This story is now two weeks old, but as I was at the center of the controversy, I figured I would wait for my anger to subside before commenting on it. I was in attendance at the 1/28 Washington Wizards @ Nets game sporting my Gilbert Arenas Jersey sitting behind the basket for FREEEEEEEEEE, when I spotted the most disgusting act by a Net all season. I wasn’t watching T-Will sleep through shoot around, Bobby Simmons suck the team out of millions a year without ever playing a game, or admiring CD-R lay court side on his stomach while kicking his feat like a horny school girl. No, in fact the game hadn’t even started yet. The disgusting act I am talking about; a ball-less practice dunk by Yi Jianlian during the national anthem. Anyone whose watched a Nets game knows watching Yi play is painful, his D is abysmal, he almost always has the ball stolen from him after rebounds and he walks around with a smug sense of entitlement, crying for fouls as if he somehow earned the level of respect Kobe has. However this act takes the cake, it was disrespectful to the country, to the anthem, to the fans and to the choir brought into sing the anthem. I’m aware that it wasn’t the anthem of his native country, but the least Yi could do is sit quietly and respectfully. I took action as soon as I got home emailing the NBA and the New Jersey Nets. Surprisingly I got a personalized apology from both and was more or less pacified by that. However after talking to some Nets fan my rage was renewed as I received some pretty asinine responses as to why Yi’s actions were ok. I won’t insult your intelligence by posting all the answer. The one that enraged me the most was that because athletes such as Josh Howard has purposely disrespected the country it was ok for anyone to do it on accident and moreover was most likely unaware of our cultural norms.

How is it acceptable? I have no idea. Yi had played in nearly 130 NBA games at this point in the season, and thus had stood (or in his case dunked) through 130 national anthems. During that period of time Yi had ample opportunity to learn what appropriate action during an NBA game was. Furthermore Yi comes from the totalitarian China, a government who tries to regulate every aspect of life, from how many children you have to what search engine you use. If Yi had done such a thing during the Chinese anthem, or worse yet an American had tried such a thing they likely would be reported missing the following morning. Yi should thank his lucky stars, being on a 4-48 team is a small price to pay for the right to speak your mind or disrespect the country. Now back to the Bobby Simmons argument, I could surely argue how being clueless about the consequences of your actions is worse than being purposefully disrespectful. However for that I will leave you with a link in the comments section, as more important to our discussion is the fact that Yi is not all that clueless. In fact even before Yi signed with an NBA team he displayed tell-tale signs of racism. After being drafted 6th overall in the 2007 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, YI demanded a trade, before even stepping on the court. According to Yi Milwaukee didn’t have a large enough Chinese population and thus wasn’t worthy of watching him play. After milking that angle for all it was worth Yi and his manager got Chinese officials involved and demanded that Yi get substantial playing time, because a gold medal for China in the 2008 Olympics was more important than the long term success of the Bucks. Such an arrogant, self-centered view of the game is exactly why Yi’s disrespectful dunk wasn’t just a clash of cultures, but likely Yi showing his pure hatred for Americans who aren’t good enough to watch him play. The New Jersey Nets have come a long way from their 1967-1968 ABA debut as the New Jersey Americans, in which they actually represented America and which they actually made it to the playoffs (but were forced to forfeit due to unfit playing conditions).

We have all heard something about Shawn Carter aka Jay-Z for most of us it’s that he has 99 problems. None of which are a bitch but also none of which can be fixed by his millions upon millions of dollars, which leads one to wonder what exactly problems he has really has. One problem which we can all agree that Jay has is of course that he has ties to the Nets. What we don’t know is why? Why would a millionaire who has professed his love for New York sports; particularly the Knicks buy a stake in the rival Nets? The most obvious answer comes from Nets superfan Mr. Whammy aka Bruce Reznick who also grew up a long time Knicks fan. According to Mr. Reznick he bought a stake in the Nets as a season ticket holder when he realized “he would never get eighth-row seats at Madison Square Garden”. However that answer really starts to fall apart when one realizes that Mr. Reznick is a delusional old man, running a small time law practice who believes he has the power to “whammy” free throw shooters into missing. Whereas Jay-Z is a bestselling artist who could likely buy the entire Izod Center with the profit he made off of his hit song Empire State of Mind.

A second theory has recently emerged in the sports world upon the release of a new article on high earning high school dropouts. At the top of the list was of course Jay-Z, who according to the article “grew up in one of Brooklyn's roughest housing projects, dealing drugs”. Since that rough start (though not nearly as rough as the start the Nets had this season 0-18) Jay-Z has managed to remain a mainstay in hip-hop. While he may have acquired money, it would seem he did not acquire common sense. It was understandable when Jay invested that $4.5 million in the Nets, they were an OK team. However, the Nets have been on the decline since their 2006 playoff appearance so why hasn’t Jay-Z sold his share? Some would say lack of education, while he may make massive bank with the appearance of the Nets new lord and savior Mikhail Prokhorov and their nearly ensured 2010-2011 playoff appearance, it is doubtful he saw this one coming when he made that initial down payment. So why has Jay-Z kept his share of the Nets all these years despite his obvious indifference to them? Maybe it is all about intelligence, maybe Jay-Z invested after that playoff run expecting them to play well the next year? Maybe after investing he simply forgot he’s a minority owner? Or maybe he has so much money he just doesn’t give a shit. In my mind Jay-Z’s lack luster support of his own team will continue until the move to Brooklyn at which point I suspect we’ll be seeing Jay rotating in a Nets hat in between Yankee games and turf wars. In the end who am I to criticize Jay-Z he makes millions doing what he loves and I co-run an unsuccessful sports blog.
Post your own theories in the comments section.