A promotional television advertisement has outraged several black American former stars of the National Basketball League (NBL) who said a scene featuring a black player hopping into bed with a white couple is insensitive and racist.
The commercial shows a series of Australian basketball players throwing a ball around a suburban house. Near the end, Sydney Kings forward Taj McCullough, who is black American, leaps onto a white couple’s bed and nuzzles up to the woman. McCullough is the only black player featured in the commercial.
Former Melbourne Tigers player Darryl McDonald slammed the commercial.
“It puts black Americans in a bad light,” McDonald, who is also black American, told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “That commercial has nothing to do with basketball. Nobody else would present their sport this way.”
Cal Bruton and Leroy Loggins, black Americans who became naturalized Australians after starring in Australia’s domestic league in the 1980s with the now defunct Brisbane Bullets, were both highly critical of the concept of the advertisement.
Bruton said it was particularly insensitive because it calls to mind the case of former Brisbane Bullets player Bryant Matthews.
Matthews, a black American, was convicted in 2007 of raping a white woman who was in bed with her partner at the time of the attack.
Although Bruton was hesitant to dub the spot overtly racist, he did say it was in “poor taste.”
“To be portrayed in that light, to me, just was a little bit below the belt,” Bruton said yesterday.
“You wouldn’t ever see an ad like that of Kobe Bryant jumping into bed in America,” he said.
Loggins, who played for Australia at the 1992 Olympics, said the depiction in the ad was off-key.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Loggins said. “Why would you show a black American jumping into bed with a man’s wife to promote basketball? I don’t even know how someone could think up a commercial like that. You would never see any other sport in the world, that takes themselves seriously, portraying a black athlete that way.”
The Ten Network has been airing the commercial for the past two weeks. Ten’s head of sports marketing, Sam Heard, said yesterday there were no plans to pull the ad.
An NBL spokesman said the league would issue a statement on the controversy later yesterday.
Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen yesterday exited at the BWF World Tour Finals in China, losing in the semi-finals to China’s world No. 1 Shi Yuqi. Shi, who was named the BWF Men’s Singles Player of the Year, had a 9-4 record against Chou going into the match. He extended that record to 9-5 with a 21-14, 21-18 victory. Chou advanced to the men’s singles semi-finals on Friday by upsetting top-seeded Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a must-win match at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium. The 16-21, 21-18, 21-15 victory saw Chou secure his second semi-finals appearance at the tournament, despite his relatively older
‘REMARKABLE’: Gaelic football is a traditional Irish sport that blends the skills of soccer and rugby, and hurling is an ancient sport played with a wooden stick and ‘sliotar’ The Taiwan Celts Gaelic Football Club marked a milestone achievement at the Asian Gaelic Games in Bangkok on Nov. 23 and 24, with two sides advancing to the knockout stages and competing at hurling for the first time. The event brought together 68 teams from 16 clubs across Asia, with more than 800 players in men’s and women’s tournaments. Gaelic football is a traditional Irish team sport that blends the skills of soccer, rugby union and basketball. Hurling is an ancient Irish sport played with a wooden stick, called a hurley, and a small ball, or sliotar. The Taiwan Celts’ women’s team reached
LIVERPOOL WIN: The 50th Champions League goal by Mohamed Salah helped the leaders of the Premier League to keep their perfect record intact Real Madrid’s big stars on Tuesday turned on the style to revive the Spanish giant’s faltering UEFA Champions League title defense. Galacticos Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham all scored in a thrilling 3-2 win against Serie A leaders Atalanta BC. However, Madrid still had to ride their luck as Mateo Retegui fired over from in front of goal in stoppage-time when handed a golden chance to level the game. It was only Madrid’s third win in the competition’s revamped league phase and leaves the 15-time champions in the unseeded playoff positions in 18th place. “It’s a very important win. Not everyone wins
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest chess world champion on Thursday after beating the defending champion Ding Liren of China in the final match of their series in Singapore. Dommaraju, 18, secured 7.5 points against 6.5 of his Chinese rival in the contest, surpassing the achievement of Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who won the title at the age of 22. The Indian teen prodigy has long been considered a rising star in the chess world after he became a chess grandmaster at 12. He had entered the match as the youngest-ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier
RSS