More Basketball Bigotry

One step forward [John Amaechi], two steps back [Tim Hardaway and now Micheal (sic) Ray Richardson]. Albany (NY) Patroons coach Micheal Ray Richardson has been suspended for the rest of the Continental Basktball Association championship series for comments he made to the Albany Times Union newspaper.

Richardson made derogatory remarks about Jews and made a slur against homosexuals. The team said he is suspended due to the serious allegations. During Tuesday's game, Richardson shouted at a heckler "shut the fuck up, you faggot.'' Before the game, his comments included:
• "I've got big-time lawyers. I've got big-time Jew lawyers."
• "They know that in this country the Jews are running it if you really think about it...which is not a bad thing, you know what I mean?"
• "They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great. I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people."

Told of the comments on Tuesday, Patroons owner Ben Fernandez said: "We will not tolerate and the league will not tolerate bigots to perform in our league." A team news release ends: "The Albany Patroons' organization sincerely apologizes to any individuals or ethnic groups that these alleged statements may have offended."

"It's terrible and I don't think it's fair," Richardson said. "But I want to make an apology if I offended anyone because that's not me." In a television interview, he claimes, "I'm not a bigot. I'm not prejudiced."

He backtracked when it was pointed out that his comments were bigoted and said, "It's just a figure of speech, just like when they call us ... 'nigger.' When they call us 'nigger' I don't get offended, because most of the people who say the word 'nigger' don't know the definition. If they knew the definition they wouldn't say it."

The local television station WTEN Channel 10 news interviewed a spectator at the game for a reaction. The African-American man observed that he know what discrimination is about as a black man and those types of comments are unacceptable.

The Albany Patroons can be contacted at 518-694-7160 (phone); 518-694-8291 (Fax); or info@albanypats.com (email).
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