Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is a frequent object of ridicule around these parts, not always for the most serious of reasons, either. But every once in a while, Cuban does something rather brave that no other sports franchise owner / billionaire public figure would dare. But enough about green-lighting “Bubble”, Cuban’s been dealing with the fallout from Josh Howard’s flag-football diss of “The Star Spangled Banner”, and yesterday, tackled the controversy in a cut & paste manner that is sadly revealing, though not necessarily surprising. Be they Mavs fans, BlogMaverick readers or just plain numbskulls, the level of rage & invective these individuals aim towards Howard is nothing short of frightening. Here’s just a couple of the lovely pieces of fan mail Cuban’s received :
[email protected]
to mark.cuban
œI don™t even celebrate that shit. I™m black.
You & Howard¦two peas in a pod.
Don™t think we™ve forgotten about that Brian De Palma anti-military propaganda film, œRedacted, that you produced, Cuban
Ya might tell Howard the next time you talk to him, that if not for America, he™d probably be be throwing spears in Africa someplace instead of free-throws.
Semper Fi,
M.E. Heffernan
œJeff Kellen
To:
Date: 09/18/2008 04:22 PM
Subject: Ask Mark Cuban
Hi Mark,Did you know Josh Howard was an America hater when you signed him or was
it a surprise?I don™t spend my money on this NBA shit, I am white.
Thanks,
– Jeff
From: œstephen rogers
To:
Date: 09/17/2008 09:34 PM
Subject: Ask Mark Cuban
Mr. Cuban,
Just saw your nigger Josh Howard disresepct the national anthem because he is black. According to the news you say he is a really great guy. Of course he is because he makes you lots of money you greedy bastard.
You would rather sell out your own country that my dead father fought for in WW II than than lose a buck by firing this black bastard.
You are nothing more than a nigger slave owner milking him for all his black ass can get you.
YOU, SIR IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS COUNTRY. YOU AND THAT NIGGER YOU CALL NICE.
There™s lots of black dick on that team, get busy. White power is coming back because of race traitors like you.
Know what you get when you cross a nigger and a white nigger lover ? a WHIGGER. THAT IS YOU !!!!
Mark WHIGGER Cuban. A White storm is brewing Mr. Cuban, you and those niggers like you better evacuate.
It’s hard to say which is more shocking about the above bits of correspondence ; the absolutely over-the-top racism or the fact someone remembers “Redacted”.
I assumed no one saw Redacted save DePalma aficionados, the vast majority of whom were seriously disappointed. Hi, Mom! it was not. The possibility that DePalma might have an audience of right-wing paranoiacs he works into a lather constitutes the sole enjoyment I expect to derive from this save for typing there’s little black dick on this comment, get busy.
The Redacted stuff is leftover O’Reilly bile; he made a big deal out of it, if I remember correctly. Which, I know, is surprising, considering how much BO liked Raising Cain and Snake Eyes.
I was starting to work on a post about just this, but I’m glad you beat me to it. I’d have written far too much, and probably wound up discussing something only tangentially related to how pissed-off these defectives are. I was working on a grand unified theory of what made these idiots so ridiculously, radioactively incensed, but it might not actually be unfair to them to posit that the answer could simply be, “because they’re assholes.” Certainly their assumptions that a guy with a religion degree from Wake Forest “went to 2% of his classes” implies that there are some influences informing their opinions that are not, you know, fact-related.
Also, this interview with Josh Howard from TrueHoop is really frank and really interesting, and paints a picture of a fairly complicated, pretty smart guy. The comment, to me, seems an attempt at just-us humor that failed. Unfortunately, it happened to turn over a rock with a bunch of very bigoted bugs underneath.