Ignorance or Escalation?

Gordon: What do we do about escalation?
Batman: Escalation?
Gordon: We start carrying semi-automatics, they buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar, they buy armor piercing rounds.
Batman: And?
Gordon: And you're wearing a mask and jumping off rooftops. Now, take this guy. Armed robbery, double homicide. Got a real taste for the theatrical, like you. Leaves a calling card...
Batman: I'll look into it.
— "Batman Begins"

When it comes to the NBA dress code issue, I hope that writers like Scoop Jackson and Chris Broussard are either confused or seriously misguided. They are both fine writers, I just hope that they are completely off-base on this issue. The alternative is too sickening to consider.

Sports journalists have a tactic they use when they get lazy, it's called "say something outlandish to piss people off" and guys like Jay Mariotti have made a career out of it. Columnists and sports fans do the same song and dance in every region and have so for years. It is a foolproof method for the writer who is willing to trade his integrity for sales and attention.

The writer disparages local team and or hero, and irate sports fans buy his newspaper and say things like "Johnny Notsogreatawriter is terrible, that guy couldn't write his way out of a paper box." Then, in the future, the irate sports fans continue to buy newspapers just to see what stupid thing Mr. Notsogreatawriter will say next (it's a terrible coincidence that Johnny got into journalism, because his last name wouldn't carry near the same weight if he was an accountant). It's a dirty trick and reflects poorly on the writer, but there will always be people who fall for this.

The reason most people could get away in the past is because they didn't have much competition in their local markets. That was before ESPN started putting writers on TV. It started innocently enough with "PTI," a show that went over fairly well and became a hit. It then progressed to "Around the Horn," which wasn't terrible at first, but is now about as entertaining as watching someone read a dictionary (a boring someone at that, because if it is someone like Shawn Kemp, I'm tuning in just in case he gets to the "birth control" entry, which would then become my favorite sound bite of all-time). My main problem with the show and similar spin-offs is what they do to get attention.

They went from arguing about the issues to screaming and frothing at the mouth to prove their points. The winner was the one who was the loudest, not the one with the best points. Columnist A couldn't make a point without turning red and responding like Columnist B just threatened to kill A's family and urinate on their gravesite, when in reality he only said that Kobe Bryant needs to pass the ball more. It has now progressed to the point where Woody Paige has to spit on a Florida State hat to get some attention and (somehow) prove his point.

This is what concerns me about writers like Scoop Jackson and Chris Broussard. When the news was released about the NBA dress code, some players responded without thinking, calling it "racist" or, in the words of Tim Duncan, "basically retarded." I'm not giving the players a pass, but I'm not surprised to hear them say stupid things. I did expect more intelligence from the writers.

I was shocked, like most people, when Scoop Jackson called the dress code racist and compared the players to high-priced slaves. Broussard went as far as to suggest that while he is at it, Stern's next move should be to replace all rap music on players' iPods with country. I then began to think that maybe, just maybe, they knew exactly what they were doing.

Could it really have come to this? Could writers be so desperate to make a splash that they have to play the race card? Race is such a sensitive topic today that it is sickening to think that writers would prey upon racial tensions in this country just for attention. How anyone, given the enormity of the issue, could possibly stoop so low to elicit a reaction is beyond me. To steal a phrase from Tim Duncan, it's "basically retarded."

I'm going to give Scoop and Broussard the benefit of the doubt here and assume they are just dead-wrong on this issue. And let's face it, they are wrong. (Does Gary Bettman hate Canadians because he makes them wear ties? Of course not. Dress codes are a part of businesses everywhere, it's just reality. If the players don't like it, they are more than welcome to change careers.) But what if they aren't? What if other writers end up going this route in the not-too-distant future?

I guess it all comes back to Officer Gordon's question - what do we do about escalation? I have no answer, but I'm not sure we can depend on the Caped Crusader to "look into it." I hope it was ignorance, but I'm afraid it is escalation.

SportsFan MagazineThe Sports Gospel According to Mark is sponsored by BetOnSports.com. BetOnSports.com gives you the greatest sports action to bet on. Wager on football, cricket, boxing, Rugby, horse racing, and more. Mark Chalifoux is also a weekly columnist for SportsFan Magazine. His columns appear every Tuesday on Sports Central. You can e-mail Mark at [email protected].

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