In October 1999, these words came out of his mouth:
"I don't mean to say [that] as a snide remark toward a certain population in our society, but they have a limitation of their attention span, a lot of it probably due to too much rap music going in their ears and coming out their being."
OK. Let that one slide. Chalk it up as generational hate. Cultural Alzheimer's.
Then…
In October 2005, these words came out of his mouth:
"I think it's important that the players take their end of it, get out of the prison garb and the thuggery aspect of basketball that has come along with hip-hop music in the last seven or eight years."
OK … the camel's thoracic and lumbar vertebrae just went into trauma. Forget a broken back, this is spondylitis. A disease...
...In the words of SNCC: I AM A MAN.
In the words of KRS-One: I AM HIP-HOP.
And just like any subculture inside of America -- rock 'n' roll, grunge, heavy metal, country, bluegrass, electronica, reggae, merengue, punk, funk, rave, classical -- that has been given birth through music, there are both good and bad sides. All open not only to judgment, but interpretation.
But when a Hall of Fame-bound, messiah-like respected coach who is a child of a subculture of imperfection feels that he needs to go out of his way to defame and slander another culture and its music while making an irrelevant point about music and basketball, someone has to Kanye West: Stand up!
The "attention span" thing is especially random and stupid. If anything hip-hoppers should be ahead of the game, since we have to memorize 3 times as many lyrics for each song, compared to any other pop music.
