Nobody remembers this from 1999 NBA Finals?
JOHNSON, KNICKS CIRCLE WAGONS: GRUMPY LARRY STIRS THE POT
By George Willis
June 23, 1999 | 4:00am
It was hard to know just what Larry Johnson was thinking yesterday when he summed up the Knicks’ ability to constantly overcome adversity by saying, “We’ve got a lot of rebellious slaves on this team.”
It was easily one of the more bizarre characterizations of this Knick team thus far, and instantly raised a few eyebrows among the group of reporters who had cornered Johnson in the Garden before the Knick practiced yesterday.
Gritty, determined, surprising. Those are all buzzwords that have been used to described their rise to the NBA Finals against the Spurs.
Rebellious slaves? That was a new one.
When asked to elaborate, Johnson mumbled to the questioner: “I’ve got to explain that to you?” Then he proceeded to explain. “We don’t have a lot of mainstream,” he said of the Knicks. “We don’t go with the mainstream. We’re in a different stream on this team. We’ve got a lot of rebellious slaves. We don’t go along with the masses.”
This might have been passed off as Larry-speak had he not used the S-word. At times, the S-word can stir as much emotion as the N-word, especially in a professional sports league where the employees are 80 percent black and the owners are 100 percent white. The pay scale is lucrative but the dichotomy is the same.
Still, I doubt Johnson was making a social or economic statement. His choice of words is certainly regrettable. Millionaire basketball players aren’t slaves, rebellious or otherwise. They have what’s known as a collective-bargaining agreement. If black athletes ever pooled their finances and other resources, black players would soon be black owners.
http://nypost.com/1999/06/23/johnson-knicks-circle-wagons-grumpy-larry-stirs-the-pot/