I like Larry Johnson. He was one of my favorite players growing up. I interviewed him a few years ago and he couldn’t have been nicer. So it’s disheartening to hear his ignorant thoughts regarding the Donald Sterling situation. Thoughts that are, frankly, just as dangerous as Sterling’s words themselves.
Here’s what Johnson tweeted out Saturday night.
Black people your Focusing on the wrong thing. We should be focusing on having our own, Own team own League! To For Self!!
— Larry Johnson (@TheRealLJ2) April 26, 2014
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I’m willing to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt here. Perhaps it was tweeted in the heat of the moment, perhaps it was tweeted right after listening to the Sterling audio. But the fact the tweet is still up is concerning—very concerning.
The solution for racism isn’t segregation. That much seems obvious. That much we know after one hundred years of Jim Crow BS. Basketball is a worldwide game and the NBA is a global league. It’s not just for Americans, it’s not just for whites, it’s not just for blacks, jews or Asians.
Kinda sad that we have to spell that out.