Recently, ex-NBA star Calvin Murphy made the news, with a few of his
daughters alleging he abused them sexually when they were children. How
many of you remember the disgusting performance Murphy put on when
Larry Bird was threatening to break his record for consecutive free
throws made (think this was in the late '80s)? Bird was on the verge of
breaking this record, when Murphy and some friends were shown, on
national t.v., clearly rooting against him from the stands. I don't
recall if they were actually holding signs reflecting this, but when
Bird missed a free throw during the game, the camera caught Murphy and
friends high-fiving and celebrating his failure. I thought it to be the
single worst display of sportsmanship I'd ever seen, but predictably
none of the sports "journalists" criticized him for it. Compare this to
the flack Babe Ruth's elderly widow received when she was
insufficiently ecstatic over Hank Aaron breaking the Babe's lifetime
home run mark. I think some of those same "journalists" even affixed
the "racist" label to her. That's really ironic, since no less an
expert on the subject than Spike Lee has recently declared that Ruth
was actually a brother...
daughters alleging he abused them sexually when they were children. How
many of you remember the disgusting performance Murphy put on when
Larry Bird was threatening to break his record for consecutive free
throws made (think this was in the late '80s)? Bird was on the verge of
breaking this record, when Murphy and some friends were shown, on
national t.v., clearly rooting against him from the stands. I don't
recall if they were actually holding signs reflecting this, but when
Bird missed a free throw during the game, the camera caught Murphy and
friends high-fiving and celebrating his failure. I thought it to be the
single worst display of sportsmanship I'd ever seen, but predictably
none of the sports "journalists" criticized him for it. Compare this to
the flack Babe Ruth's elderly widow received when she was
insufficiently ecstatic over Hank Aaron breaking the Babe's lifetime
home run mark. I think some of those same "journalists" even affixed
the "racist" label to her. That's really ironic, since no less an
expert on the subject than Spike Lee has recently declared that Ruth
was actually a brother...