Jordan Crawford Article: FREEP

[muskee2000]

For those interested, a hometown article from the FreePress about Crawford's path to the draft.

http://www.freep.com/article/20100528/SPORTS03/5280315/1355/SPORTS/Jordan-Crawfords-path-to-NBA-began-in-Detroit

[Emp]

Thanks for the link. Crawford is just a gutsy guy who is pursuing a dream with the single-mindedness of great ones. That he is just so athletic was a great pleasure to enjoy, if only for the one season. I'm not much for one-and-done, but it was really more than that in this case.

Reading the Free Press on line is weird for me. Growing up in the best two-newspaper town in America, certainly the most competitive two sports sections around, it makes me sad to know that home delivery of the Freep and the News are part time things.

I heard some commentary recently to the effect that the only people reading a sports page over morning coffee these days are all over 40, and thought about the passing of an era. I used to visit Fountain News at Walnut and Fifth regularly to get out of town newspapers, and the national selection there was incredible.

[Snipe]

It doesn't help that half the people in Detroit are functionally illiterate. It may have something to do with Detroit being run by Democrats for decades.

[powerofX]

It doesn't help that half the people in Detroit are functionally illiterate. It may have something to do with Detroit being run by Democrats for decades.

I'd question the "functionally" part.....

[smileyy]

I lived just outside of Detroit for a year, and worked downtown (ca. 2000). It was a fascinating city at the time. Also depressing in a lot of ways.

[PM Thor]

I moved this thread because it was interjected with politics, which shouldn't be done in the Mens basketball forum.

I HATE dayton.

[Kahns Krazy]

I heard some commentary recently to the effect that the only people reading a sports page over morning coffee these days are all over 40, and thought about the passing of an era. I used to visit Fountain News at Walnut and Fifth regularly to get out of town newspapers, and the national selection there was incredible.


I still get a paper delivered at home, and I'm still slightly shy of the 40 mark. I don't know of many others that do though. I still like reading the paper, though with devices that are as light and easy to use as the ipad, I could see eventually getting away from it.

[xavierdude]

I moved this thread because it was interjected with politics, which shouldn't be done in the Mens basketball forum.

I HATE dayton.

The Mall Cop of Xavierhoops :D

[Masterofreality]

It doesn't help that half the people in Detroit are functionally illiterate. It may have something to do with Detroit being run by Democrats for decades.

You could throw the Cuyahoga Socialist State in that bin too.

That being said, I enjoy having a real newspaper in my hands with a good cup of java nearby.

[xu95]

I read the newspaper every morning. However, I am quickly approaching the 40 age.

xu95

[Emp]

It doesn't help that half the people in Detroit are functionally illiterate. It may have something to do with Detroit being run by Democrats for decades.

Oh, OK, I'll take the bait on this one, Snipe, since the word "Detroit" always gets you going in the same way that the mention of "Civil War" always riles that old deaf grandpa on the porch.

More "humorous" but still gratuitous, Xavier-Hoops-Minor-Oly-Sport Detroit bashing. The preoccupation with the Motor City and black Detroiters is always so predictable: people that don't look and act like me are bad, people like me are good. Unless of course they come to play basketball at X.

I've got a partial explanation for declining educational levels in Detroit, beyond the obvious loss of the auto industry, the tax base, and the middle class: the Catholic church and all of the Catholic-order schools running deep, deep for the burbs when the going got tough. Detroit once had hundreds of Catholic grade and high schools before white flight, educating every stripe of ethnic immigrant and first and second-gen Americans. Now: 2.

[smileyy]

The Emperor put it more politely than I've been resisting saying.

Classism, regionalism, provincialism, racism, sexism, sexual-preference-ism...doesn't make anyone look good, and makes our society a worse place. We are all the same. And we are all The Other to someone else.

Sure, there's humorous jabs about these sorts of things. But it's not much of a step to "Haha, only serious."

[Snipe]

Oh, OK, I'll take the bait on this one, Snipe, since the word "Detroit" always gets you going in the same way that the mention of "Civil War" always riles that old deaf grandpa on the porch.

More "humorous" but still gratuitous, Xavier-Hoops-Minor-Oly-Sport Detroit bashing. The preoccupation with the Motor City and black Detroiters is always so predictable: people that don't look and act like me are bad, people like me are good. Unless of course they come to play basketball at X.

I've got a partial explanation for declining educational levels in Detroit, beyond the obvious loss of the auto industry, the tax base, and the middle class: the Catholic church and all of the Catholic-order schools running deep, deep for the burbs when the going got tough. Detroit once had hundreds of Catholic grade and high schools before white flight, educating every stripe of ethnic immigrant and first and second-gen Americans. Now: 2.


The Emperor put it more politely than I've been resisting saying.

Classism, regionalism, provincialism, racism, sexism, sexual-preference-ism...doesn't make anyone look good, and makes our society a worse place. We are all the same. And we are all The Other to someone else.

