“Etan Thomas should keep his mind on basketball,” argues one not on whether he agrees with what other players or owners are doing with their lives.” So opined Oklahoman reader “Benny Smith” upon learning the Thunder center has taken his political activism to Hoops Hype, with a debut blog appearing Monday. Here’s a couple of the highlights, just in case no one has forwarded the column to Brendan Haywood Tom Knott.

Why does the NBA, an almost 80 percent African-American league, constantly uses terms that reference slavery? Why are the CEO™s of the teams called owners? Why do they use the term œproperty of a certain team when referring to a player™s employment? Why is the term trading block utilized? Why all the references to slavery, and why hasn™t anyone up until this point objected to this?

Would it be possible for the NBA to instill a rule for which reporters covering the league would be fined if they misreport, contort facts or simply write blatant lies? Are the fans not deserving of accurate, factual reporting, instead of articles laced with anonymous sources, embellishments and overall inaccuracies?

Has the dress code instilled a while ago made fans feel more connected, safer, more comfortable and whatever else the goal of implementing that rule was?

Can any doctor state to a medical certainty that injecting yourself with the swine flu/H1N1 vaccine will have no ill effects, repercussions or reactions in the near or distant future? Is there enough data on this vaccine for team doctors to attempt to force, no, strongly suggest that players take this?

While on the subject of team trainers and doctors, is it possible to impose a fine or forced firing when a team trainer or doctor consistently misdiagnoses numerous players? Not to call out any names but certain teams (not here with the Oklahoma City Thunder) employ trainers and doctors who regularly make medical mishaps (if that™s a politically correct way of saying it).