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Jan. 14, 2021 - Epoch Times
11:06
What the Media is Missing About the NBA Hong Kong Scandal | The Larry Elder Show
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I have an issue with the alleged wokeness of the NBA, a league that prides itself on dealing with societal issues.
And I'm not just talking about the latest controversy involving China and Hong Kong, which began with this innocuous tweet.
As you can see, the general manager of the Houston Rockets simply had a tweet that said, fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong.
Well, that prompted the NBA to put out a statement denouncing Daryl Morey, not China.
Here's what the NBA said.
We recognize that the views expressed by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey have deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China, which is regrettable.
While Daryl has made it clear that his tweet does not represent the Rockets or the NBA, the values of the league support individuals educating themselves and sharing their views on matters important to them.
Houston Rockets star James Harden apologized to China and superstar LeBron James said that the general manager of the Houston Rockets was misinformed.
We all talk about this freedom of speech.
Yes, we all do have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others.
You're only thinking about yourself.
So I don't believe, I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Darryl Morey, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand.
And he spoke.
And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.
So just be careful what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes from that to me.
Phone.
I thought this was a league that prided itself on social issues.
But this ought not surprise anybody because there's an 800-pound elephant in the room that the NBA has not addressed.
What is that 800-pound elephant in the room?
Unwed fathers.
21 years ago, Sports Illustrated had a cover story called Where's Daddy?
I doubt that anybody would have the cashews to put out a story like that.
But here's what they said 21 years ago.
Although there have been no studies on athletes and their out-of-wedlock kids, those who are familiar with the issue say the numbers are staggering.
I'd say that there might be more kids out of wedlock than there are players in the NBA, estimates one of the league's top agents, who says he spends more time dealing with paternity claims than he does negotiating contracts.
Lynn Elmore, an ESPN broadcaster and former NBA player, worked as an agent but says he quit In part because of a lack of responsibility among his clients.
For numbers, I would guess that one out of wedlock child for every player is a good ballpark figure, says Elmore.
For every player with none, there's a guy with two or three.
End of quote.
Now, former NBA star Jalen Rose, like many in the league, grew up without a father.
Here's what he said about that.
For everybody out there, Who is estranged from a parent?
Those are probably the most unique relationships you're ever going to have because you'll have other siblings, you'll have other friends, you'll have other cousins.
You get one biological mother, one biological father, and you don't choose them.
Right?
And so there are some situations where you're just unable to make it right.
But if you're able to make it right, try to make it right.
And so one of my regrets is I didn't get a chance to see him before he passed.
And I was going to do it.
He died in 2007.
That's the year I retired.
And so I was working the NBA playoffs.
And I was like, as the season ended with the playoffs, the draft, free agency, I was like, I'm going to go to Kansas City and see him.
Never got a chance to do it.
And about the issue of fatherlessness, check out what Rose said.
I don't care if you were born in a cave or were a crack baby.
There is no justification for this.
As an adult and professional, there has to be a sense of reason and responsibility.
This isn't just a money and power thing, though.
I know guys who have never left their corner of the neighborhood and who have six kids by five women.
I know guys still living at home with mom who have done the same.
Money gives guys access, but this isn't a professional athlete problem.
This is an African-American problem." End of quote.
Now, Jalen Rose was fortunate.
He was 6'8", could play basketball, and had people pushing him in that direction.
Here's what sports commentator Jason Whitlock said.
Most fatherless kids don't grow to be 6'8".
They're 5'8".
They have little athletic skill and are justifiably mad at the world.
They don't have groups of men bending over backward, helping them to see all the opportunities the world offers them if they can put away some of the bitterness and focus on doing what's necessary to get an education." Young conservative Candace Owens gets it.
At a hearing on the rise of white nationalism, Candace Owens put things in perspective.
You would rather assign meaning to a homicidal maniac than to actually address the things that I said today that are actually harming black America.
Number one, father absence.
Number two, the education system and the illiteracy rate.
Illegal immigration ranks high, abortion ranks high, white supremacy and white nationalism, if I had to make a list again of 100 things, would not be on it.
And the late rapper Tupac Shakur understood.
I hate saying this because white people love hearing black people talk about this.
I know for a fact that had I had a father, I'd have had some discipline.
I'd have had more confidence.
Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can.
Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can.
You know, my mother couldn't show me where my manhood was.
But you need a man to teach you how to be a man.
Now, at his new movie called Roman Israel, actor Denzel Washington was on the red carpet and was asked by a host, what about the criminal justice system?
Implying that it was racist and she surely expected Denzel Washington to concur.
Instead, here's what he said.
Do you think that we can truly make change as things are right now?
Well, it starts in the home.
You know, if the father's not in the home, the boy will find the father in the streets.
I saw it in my generation and every generation before me and everyone since.
It starts in the home.
If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother.
You know, and prison becomes your home.
You see, the welfare state has incentivized women to marry the government and allowed men to abandon their financial and moral responsibility.
Barack Obama once said, a kid raised without a father is five times more likely to be poor, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to end up in jail.
Here's what the great Thomas Sowell said.
Children raised without two parents present, That was about 22% in 1960.
One generation later, it was 67%.
And it's gone up a little since then as well.
And now the rate among whites is higher than it was among blacks in 1960.
So if you look at what actually happens in the wake of these wonderful sounding policies, you see disaster after disaster.
In the 80s, The LA Times asked poor people and non-poor people whether or not people on welfare had additional children to get additional money.
The non-poor people said no, but 64% of the poor people said yes.
Now whom do you think would be in a better position to know?
Now I want to tell you a story about LeBron James and Matt Leinart, who at the time was the quarterback of the USC Trojans.
I was on the air years ago, and I heard that LeBron James had a child outside of wedlock.
I lived in Cleveland for 17 years.
I knew a lot of people there, so I called the Cleveland plane dealer and asked whether any Cleavander had called the newspaper and complained about this new superstar who had a kid outside of wedlock.
And I was told, yes, two people called.
Then I said this.
Hypothetically, let's assume that Matt Leinart, then a star quarterback for USC, had a kid outside of wedlock.
How would you feel about this?
Well, the radio exploded.
People called up and said, I have a daughter who has Matt Leinart's poster on the wall.
I'd be very disappointed if he had a kid outside of wedlock.
Other people called and said the same thing.
Even USC called and they said, Please tell Larry to say this is a hypothetical situation, which I said over and over again, but apparently some people didn't hear it.
SC said, please let people know that Matt Leinart has not had a kid outside of wedlock.
Fast forward, LeBron James married the mother of his kids, and guess who had a kid outside of wedlock?
You got it, Matt Leinart.
So, LeBron James would be an ideal role model to push the notion that you should get married before you have a kid.
Where is he?
Where are you, King James?
Now, being raised without a father is obviously not a death sentence.
It certainly wasn't in LeBron James' case, and it wasn't in my dad's case.
My father never met his biological father, and my father was kicked out of the house by his mom when he was 13 years of age.
13 years of age, Athens, Georgia, Jim Crow South, never to return home again.
My father said he took whatever job he could.
Ultimately, he became a janitor.
Then he started a little cafe in near downtown Los Angeles, which he ran until his 80s.
It is not a death sentence, but it certainly is much, much harder when you don't have a father, when you don't have a role model.
And again, LeBron James would be an ideal person to push the notion that it is far better for you to wait to have a kid until you get married.
Finally, let me say this.
For such a woke league to ignore such an important issue, LeBron James, if you're watching, do you really want to be known as kind of like this guy?
Too soon?
I'm Larry Elder, and this has been The Larry Elder Show for Epoch Times.
I'll see you next time.
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