Not the Best of Sporting Analogies, Jemele
Jemele Hill is a columnist for ESPN.com, and she got in trouble (suspended) for saying that rooting for the Boston Celtics would be like “saying Hitler was a victim.”
1) No. 2) Even if it was even the tiniest bit like saying Hitler was a victim, then rooting for the Lakers in this year’s championship match up would still be even more like rooting for a rapist. Right?
Oh, sorry: accused rapist. My mistake. Honestly, who hasn’t been accused of rape, right? But you know what the weird thing is? I searched the whole Celtics roster, up and down, and I couldn’t find one even accused genocidal German dictator.
Jemele also compared rooting for Boston to “hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.”
Forget about how “appropriate” these metaphors might (not) be, the logic is simply idiotic, like that of a snarky, rebellious-but-not-terribly-intelligent 3rd grader trying to rile up her teacher.
Break it down: Was anybody rooting for Reagan to get to the blinking red button, Jemele? I don’t think that was the correct rooting choice, either.
And picking the cold war to make an analogy like this is a poor choice, just from an analogy standpoint. It would only work if Jemele was rooting for Game 6 of the NBA finals to never actually happen, and instead just have the Celtics and Lakers give each other an aggressive silent treatment for the duration of the game from their respective locker rooms.
Or, maybe she could be referencing the peripheral military battles of the Cold War. Which still wouldn’t make sense, because then the correct rooting interest, according to Jemele, would involve rooting for the Lakers to surprise attack the Hornets, who didn’t even know they were part of the war in the first place.
Or, it works if Jemele thinks the proper rooting choice in the cold war was for the nuclear destruction of Russia. Bold journalistic stance, J!
All this from a lady who strongly called for Don Imus’ resignation in April ’07. Congrats Jemele, and congrats to ESPN for their band of silly page 2 writers, which has given people who should be shouting on Fox News, but who don’t follow politics, a place to call home.