond to the fighting in those sports, either. Or maybe in the end, the reaction of our country when NBA players fight says a lot more about us than it does about them.”

This sportswriter correctly identified how race is factored in, depending on who is fighting and if the league is the NBA. There it is determined how much is deemed acceptable to 'steal' if the player is Black. Such a player who happens to get into a fight, whether of his choosing or not, is almost certain to be fined an amount that most of us would need at least a lifetime to earn.

Some might argue, that a player who is earning millions of dollars per year, is by definition exempt from being exploited or treated unfairly, and deserves no sympathy.

But in the NBA, if there is a fight, legalized theft and unfair treatment by the owners toward their slaves, is the rule rather than the exception.