Shock of the day, Jemele Hill hates the Celtics.

[jaketwice]

I'm glad ESPN has such a need to diversity its staff that it allows tripe like this to pass for a "joke":

Rooting for the Celtics is like saying Hitler was a victim. It's like hoping Gorbachev would get to the blinking red button before Reagan.

Ah, yes, Hitler and nuclear holocaust jokes.  Funny stuff.

Seriously.  I mean, what editor(s) would let that fly?

Hitler gassed 6 million Jews, fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, friends... ...children. Nothing about a basketball team rises to that level. Even if Larry Bird had a bad mustache.

When you have to write about race every third column, how can you know anything about basketball?

Whatever you have to say about Jemele Hill as a writer, don't say it about her as a sports writer. She seems to have nothing to say about the game. Every third column is race this, race that.

Or was it the Finals and I missed something?

[jimmyt]

ESPN deleted the section of the article when she compared rooting for the celtics to saying hitler was a victim. When people read her article tomorrow or whenever, they wont know that she ever made the comparisson... luckly celticsblog exposed ESPN and Hill before they did this.

I love how Hill can scream racism in every article but at the same time be just as ignorant as a racist.

[timpiker]

I don't read her since I noticed awhile back she was like this.  But why should we let that other RACE-BAITING HACK MICHAEL WILBON get any less disrespect?

[celticmaestro]

she's entitled to her opinion. personally, i hate the pistons. and pretty much *all* of her work. so the feeling is mutual, jemele.

[Hrvoje]

This type of joke (to be mild) wouldn't even pass through index.hr, which is lowest (by articles) Croatian internet portal

[Nerf MVP]

to me it's not even a matter of the Hitler/Cold War jokes being "too much" or "out of bounds"... they're not funny.. at all.  She has a pathetic sense of humor.  I love offensive humor of all kinds and if you can work it into a sports piece without it feeling forced and it makes me laugh, kudos to you.  But "is like calling Hitler a victim" isn't funny, nor does the comparison make ANY sense. 

This is pretty much how I feel. It just wasn't funny.

I really hope D@C don't get wind of this "article". Even if the Celtics win tonight, I just know they'd dedicate the entire show to " IF A WHITE WRITER WROTE THIS ARTICLE THEY'D HAVE BEEN FIRED AND LABELED A RACIST FOR THE REST OF THEIR PUBLIC LIFE !!!".

[Thruthelookingglass]

Maybe I'm reading the piece differently than you guys.

She seems to say that at one point race was at the heart of it - back when she came of age as a Pistons fan.  But now - it's simply rivalry (one that is more present in her mind than reality mind you but...). I'm having trouble being offended by this mild, bland piece of writing. I mean - Hitler jokes hardly have much in the way of edge anymore.

FG/.

I haven't read the piece, but I absolutely think "Hitler jokes" have an edge.  It is hyperbole of the worst kind and betrays a complete lack of sense and perspective on the part of the "joker."   I too am shocked that any editor would allow this drivel daylight.

It's one thing to write a mild, bland article about why someone's racist perceptions of Boston have changed.  It's quite another to trivialize the atrocities of the holocaust in the cause of a smear campaign.

[Donoghus]

I'd love to see another member of the national media call her out on this. 

[bbc3341]

Wow - the Hitler joke is not cool!

[Donoghus]

Her editors really did some tinkering overnight with that article.  Not surprised.  Just wonder who thought it was a good idea to run with the original last night. 

[nickagneta]

I just tried to connect to the article through wd's link and couldn't. I wanted to read the article to see what all the hubbub was about so I google Jemele Hill hate Celtics and I think I got the article.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=hill/080614

Here's the thing though. The whole Hitler reference and a couple others like the Gorachev and Reagan comment have been edited out. They aren't there anymore. At least I think it's been edited, someone who saw the article originally will have to tell me.

My guess is the ESPN readership must have inundated the offices in Bristol with e-mails complaining of such obvious racially sensitive comments and bad bad humor.

[crownsy]

wow, they edited the hell out of that thing. all her off color hate jokes are gone...

[ConnerHenry]

I'm still not sure if she even likes Sports. Reading her is like reading Phil Mushnick in the NY Post.

[nickagneta]

I've only read one other article of her's and that's the one where she was once again doing nothing but hating by going off on Karl Malone and his relationship with his estranged son and Malone's other multiple children he had from multiple mothers.

What exactly does trashing Karl Malone years after he has been out of the spotlight have to do with good journalism? It seems to be nothing but tabloid material and I would hope that ESPN is above that, but as they have proven time and again, they aren't.

[Roy Hobbs]

Even after the edits, the gratuitous and sensationalist reference to the Charles Stuart case is there.  There's absolutely no need for that reference, other than somehow to justify black-on-white racism.