“You can get the money! You can get the power! But keep your eyes on the Final Hour!” Lauryn Hill, “Final Hour”, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, 1998.
ORDER. We are soooo out of order if we were to judge the responses to LeBron James and the Miami Heat’s loss of Sunday’s NBA Finals. Look at the picture to the left. Study the one below. Are they serious? These are images circulating through the media. Hasn’t this gone far enough? Where are the NBA elders, and why aren’t they stepping in? If I were to view this through the prism of my academic training in race relations, popular culture, and media I would say this looks like a media lynching. A castration of men. Black men. What tha ham is going on? Is all of this necessary just because they lost? What have we come to as a society when images of three African American men who made it to game 6 in the NBA finals are belittled like this just because they had the confidence to command their own destiny and go after it? Yea they fell short of the win, but what do these images say about losing? 
This is sad. Really sad. Putting wigs and make-up on them? C’mon people.
addison demoss
15 June
I never thought the medias treatment of them was going too far until reading this and viewing the images above. On one side athletes have a responsibility to handle criticism, on the other the media has a responsibilty to remember athletes are people too and deserve respect. I’ve never heard of a team receiving more attention for losing a championship than winning one. Didn’t the Mavs win the NBA title? It seems clear that the media is having a field day. They’re pretty crafty when it comes to racial topics. Its one thing to show constructive criticism but another to degrade people who worked together to share a common goal. I’m curious to hear if/what my hero Michael Wilbon has anything to say about this on ESPN. He’s always keen issues on race and should give valuable insight.
playa at da house
15 June
Dr. J:
Again, your perspective is spot on. I agree whole heartedly that we must not be discouraged from setting a goal, believing in our abilities to reach that goal and speaking on it!!!!
The type of reaction depicted in those modified photos reflects very limited, and limiting, thinking.