Several weeks ago, Clippers’ forward Montrezl Harrell was in the spotlight for calling Luka Doncic a ‘b*tch a** whiteboy’ in the playoffs, with a lot of people calling Trez out for being racist.
Harrell even apologized to Luka before the start of their next game after countless pundits and people on social media criticized him for his choice of words.
However, JJ Redick recently said on Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson’s All The Smoke that he actually thinks it was hilarious because it’s something that’s really normal in basketball environments since players are teenagers and that there’s no such thing as reverse racism:
“Look, when you play competitive basketball, and you go back to AAU when I was 12 years old – I’m a white guy playing a black guy sport. That’s just reality. There’s nothing racist about that. The majority of great players in the NBA are black (…) I was one of the few white guys in my AAU team. Being called a b*tch a** whiteboy is something I’ve heard since I was like 12 or 13. I laughed when Montrezl said it, I thought it was hilarious. But I also get we are in a time right now where everything is exposed and every little thing that’s said is just so raw and the emotions are so high. So, if you take that timing I don’t think is that big of a deal but I understood the reactions to it (…) but I just don’ think there’s reverse racism, I just don’t think that exists,” Redick said.
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1312086438213754884
Then again, we understand where people come from. If it was Doncic the one who said that, his NBA career would have been over. Just like that, with no second chance.
We’re living in sensitive times and there’s just no room for hate in sports but sometimes we should try and look at the full context before jumping to judgments.
