Payton should make a public apology and be suspended from NBA TV

[guava_wrench]

Payton's comment about Matt Bonner after joking he thought it was Scalabrine:

"They all look alike."

Not cool. He even repeated the comment a few times. I actually don't really care about the comment. But imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player. Imagine the protests and outrage.

It is one thing to joke about red heads, which is already in poor taste. Payton went well beyond the line.

[PJ Martinez]

imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player.

It's not the same. History matters. Payton's comment was a joke -- perhaps a lame attempt at one, but still -- and should be taken as one.

[Rondo_is_better]

Yup. If he doesn't get suspended, then that's just a horrible double standard. Racism doesn't have to be majority to minority. Minorities can stereotyping and make bigoted comments just like majority race members can.

If he does get suspended, and he should, I always did feel like it was just a matter of time. He seems like a pretty mean spirited guy. A real jerk from what I hear on TNT.

I miss Chuck.  

[BigDanz2000]

imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player.

It's not the same. History matters. Payton's comment was a joke -- perhaps a lame attempt at one, but still -- and should be taken as one.

It still doesnt make it right.  History doesnt matter in terms of ignorance.  I personally dont care what Payton said, its no skin off of my back, but him saying what he said in no way justifies 'History Matters'.

[ACF]

imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player.

It's not the same. History matters. Payton's comment was a joke -- perhaps a lame attempt at one, but still -- and should be taken as one.

Isn't that like saying "I can say it
but you can't" or "I can hit you but
you can't hit me"? It's childish and,
worst of all, self-centered.

Payton's an idiot, as we have already
established in another thread. But he's
an idiot because of so many other things
and not necessarily this silly blurp. I'm
sure he meant nothing by it. Still, it
might make him look (even) bad(der).

[guava_wrench]

imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player.

It's not the same. History matters. Payton's comment was a joke -- perhaps a lame attempt at one, but still -- and should be taken as one.

History goes back millions of years. We all have ancestors with grievances against someone, and all of us have ancestors who have grievances against them. Bottom line is racial jokes belong in comedy clubs or on comedy shows where the comments can be contextualized better. Sports announcers get in trouble for these kinds of comments.

In truth, I am more annoyed at people blowing things out of proportion than I am about Payton. I don't really care about Payton's comments, but white people who do find his comments genuinely offensive are likely to be marginalized (in a way similar to your comment).

I feel we should either let all such comments go, or be consistent about not tolerating them. If they want NBAtv to be a comedy club, then fine. Hopefully Kamla will make similar comments and we would be able to see if there would be a double standard.

[CelticBalla32]

Oh please. The world is too sensitive.

[KungPoweChicken]

I usually love Payton's moronic antics, but I agree this is an obvious double standard. If Bill Walton said, "Those monkeys all looks alike." He'd never be allowed on television again. Why should Payton get a free pass?

[jimmehx]

Yeh I think he really meant it as a joke...
Who really should be suspended is the guy (I couldn't pick his voice) the other night against the Knicks talking about 'Kevin House'. Really...

[indeedproceed]

Payton's comment about Matt Bonner after joking he thought it was Scalabrine:

"They all look alike."

Not cool. He even repeated the comment a few times. I actually don't really care about the comment. But imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player. Imagine the protests and outrage.

It is one thing to joke about red heads, which is already in poor taste. Payton went well beyond the line.

So you're upset about it not because you're offended, but because you feel like other people would be upset about if a white announcer did it in reference to black players?

That makes absolutely no sense.

Your view point basically states "Im offended because if Bill Walton said it in regards to a black player, then he would be suspended, so I want Gary Payton suspended."

I mean first of all no white announcer would ever say "They all look alike" after confusing Sam Cassell with Gollum. Even if they were kidding. THere is too much pain today and in the VERY recent past to let that slide. Its like when people do holocaust jokes today. They still seem a little off color, not so funny kind of offensive.

Comedy is tragedy + time. Maybe there is a double standard. However I suppose the mature thing would be to look past that and see the comment for the really poor joke it is instead of crashing NBATV's servers with emails.

For the record I'd be 100% behind firing Payton for a job poorly done. But not because of this faux pas.

[cordobes]

Payton is very probably a racist. I was once kind of surprised by the way he used a "white people and jews" expression. I guess he could always be an insensitive guy to racial issues, but I remember when he labeled the NBA dress code as "racist", so that's probably not the case. Just another black supremacist that gets a pass because he lives on the US, where incoherence, blame games and double-standards on this issue are the rule. Anyway, I personally wouldn't care less about his views on the race subject if he was decent talking about basketball.

It's still amusing that Payton gets a pass but Clyde Drexler was reprimanded for the use of a metaphor during a game though.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_11654071

Last week during a game against the Chicago Bulls, Houston Rockets color analyst Clyde Drexler made some unfortunate comments after center Yao Ming repeatedly scored against Bulls forward Andres Nocioni.

"That's like clubbing baby seals," Drexler said on Fox Sports Houston. "There's nothing Nocioni can do."


The incident prompted a statement from Rockets spokesman Nelson Luis.

"We spoke with Clyde regarding his statement during Tuesday night's game," he said. "Clyde regrets his comments, and we're satisfied with his response to this issue and consider the matter closed."

Drexler, who was voted as one of the NBA's greatest players, apparently isn't headed for such a distinction in broadcasting.

BTW, clubbing baby seals was a perfect image for what was going on.

[Andy Jick]

racism is still alive and well...i guess january 20th is just a faded memory...

[BillfromBoston]

Payton's comment about Matt Bonner after joking he thought it was Scalabrine:

"They all look alike."

Not cool. He even repeated the comment a few times. I actually don't really care about the comment. But imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player. Imagine the protests and outrage.

It is one thing to joke about red heads, which is already in poor taste. Payton went well beyond the line.

My take on it was that Payton was stating a parody of the "they all look alike" racially incensitive remarks that are typically attributed to white people in regards to blacks.

Since you pretty much never here 'they all look alike' in reference to white people, the remark is much less offensive in my opinion because its not common.

This is parody in good fun, if poor taste, not meant to hurt anybody...

[BballTim]

imagine Walton or Van Gundy making that kind of comment about a black player.

It's not the same. History matters. Payton's comment was a joke -- perhaps a lame attempt at one, but still -- and should be taken as one.

  Of course it's the same. The whole "I'm allowed to be prejudiced but you're not" thing gets pretty old pretty fast. If people want to make comments like that, fine. Just don't fly off the handle anytime someone says something that can be twisted to sound almost racist.

[JSD]

Any chance he was talking about red-heads?