Sure, there's humorous jabs about these sorts of things. But it's not much of a step to "Haha, only serious."


You guys are bringing race into it. I only took a shot a Democrats. Democrats have been ruling Detroit for decades and it hasn't been pretty. If you want to blame society go ahead and pontificate, but Democrats have been in charge and perhaps you should take a closer look at the local leaders first. You can invent as many "isms" as you want to try and explain away every problem. Maybe the problem with Detroit is......wait for it......Detroit.

The need a law for racial remarks where none are needed similar to Godwin's Law.


Godwins Law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law): "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."


Snipe's Law: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probablity that the Emp concludes that his opponents are racist approaches 1"

I do like your explanation on the decline of private educational options in Detroit and I am tempted to agree with it. I can only imagine how bad the government schools are in Detroit. Yet another failure of government.

[waggy]

You can invent as many "isms" as you want to try and explain away every problem.

I blame alchoholism.

[smileyy]

You took a shot at "the other" (that is, Detroit residents), which is what I called you out on -- it doesn't matter which "other" it is -- it doesn't do us any good.

[MADXSTER]

You took a shot at "the other" (that is, Detroit residents), which is what I called you out on -- it doesn't matter which "other" it is -- it doesn't do us any good.

Except if the "other" is Dayton. ;)

[Snipe]

You took a shot at "the other" (that is, Detroit residents), which is what I called you out on -- it doesn't matter which "other" it is -- it doesn't do us any good.

Good lord man, take a step back.

There are 6,824,500,000 people in the world according to current estimates.

There is 1 me.

That makes 6,824,499,999 people the other.

And screw all of them, which includes you brother.

Where was my shot on the other? For the record I said:


"It doesn't help that half the people in Detroit are functionally illiterate. It may have something to do with Detroit being run by Democrats for decades."

I would have you know that around half the people of Detroit are indeed functionally illiterate. If you want me to cite the source of that I will find it.

I think that fact is specifically related to the argument the Emp was making about the low circulation of the once proud Detroit Free Press. You see what I am doing there? I am saying half the people can't read the paper, and that might affect whether they buy the paper. It may be hard to be in the newspaper business when people don't know how to read. You get the point there? Am I taking a shot at "the other" for bringing that up, or are you just acting like a pompous self righteous moron?

And Democrats have been in charge for decades in Detroit and the city has gone into the shitter. You certainly can't blame Republicans. Maybe you can find a way to do even that. Who is to blame? Society? The Rich? The Evil Corporations? Republicans? Or the people of Detroit and their Democratic leadership?

Besides when you critisize me for taking a shot at the other, you are only attacking the other. I am the other too you know, and I am a sensitive new-age guy with feelings. Boo hoo.

Piss off until you can form something better than a namby-pamby wussified argument.

[kyxu]

And Democrats have been in charge for decades in Detroit and the city has gone into the shitter. You certainly can't blame Republicans. Maybe you can find a way to do even that. Who is to blame? Society? The Rich? The Evil Corporations? Republicans? Or the people of Detroit and their Democratic leadership?


The leadership may be Democratic, but their political affiliation is hardly the reason Detroit is in the shitter. Specifically, it is a city run by idiots who happen to also be Democrats.

[JimmyTwoTimes37]

Jordan Crawford Interview with Pacers Media

http://aggbot.com/docs/link.php?id=9611934&r=tw&c=204

[Snipe]

The leadership may be Democratic, but their political affiliation is hardly the reason Detroit is in the shitter. Specifically, it is a city run by idiots who happen to also be Democrats.

I am not so sure that I would not lay blame on Democrats. An analysis of voting patterns concluded that Detroit was the most liberal city in America. Link (http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/metro/081205libs.pdf)

I would also link to this classic by Steven Hayward:

Broken Cities - Liberalism’s urban legacy (http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3566302.html)

If cities in decline have been run by Democrats for generations, how can you not blame the Democrats or the Democratic party? Is this really just the people of Detroit? Is the Chicago corruption and political machine just the morons in Chicago? What about Cleve Land? Memphis? New Orleans? All just morons? The corruption and waste in these cities is legendary.

The last Republican mayor in Detroit was in 1962. Chicago hasn't had a Republican mayor since 1931. The last Republican Mayor in Cincinnati was in 1971. Cleveland has had two republican mayors since WWII.

Indianapolis, which is a relatively well run city, has had four Republican mayors and one Democrat since 1968.

I don't know how liberals can reconcile how badly liberal policies and Democrat rule have been when they have had a lockhold on power in many major American cities. Can you really just slough it off and say 'those guys are morons'? Half the people of Detroit are functionally illiterate and they can't bulldoze the vacant buildings fast enough. I think they have tens of thousands of vacant abandoned buildings. That is quite a statement about the people, and it is quite a statement about the people in charge.