I've not been much of a sports fan since the baseball lockout of '94. I still care about hockey and will watch that occaisional parity-ridden NFL game. Last night, I was channel surfing and ran across an NBA game on a sports network. What stopped me was that sideline announcer Jim Grey was actually quoting Chairman Mao Tse-Tung! It was a somewhat benign reference to the Houston Rockets Yao Ming's life philosophy, based on a saying by the communist Chairman. "Competition second, friendship first" or some gobbldygook like that.
For a man who set up brutal internment camps, caused widespread chronic famines and killed more people than Stalin, to be quoted on an American sports program is regrettably stupid. Poor Jim Grey who is proficient at sports, but seemingly dim on many other fronts (going after Pete Rose after he got a standing ovatuion in '99 at the World series) probably never paid attention to any history lessons as he idolized and drooled over sport stars.
"Boobus Americanus" probably isn't too informed on the Chairman's reign of oppression, but I wonder what the reaction would have been had Grey uttered a benign quote from Adolph Hitler.
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