Le Basketbawl

Earlier this week a cellphone video by rapper LOS taken back in July at an Allen Iverson charity flag football game surfaced on YouTube. The video contained footage of Howard during the singing of the National Anthem playing to the cellphone camera. Howard said “The Star-Spangled Banner is going on right now. I don’t even celebrate that (expletive). I’m black.”

LOS was interviewed on Thursday on ESPN, and said that Howard was joking. The rapper also apologized for creating a stir with the video, but was surprised it was just surfacing now as it had been posted in July. Friday Cuban on his blog, “blog maverick” stated that Howard realized he was wrong, and his joke had backfired. Cuban said the player had apologized and that the team would work with him, and “beyond that, it’s a private issue”.

The Mavericks Owner received some very negative responses, including some with racist content. He printed a selection of them on his blog, including the e-mailers addresses. However Cuban had a change of heart. In a post entitled “I made my point.” the Team Owner explained his actions. “As much as I felt posting my “Thanks for the Advice on Josh Howard” post was the right thing to do, I have had an upset stomach all day because of it.

I thought it was important to point out the hatred and ignorance of so many who quickly judge people they have never met, based purely on soundbites and headlines. If you think you know any public figure based on what you see on TV or read on the Internet or in newspapers, you are sadly mistaken.

I wanted to point out the irony of them experiencing the onslaught of attention from suddenly and unexpectedly being placed in the media spotlight from a throwaway comment.

Try being in a position of always having to be “on” and checking for cameras, because if you let down your guard, any soundbite, even one as short as 11 seconds, can turn into headline news across the country, no matter what the context. Its not always easy. Nor is it easy to just accept that its part of being a “public figure” .

I also knew that because of the email addresses being included, they would be receiving the same level of hate, ignorance and judgment that Josh and I had. They would get the same type of ignorant email threats of “I wont do business with your company again”, from people who have never done business with their company. The “I’m going to email your boss and all your sponsors” threats, because that’s the way people try to shout down other people these days.

That’s what bothered me all day. So I have removed the post.

Hopefully something good came from it being posted.”