Post by JAGuar on Apr 14, 2005 18:10:03 GMT -5
This takes place in an interview given by Jermaine O'neal after hearing how people reacted to an article about the age limit on the NBA where he was quoted as saying that David Stern was racist.
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Jermaine O'Neal: "The questions that was asked to me was is it because you guys is black. One thing about people and people don't understand and I appreciate every athlete and every league understands that when an interview goes down, people are going to write and say what they want to write and say because that's what they can do with a pen. The question was asked to me in a totally different way and I said, "Well, looks like that", whether it is or it is not, I don't know. I really don't know. But I'm dealing with the bare facts of people that is 18, 19, 20 are making the transition and doing it at a successful rate. I'm not calling anybody racist. I'm not doing that by any means. I'm not in any place to say that.
"I know that the facts is that 13,14 15 year olds are able to decide whether they want to go play a pro sport, but it's no issue. This has been going on for 20, 30 years in other sports, but it's still no issue. And those sports are predominantly white sports.That's what all I'm saying. When he compared it between those other sports and basketball that was the comparison between the sports that have predominantly white players and another sport in basketball that has predominantly black players. But it didn't come out like that. Today it came out that I was playing the race card. I'm not playing the race card. I'm talking about the facts. I'm talking about these kids having the opportunity to excel at life. You can choose to do all sorts of things. Like I said about the war, these kids are going to the war at 18. Going to the war! We're talking about basketball! We're talking about basketball. People are trying to live a dream first of all and also take care of their families. It's easy for people to analyze stuff sitting on a panel, but they don't know where these kids is coming from. I'm speaking from experience and half the people that speaking about it, haven't lived that life. You see what I'm saying? So for people to understand what I'm talking about, they got to really underst--, look into it. We talking about something that is really happening in a good way. The NBA is doing very well and the prime faces for the NBA are high school players. So what is the debate about?"
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Jermaine O'Neal: "The questions that was asked to me was is it because you guys is black. One thing about people and people don't understand and I appreciate every athlete and every league understands that when an interview goes down, people are going to write and say what they want to write and say because that's what they can do with a pen. The question was asked to me in a totally different way and I said, "Well, looks like that", whether it is or it is not, I don't know. I really don't know. But I'm dealing with the bare facts of people that is 18, 19, 20 are making the transition and doing it at a successful rate. I'm not calling anybody racist. I'm not doing that by any means. I'm not in any place to say that.
"I know that the facts is that 13,14 15 year olds are able to decide whether they want to go play a pro sport, but it's no issue. This has been going on for 20, 30 years in other sports, but it's still no issue. And those sports are predominantly white sports.That's what all I'm saying. When he compared it between those other sports and basketball that was the comparison between the sports that have predominantly white players and another sport in basketball that has predominantly black players. But it didn't come out like that. Today it came out that I was playing the race card. I'm not playing the race card. I'm talking about the facts. I'm talking about these kids having the opportunity to excel at life. You can choose to do all sorts of things. Like I said about the war, these kids are going to the war at 18. Going to the war! We're talking about basketball! We're talking about basketball. People are trying to live a dream first of all and also take care of their families. It's easy for people to analyze stuff sitting on a panel, but they don't know where these kids is coming from. I'm speaking from experience and half the people that speaking about it, haven't lived that life. You see what I'm saying? So for people to understand what I'm talking about, they got to really underst--, look into it. We talking about something that is really happening in a good way. The NBA is doing very well and the prime faces for the NBA are high school players. So what is the debate about?"
