Pogotheostrich wrote:I just don't get the logic that says to be considered the world's best athletes you have to play a sport that is available to everyone. Not everyone is going to have access to every sport whether it is played worldwide or not.
Well I guess people in Egypt could practice snowboarding on the sand dunes
Pogotheostrich wrote:I just don't get the logic that says to be considered the world's best athletes you have to play a sport that is available to everyone. Not everyone is going to have access to every sport whether it is played worldwide or not.
Hence the reason the term shouldn't really hold much credence because you can never really say who is the greatest athlete.
With that said, you can say with 100% certainty that more people have access to the mainstream sports in the US than they do with the sports in the Olympics.
You have no frame of reference, Donny. You're like a child who walks into the middle of a movie...
when is the argument about not enough black athletes/coaches going to end? i totally agree with this article by Wojciechowski
So do I.
Who gives a damn what color the skin of the athlete is? I can't remember the last time I watched a football, baseball or basketball game and paid one bit of attention to the color of the skin of the participants.
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Bryant Gumbel
Okay... hypothetical: It's July 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. A white, national-network sports commentator decides during his program to express the following:
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of whites that makes the Summer Games look like the VIBE Awards."
Here's the question I pose to ya'...
How many minutes would elapse between that commentator's airing of his stupid comments... and his network/employer publicly FIRING him? I'd set the over/under at 60 minutes...
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Bryant Gumbel
Okay... hypothetical: It's July 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. A white, national-network sports commentator decides during his program to express the following:
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of whites that makes the Summer Games look like the VIBE Awards."
Here's the question I pose to ya'...
How many minutes would elapse between that commentator's airing of his stupid comments... and his network/employer publicly FIRING him? I'd set the over/under at 60 minutes...
... and yet, Gumbel still has a job today...
Someone 'splain that to me.
Peace
White Guilt
And I agree 100% with your example, but I'd say he would be gone before they came back from the next commercial break. There's no way he lasts 60 minutes.
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Bryant Gumbel
Okay... hypothetical: It's July 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. A white, national-network sports commentator decides during his program to express the following:
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of whites that makes the Summer Games look like the VIBE Awards."
Here's the question I pose to ya'...
How many minutes would elapse between that commentator's airing of his stupid comments... and his network/employer publicly FIRING him? I'd set the over/under at 60 minutes...
... and yet, Gumbel still has a job today...
Someone 'splain that to me.
Peace
White Guilt
And I agree 100% with your example, but I'd say he would be gone before they came back from the next commercial break. There's no way he lasts 60 minutes.
Meh I'd give him 26 hours before the whole comment explodes into a racially charged witch hunt.
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"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Bryant Gumbel
Okay... hypothetical: It's July 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. A white, national-network sports commentator decides during his program to express the following:
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of whites that makes the Summer Games look like the VIBE Awards."
Here's the question I pose to ya'...
How many minutes would elapse between that commentator's airing of his stupid comments... and his network/employer publicly FIRING him? I'd set the over/under at 60 minutes...
... and yet, Gumbel still has a job today...
Someone 'splain that to me.
Peace
You're doing the exact same thing that the media has done with this: taking out the most controversial thing he said and using it as an example while ignoring his actual point. People are jumping all over the part that you quoted because, like always, the media is looking for an easy story and making something out of nothing. That being said, your comparison doesn't really work. For one thing, there wont be a paucity of white athletes at the summer games, and for another (and I think more importantly), there is nothing that keeps whites from participating in most of the events of the summer games except for a lack of ability. Someone in Sweden can train to run, jump, swim, etc as easily as someone in Zambia...the reverse can not be said of snowboarding.
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention." Bryant Gumbel
Okay... hypothetical: It's July 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics are underway. A white, national-network sports commentator decides during his program to express the following:
"So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes despite a paucity of whites that makes the Summer Games look like the VIBE Awards."
Here's the question I pose to ya'...
How many minutes would elapse between that commentator's airing of his stupid comments... and his network/employer publicly FIRING him? I'd set the over/under at 60 minutes...
... and yet, Gumbel still has a job today...
Someone 'splain that to me.
Peace
You're doing the exact same thing that the media has done with this: taking out the most controversial thing he said and using it as an example while ignoring his actual point. People are jumping all over the part that you quoted because, like always, the media is looking for an easy story and making something out of nothing. That being said, your comparison doesn't really work. For one thing, there wont be a paucity of white athletes at the summer games, and for another (and I think more importantly), there is nothing that keeps whites from participating in most of the events of the summer games except for a lack of ability. Someone in Sweden can train to run, jump, swim, etc as easily as someone in Zambia...the reverse can not be said of snowboarding.
Gumbie's actual point was that the athletes at the Winter Olympics should not be classified as "the greatest athletes in the world" because by and large they are not Black.
Defend that and we have a conversation on our hands.
Art Vandelay wrote: You're doing the exact same thing that the media has done with this: taking out the most controversial thing he said and using it as an example while ignoring his actual point. People are jumping all over the part that you quoted because, like always, the media is looking for an easy story and making something out of nothing. That being said, your comparison doesn't really work. For one thing, there wont be a paucity of white athletes at the summer games, and for another (and I think more importantly), there is nothing that keeps whites from participating in most of the events of the summer games except for a lack of ability. Someone in Sweden can train to run, jump, swim, etc as easily as someone in Zambia...the reverse can not be said of snowboarding.
With all due respect, the Gumble passage I quoted is more than controversial... it's stupid. I agree with you that my hypothetical is imperfect, I wrote that hasitlly, I suppose I could re-work it to fit a sporting event that is more heavilly-populated by black athletes, but I stand behind my basic point: If the races were reversed, the white commentator would be fired, while Gumble was not.
knapplc wrote:Gumbie's actual point was that the athletes at the Winter Olympics should not be classified as "the greatest athletes in the world" because by and large they are not Black.
Defend that and we have a conversation on our hands.
No, he wasn't saying they weren't the best in the world because they aren't black, he was saying it's silly to have a competition of the best in the world when half of the world is exempt from competition because of geography.
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