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Originally Posted by blakngold4
kurant, your post smacks of the condescension that makes people like jermaine oneal paranoid. i think oneal's wrong, but didn't say the right thing. we have laws pass all the time that have a disparate impact on one social group or another. the laws themselves aren't racist, but their affects are. whether you would call the result a "racist law" depends on your point of view: focusing on either the law itself or its impact. while i agree with the argument that the league being 4/5 black means that any rule changes affects blacks more, the contrast is more clear when you look at the age limit. i can think of one white player who would've been affected by this in the past ten years (which is basically the timeframe of HSers going pro). i can think of TONS more black players that would've been affected. so, even with the nba being 4/5 black, the group of early entrants that would be affected (at least looking backwards at who would've been affected) is more like 97% black. how you interpret that is up to you. does it make it a "racist law?" maybe. kids can always play overseas if they dont qualify for college i guess.
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First off, I didn't call anything a "racist law". Nor ever attempt to give that impression. Your preaching to the wrong person, chief.
Second of all, you just said exactly what I said, right back to me. It's common sense. If the league is 4/5th's black, and the young kids entering the league follow the same pattern, yes, a rule change will of course impact the black community. Like I said, it doesn't take any census study to figure that out.
The impact of the rule? Who knows.. and frankly, who cares? Besides drastically improving a damaged league image in the mind of some. Thats most likely the motivation behind what Stern wants, I'm sure. (The league's image has drastically declined since MJ left after the 6th title, Stern needs another MJ, not an age limit)
Racist law? Come on, it's a rule preventing kids from entering the NBA. It's not singling any race, or indivual out, if effects blacks more, simply because the NBA's class of entering athletes that are young, are black. Just because you put an age limit on it, doesn't mean it isn't going to stay that way. Because, it will, and the athletes these young kids are today, it should. It's remarkable.