Lebron the thug (In a nice, happy, Webster's Dictionary way)?
 

http://blog.mlive.com/fullcourtpress...ball_at_a.html

Now, of course, I don't actually think that he actually is a thug, but this really seems to be a pretty stupid, mean thing to do out of anger.

I thought of naming this thread "Lebron the Meanie?", but that sounded.......ineffective.

Oh, and this may very well have been posted, but I haven't seen it. If it has, I will delete the thread. You might lose posts.

Seriously, how many times does an African-American player get called a thug for the most ridiculous reasons?

Hey jackass, don't make this a fucking racial thread.

Fuck. I even said that I didn't think he was remotely a thug.

Besides, why is it that we can't use the word "thug" unless it's a white person? Damn, I was just showing a video of a guy throwing a ball at a fan, and used a word that fit, regardless of race - "thug - A person who treats others violently and roughly."

Should I have called him a bully? Would that be ok with everyone?

Schmidty, I'd agree with you, but I can't recall the last time I personally have seen the word "thug" associated with any non-black athlete. I may well be wrong, but from recollection, that's how it seems.

And as always, thanks for the classy PM. :rolleyes:

I don't think the ball ever touched the fan after whatever it was he did. Looks like he tossed the ball in front of them with lots of backspin. Probably just playing around.

Dola,
I don't particularly care - but its something I've noticed. Like I said, feel free to correct me if I'm off-base on this.

Err, that do. I don't see how the NBA wouldn't notice something like that if he actually threw it at here. In the post-Palace-rumble world, the NBA is hypersensitive about this kind of thing.

For what it is worth, I think you are off base.

I agree. It bounced back way too quickly. It looks to me more like he was joking around with the crowd.

Like the quote on that page said, if he had thrown a ball at a chick in the 1st row I'd imagine more would have been made of it than that.

Hell, I'm the last one to want to hurt a person, or a group of people, but I guess I just didn't see that word, in the way I used it, as a racial epithet. Not even remotely. Maybe I'm naive. If it hurts anyone's feelings, by all means, let me know, and I will gladly edit the title.

White guys who throw balls at fans are pricks - I've never heard a black guy called a prick. I've never heard a white guy called a thug. 6 of one, half-dozen of the other in my book.

Typical Lebron choke.

I don't think anyone accused you of using a racial epithet - certainly not one in the class of some major-league epithets. It seemed more of a general commentary on how the work "thug" is used - and probably how it is becoming an epithet by virtue of it being applied to a class of people.

Quick! What race do you associate with "geek" and "nerd"?

Not epithets - almost universally apply to white people - but certainly not racist.

Don't they call white hockey players thugs too, or they exclusively Goons?

I just asked my definitely naive wife what the word "thug" meant, and she said, "Isn't that like a bully or something?". And that's exactly what I was thinking when I posted it.

I think it's sad that others are turning this into a racial thing, when all it was meant to be, was a discussion of whether or not he was meaning to be a cock and hurt the fan. I think you people might have some deep-seated guilt of racism if you read that type of thing into this.

Whew! I was getting worried that we would not have our weekly discussion on race.

On the point of the thread, I thought we wanted to athletes to have fun with fans?

Does it even matter? This whole issue is stupid, and the people making a big deal of it are idealogical thugs.

As far as the video, I think it did look like he threw the ball at the chair, but it was still poor judgement, as it could have easily accidently hit one of the fans (if it actually didn't). It just seemed like a dumb thing to do.

Crapshoot - I tried to respond to your last PM, but your inbox was full.

I was gonna say, if The Neptunes aren't geeks, they doesn't exist.

Good catch, as I know I've used the word thug at a hockey game, as in
"c'mon coach, get your thugs under control".

Of course the primary player in question at the time was Peter Worrell, so I'm not sure that counts exactly.

Meh...it's too hard to tell.

fixed.

from the comments on the blog...

Swing and a miss. Geeks and nerds (just like thugs) come in all colors. It seems that people like to bring race into these discussions just to make the comments easier to dismiss. Look at the ratio in this thread of people on topic versus people talking about race.

Good to see Pistons fans desperately grasping at anything they can as their team chokes away the series. :D

i was going to say, it looked like they were laughing fter that.

If we are going with Webster's
 

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/thug


Main Entry: thug
Pronunciation: 'th&g
Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi & Urdu thag, literally, thief
: a brutal ruffian or assassin : GANGSTER, TOUGH

So is he a ruffian or an assassin?