Your Black World: Eddie Jordan Fired, Everyone Outraged

Eddie Jordan Fired... But Why?
By: Tolu Olorunda
Staff Writer - YourBlackWorld.com

On Monday, Nov. 24, The Washington Wizards fired veteran coach, Eddie Jordan, who helped transport the Wizards to the playoffs four years in a row. Over the last few days, however, many fans/sport columnists, pundits, and even coaches have expressed their regret over this brash and unexpected decision. Here are a few reactions:

We've all seen this movie before: A general manager stocks his roster with a dysfunctional mixture of players, but since he's the one who procured the players he thinks they're better than they really are. Eventually the team loses, and the coach is canned — because it's easier to fire the coach than to fire the players, and because the GM is certainly not going to fire himself. This is approximately what happened to Eddie Jordan in Washington. [...] Since he's been in Washington, Jordan has done a magnificent job with this team even though Arenas and Etan Thomas have been periodically down and out — repeatedly leading them into the playoffs.

- Charley Rosen from MSN Sports

When a team struggles out of the gate of a regular season, the fans harboring the fringe of the team's fanbase always begin hollering for a change of leadership.Some franchises are mature enough to disregard the cries of the extremists, however, others are as weak-minded as stormtroopers—easily influenced by forces beyond them [thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi.] From the firing of Eddie Jordan and his assistant Mike O'Koren, the Washington Wizards have proven to be the NBA's weakest franchise as of this moment for the 2008-09 season and, perhaps, the next couple of seasons to follow. Moronic is not even a strong enough word for this debacle. Travesty is a better word. Abortion! Now, that is the best word for this fiasco...abortion! Disgusting, inhumane, immoral, stupid! [...] This decision to fire Eddie Jordan was not moronic. It was not a travesty. IT WAS AN ABORTION!

- Thomas Cogliano from The Bleacher Report

"I'm very, very disappointed, not just because he's a close personal friend, as well as Mike, but when he came to Washington (they) hadn't been to the playoffs in like 20 something years," Frank said, "(and they) go there four straight years and to do what he did last year, where you could have made a very easy argument that he should have been the coach of the year, or at least co-coach of the year along with Byron (Scott). [...] It wasn't like they were losing by 40 points a game. He was doing a hell of a job, so it's very, very disappointing he won't finish out what he started."

- New Jersey Nets Head Coach, Lawrence Frank at a Press Conference

So what was Eddie Jordan supposed to do? [...] Jordan has nursed the Wizards to the playoffs four years in a row despite dealing with, at different times, significant injuries to Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler. Now, this year, Haywood is out and backup point guard Antonio Daniels is sitting, too. [...] Don't forget, when the Wizards hired Jordan, he was one of the most sought-after assistants in the league, and his dedication to the Princeton offense makes him a unique asset. Just about every team in the league has stolen from Jordan's playbook[.]

- Sean Deveney in Sporting News

Your Black World: Houston Police Accused Of Assaulting Donald Driver's Dad

HOUSTON — Three Houston police officers under investigation for allegedly beating the father of Green Bay Packers wide receiver Donald Driver have been taken off patrol duty.

The decision was welcomed by Marvin Driver Jr.'s family members, who said they now want the officers fired and brought up on charges.

"We just want justice," Michael Driver, Marvin Driver's son, said after a news conference Friday outside his father's home.

Officers Bacilio Guzman, Gilberto Cruz and M. Marin have been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of an investigation, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said in a statement Friday.

Hurtt said he made his decision after receiving a preliminary briefing late Thursday.

"We take allegations such as these very seriously and will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter and be transparent in our findings, whatever the conclusion," Hurtt said.

Houston police spokesman Victor Senties said he did not know how long the investigation would take to complete.

Family members of 56-year-old Marvin Driver claim he was arrested early Monday morning outside his mother's home, where he also lives, for outstanding traffic warrants. But before arriving at a Houston jail, they say, he was taken to a gas station, where he was beaten by at least two officers and had something forced down his throat.

Marvin Driver's family initially said he was only able to communicate with them through handwritten notes.

