Letter to the Commish

Dear Mr. Stern,

I am writing to bring to your attention the massive amounts of offensive language and gestures invading the fair game of professional basketball. Recently, your league fined Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah for using the term "fag" or "faggot" toward a referee and a fan respectively. This term is certainly a derogatory one to question ones manliness. But other words are used on the court that go unnoticed it would seem by your office.

Recently (as in this evening), the Miami Heat organization used songs (although instrumentals) that use offensive language during the introductions to both teams. They used Cee-Lo Green's "Fuck You" (a.k.a. Forget You if you listen to the clean version) and C-Murder's "Down for my niggas." In other words, the Miami Heat organization sent a big "F U" to Dallas during introductions and then called the Dallas team "niggas."

Mr. Stern if you are not familiar with Mr. Murder's song, here is a sampling of the lyrics:

Fuck them other niggas cause I'm down for my niggas
Fuck them other niggas cause I'm down for my niggas
Fuck them other niggas, I ride for my niggas,
I die for my niggas
Fuck them other niggas

What niggas? Them niggas? Yeah dog you wit it
Fuck em, let's get em, do em, I did em.

Admittedly Mr. Murder's song will get a nigga hype and I'm sure that was the point of using it to introduce the Heat. I've witnessed such hypeness myself first hand. And as you can see I support the use of the term nigga, so long as it is appropriate. But that doesn't make it less offensive, particularly to former players who blazed the trail for some of these niggas to get rich. I'm sure the NBA is full of upstanding Black men to go with its share of niggas. But I'm pretty confident Dirk Nowitzki isn't one of them (an upstanding Black man or a nigga). And I'm pretty sure Dallas appreciated being told Fuck You and being called niggas over the PA system (as opposed to being caught by a randomly placed TV camera).

In sum Mr. Stern I hope that your office reacts harshly and swiftly to these actions. It would certainly be an outrage for the pockets of Mr. Bryant and Mr. Noah to be lighter today for use of an offensive term said on the court, and for the Heat organization to go unscathed for use of offensive innuendos over the PA system.

Regards,



The meanest, the prettiest, the baddest mo-fo low-down in this town
Your Highness in waiting,
SHO-NUFF