I Ioved Ron Shelton’s hilarious 1992 hoops hustler comedyWhite Men Can’t Jump with Woody Harrellson, Wesley Snipes and Rosie Perez. I hadn’t thought about that flick for years until I stumbled upon the news atNOLA blogger Jimmy Huck’s joint that some Atlanta based bigots have decided to organize awhites only minor league basketball league:
The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news release
Sunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in June
and hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.“Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both
parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league,” the
statement said. <SNIP>Don “Moose” Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league’s roster restrictions is not racism.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t
hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are
in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play
fundamental basketball, which they like.”
Don’t you just love it when bigots wave the flag and call themselves All-American? It’s a pity that Moose didn’t call his league, the NHA, National Honkies Association. He didn’t but I will.
I’m guessing the style of play will be pre-1960 so the NHA will feature guys with crew cuts launching two handed set shots and shooting free throws underhand. No dunking, no jump shots, no behind the back passes. It sounds not only bigoted but boring.
The good news is that the NHA seems to be having a hard time thus far finding localities to host its teams. Augusta, Georgia turned them down flat. Maybe Moose Lewis should contact Orly Taitz and see if she’s interested in sponsoring a team called the Birthers. I have some other team name ideas too: the Klansmen, the Skinheads, the Dittoheads, the Segregationists and the most obvious one of all, the Hoopleheads.
—–