Michael Driver, 26, said his father, who earlier in the week had been in critical condition, was in good condition on Friday and his health was improving.

Doctors have told family members the injuries were the result of blunt force trauma and that he suffered head injuries and has bruises in his abdomen area from being kneed to the stomach, Michael Driver said.

Hurtt said investigators are awaiting medical reports on Marvin Driver to determine what injuries he sustained.

In his statement, Hurtt said that Marvin Driver, after being arrested during a traffic stop at about 1:30 a.m. Monday, was taken to a city jail. At the facility, a doctor found him unresponsive and he was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital.

The Internal Affairs Division of the Houston Police Department is investigating the family's claims.

From The Houston Chronicle

Your Black Politics: Did Tiger Woods Pave Barack Obama's path?

Did Tiger Woods pave Barack Obama's path? Are you joking?
By: Dave Zirin
Originally Appeared In NY Daily News

It's always dangerous, but never boring, when a newspaper sports columnist uncorks a political thesis. Enter Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel. Bianchi thinks that there are some unsung heroes who deserve credit for helping put a black man in the White House - and they are athletes. "If you're searching for tangible reasons why it became possible for Barack Obama to make his historic run at the presidency ... look no further than the golf course, basketball court or football field."

Bianchi believes that, since sports have conditioned white America to accept African-Americans as heroes and leaders, black sportsmen deserve a pat on the back. He wonders: "Where else but sports can you go to Amway Arena and see 15,000 mostly white fans cheer and celebrate the accomplishments of a team that is mostly black?"

Sounds lovely. But it happens to be embarrassingly wrong - and an insult to the reason that millions waited on long lines to cast their vote.

For more than a century, masses of white audiences have cheered black entertainers and athletes. And for most of that time, blacks struggled mightily to climb the corporate or political ladder. Why? Because being wowed by the ability of blacks to perform on a field or stage is not in the same ballpark as accepting their political leadership. Not even close.

More to the point, the rare black athletes who have dared to make waves have been pilloried for not knowing their place. After men like Jack Johnson, Muhammad Ali, Tommie Smith and John Carlos got too political, the phrase "just shut up and play" emerged - to smack down future jocks for trying to do more than entertain.

This is not just a hypocrisy of the musty past. On Thursday, Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall caught the winning touchdown pass against the Cleveland Browns. He then - horror of horrors - wanted to take out a black and white glove to make a statement. "I wanted to create that symbol of unity because Obama inspires me, our multicultured society," he later said.

But we will never know how the public might have received even this tame message because teammates, led by Brandon Stokely, put the kibosh on him. Commentators then came down on Marshall like blitzing linebackers. ESPN anchor Neil Everett said, "It's not about you and what you think. It's about the team."

Our sport-mad culture has hardly softened the ground for black political leadership. If anything, it's produced a value system that prizes material gain and the almighty scoreboard over any kind of collective responsibility.

This is seen even more clearly when we look at the three figures that Bianchi holds up as the most crucial trailblazers: Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Indianapolis Colts coach Tony Dungy.

Bianchi writes, "the two most successful product pitchmen of the modern era - Tiger and Michael Jordan - are both black men who won over white corporate America." But at what cost? These are also the two most aggressively apolitical athletes to ever walk the earth. They live by the creed that taking serious stands gets in the way of good business. If anything, Obama has had to overcome the racial landscape these two have charted, which says you must wear the cool mask and betray nothing.

Dungy is a different case. One of the most respected coaches in the NFL, he is also an evangelical Christian who has raised funds for the Indiana Family Institute. IFI organizes anti-gay marriage initiatives and takes part in the process of what's called "praying the gay away."

In fact, when you think about it, Woods, Jordan and Dungy - signifying respectively disengagement, corporate greed and the right-wing side of the culture wars - hold the values many voters wanted to repudiate.

No doubt, black American athletes unafraid to be political will be part of charting us out of this wilderness. But it will not be those content to be money-making sideshows when the main stage is a real-world battle for change.

Zirin is author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States."