Quote of note:

The only reason NBA Commissioner David Stern even has to address this is because there's so much societal pressure to do so. It's as if people can't handle the sight of young black men getting millions right after they return their prom tuxedos to the rental shop. Meanwhile there's no movement to stop child entertainers.

It Remains an Age-Old Question for the NBA
J.A. Adande
April 14, 2005

First, let's get the terms right. Jermaine O'Neal never called anyone a racist.

Didn't use the r-word at all, in fact. It was added parenthetically to his comments about the NBA's desire to institute a 20-year-old minimum age requirement for the draft.

"As a black guy, you kind of think [race is] the reason why it's coming up," O'Neal said Monday night, the Indianapolis Star reported. "You don't hear about it in baseball or hockey. To say you have to be 20, 21 to get in the league, it's unconstitutional. If I can go to the U.S. Army and fight the war at 18, why can't you play basketball for 48 minutes and then go home?"

And so a heaping teaspoon of race was added to the mix on this turbulent topic. It can't be ignored, because O'Neal is right.

We're not even having this discussion about hockey or baseball or golf or tennis or acting or singing or anything else. It's only basketball and football, sports with a majority of African Americans at the pro level.