Seems like some fancy smancy high browed Ivy Leaguers have finished a research project that concludes white NBA referees are more likely to call fouls on black players than white players.
I know this is going to sound so 80s but I am going to say it anyways, “DUH!”
It takes two members of Ivy League Intelligencia reviewing 13 years of statistics to tell us common cretins that it’s more likely a foul will be called on a black player. It doesn’t take me and my 8th grade education to point out that, given the fact the NBA is made up of mostly black players, the likelihood from a statistical standpoint would indeed be for black players to get called for fouls more often. I believe it was in Mrs. Betty Jean Sourwine’s ciphering class (that’s country for math) that she learned me that.
Let’s look at the PGA. Given that a majority of the golfers are white, we can logically presume that a white guy is usually going to win. Oops….I forgot about Tiger Woods. Ok that’s a bad example — nevermind.
I think a better use of these researchers’ time would have been to investigate how much of the fouling in the NBA is black on black fouling. Now that would be interesting and really contribute something useful to the world. Think about how much better our country would be if we knew the reason Shaq fouled, let’s say, Kobe Bryant. It could be because of the long-time feud between the East Coast and the West Coast rap scene. Maybe Shaq is still a little mad about the death of Biggie Smalls and is taking it out on Kobe and the way he be representing the West Side. It could be that Shaq likes to foul Kobe because he be trying to represent by strolling into the lane he’s defending, thinking he’s going to score. Maybe Shaq is jealous at Kobe because he got him a white ho AND he has such a fine-looking wife. Maybe Shaq fouls Kobe Bryant because he never really liked him that much and, now that they’re not teammates, he can.
Just think of all the possibilities and social implications if these brilliant academicians had spent their time on the real roots of problems in our country–this instance being black-on-black fouling in the NBA community. Instead we just get this lame report that white refs are calling more fouls on black players.
I call shenanigans.
May 16, 2007 at 12:27 am
One other point to bring out is the context the fouls are called in. This is just asinine. What about all the fouls with 30 sec left in the game that are called just to stall the inevitable loss for their team. Or the hard foul to prevent the easy bucket. I know the didnt watch 13 years of games, stat lines tell all I guess. The merit of the study is nil and I now question so called “Ivy-Leaguers” brilliance and if I was one Id be embarrassed.