Saturday, May 26, 2018

Rooting for Sterling Brown

My wife didn't previously know Milwaukee had an NBA team and couldn't pick Giannis Antetokounmpo out of a lineup. But the Sterling Brown case has caught her attention and fueled her outrage. Brown, a 6'6" shooting guard, was approached by a police officer for parking in a handicapped spot outside a Walgreens at 2 a.m.. Rather than ticket him and let him go, the officer called for backup and Brown was dragged to the ground, cuffed, and tazed. Brown himself isn't letting the issue go, and the statement by the Bucks on the case was exceptionally strong.

Seeing as Brown played at SMU in his college days, there's a vague Texas connection here. But as the missus' reaction demonstrates, this case appears poised to become culturally important beyond jurisdictional specifics.

Sports permeates aspects of the culture that a political protest on the same topics could never reach, which is why the NFL anthem protests have been such a source of controversy. One can choose to watch Fox News or MSNBC if you only want to hear political views from a narrow perspective. But sports media remain more catholic and largely transpartisan. If you want to watch Lebron James face the Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA's Eastern Conference finals tomorrow night, for example, whatever your political perspective, you're watching ESPN.

That means, for once, everyone sees the same narrative (thank heaven there was video!), and it's an ugly one: The kid cooperated, remained calm, was polite and respectful, complied with every request from police, and was tackled and tazed for his troubles.

My wife can't name a single, active NBA player beyond Lebron James, but now she knows who Sterling Brown is. And she's rooting for him.

16 comments:

Phelps said...

But sports media remain more catholic and largely transpartisan.

Your echo chamber goes to 11.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Whose "echo chamber"? I'd suggest that the sporting context moves these discussions outside of regular partisan echo chambers.

Phelps said...

ESPN is more MSNBC now than MSNBC is. Politics is killing ESPN because they won't go mainstream and instead are consumed with social justice over touchdowns. ESPN is a "regular partisan echo chamber".

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-a-weakened-espn-became-consumed-by-politics-1527176425

ESPN just signed Keith Olbermann. I'm sure that is the ticket to them rising about liberal politics.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Fox Sports ran just as much commentary. Go listen to what Skip Bayless and Shannon Sharpe had to say on the topic! Here's a taste from their show: https://twitter.com/JoyTaylorTalks/status/999764266788929537

Anonymous said...

One of these days someone is going to have an aha moment about Police interactions with the public that I had a long time ago.
In short, they need to be scripted. The communication options should be limited, almost robotic and not provided the free form they have today which leads us into all the trouble we see as in this case. In this case, it should have been, “if you can confirm for me that this is your vehicle, I will write you a parking ticket. “

Sick of seeing white cops essentially harass and physically abuse mostly black people over trivial crimes. Just write the ticket and shut up.

Anonymous said...

My list of bad guys: judges, prosecutors, cops, prison guards, Republicans. Did I leave anybody off?

Phelps said...

The Mayor of Milwaukee is a Democrat. The 4th District rep is a Democrat. Their hometown Senator is a Democrat. The common council is overwhelmingly Democrat.

So if Democrat voters are electing the judges, electing the prosecutors, electing the council that hires the cops and the prison guards... Where in the hell do Republicans come in?

Anonymous said...

2:33
ESPN is run by social justice warriors more interested in politics than sports.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@11:52, see my comment re: FOX-Sports. I watch shows on both networks and the coverage all seems pretty consistent, to me.

Phelps said...

I think we all agree that sports media is consistently liberal. The only reason it looks mainstream to you is confirmation bias (because you like to think of your own views as mainstream, despite half the country demonstrating that they are not on Polling Day.)

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@ Phelps, why would we all "agree that sports media is consistently liberal"? Because you say so? First it's just ESPN, now FOX. What's "liberal" or "conservative" about covering basketball?

Claiming sports media are liberal because they cover things that happen to black athletes is like claiming the weather channel is liberal because you don't believe in climate change and they reported on a heat wave. In your mouth, the word "liberal" has lost all meaning. It just means "something I don't like" or "something I don't know anything about but someone else does."

Finally, given that I'm a GOP primary voter, you're really batting a thousand on your false assumptions on this string. Maybe you should stop trying to put words in other people's mouths and consider your own comments more carefully. They definitely tell us more about you than they inform us about anything you're bloviating about.

Phelps said...

You are literally making all the arguments I make over here on other subjects and just repeating them back to me -- after ridiculing them when I made them. That tells me more about you than your arguments do.

If EPSN would spend more time covering basketball and less time covering Bruce Jenner and third string quarterbacks like Colin Kapernick, these bias claims would go away. Their ratings would go back up, too.

Anonymous said...

Man..Phelps is a real whack job

Phelps said...

Not an argument.

Gritsforbreakfast said...

@ Phelps, for the last time, I'm NOT arguing with you. There's no need. That's why I merely repeated your arguments. They are self defeating, they don't need my assistance.

Anonymous said...

Lawyers,CPS,Child advacy