Etan Thomas's NBA Letter
ESPN's "Outside the Lines First Report" did a piece on NBA players and political activism on Tuesday, pegged to the Olympics and Darfur and whether Kobe and LeBron will get active. Kobe has done a Darfur-related PSA (but refused to talk to ESPN for this piece) and LeBron, who once declined to sign teammate Ira Newble's open letter to the Chinese government, is now speaking in generic terms about how he and his U.S. teammates will respond to the issue this summer.
"I should speak on it and I am gonna speak on it," he told ESPN's Shelley Smith. "People should understand that human rights and people's lives are in jeopardy. We're not talking about contracts here. We're not talking about money. We're talking about people's lives being lost and that means a lot more to me than some money or a contract."
Anyhow, as you might have guessed, Smith also talked to Etan Thomas for the piece, finding out that Etan was the only NBA player not affiliated with the Cavs to sign Newble's letter, and that Thomas got a letter from the NBA after he spoke at an anti-war rally in 2005.
"Mostly, 'We don't want to see you [be] one of the people being dragged away in handcuffs because you crossed the line at the demonstration,' " Thomas said, summarizing the letter's contents. "I'm like 'No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm speaking, I'm going on the platform.' "
Cut to a smiling David Stern: "I would love to see that letter because it doesn't exist."
And then Stern attempted to rip several of Thomas's dreadlocks off his head.
By Dan Steinberg |
May 22, 2008; 12:31 PM ET
| Category:
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Posted by: darnell g magruder | May 22, 2008 2:07 PM
Human rights are much more important than money. That's why if you prove you're a victim of the conflict in Darfur, I'll give you up to 2 coupons for $5 off my $165 basketball shoes. Because no one from Darfur should have to wear Starburys. That's a violation of human rights, and that's well below me and Nike's standards.
Posted by: Lebron | May 22, 2008 2:17 PM
@ Lebron -- OMG that was way out of line. I've been sitting in my cube laughing for a good 5 minutes.
Posted by: Go Skins Go | May 22, 2008 3:03 PM
1. Marbury takes extreme offense to that quip.
2. I'm surprised the media hasn't spoken out about college coaches recruiting in Africa ignoring Darfur. It's something everyone can say and do something about.
Posted by: StetSports.com | May 22, 2008 3:57 PM
StetSports.....thats the dumbest thing ive heard. college scouts in sudan should say "yeh kid your big, have a good jumpshot, a bright future and will get a free pass to a university in america...but we cant take you because your country is in a civil war and we want to make a stand.....so we'll go back to our lovely home & life in the states while you have to stay in ACTUAL living hell"...
i understand u want to protest the crisis & china....but to go the extra step to deny kids to go to school & play ball (when its already a big mountain climb to begin with) is pretty ingorant & insane on our part
Posted by: YOUR_RIVER_IS_ON_FIRE | May 22, 2008 11:05 PM
River -
Re-read what Stet wrote. He said they should speak out about it, not stop recruiting there. Good lord, knee-jerk much?
Posted by: Extra P | May 23, 2008 12:22 PM
shouldn't it be spelled thomas' dreads, and not thomas's dreads?
have we as a society forgotten how to spell correctly before landing jobs at big newspaper outlets (that allow you to poke fun at athletes) like the Washington Post?
Posted by: stephfun | May 26, 2008 10:34 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Kobe nor Lebron will put themselves out their because Phil Knight pulls their strings and China owns us financially lock, stock, and barrel.China has been complicit in the suffering and violence going on in Dafur and Nike has a huge financial interest in the chinese retail market,were talking millions so don't expect any athelete to speak out where their endorsement is concerned.