And in other news, a 2 time MLB All Star is convicted of attempted murder

I am not a media conspiracy theorist, but I saw two stories given, at best, equal treatment in the sports pages of several newspapers that annoyed me a little bit.

In one story, Michael Ray Richardson, a former NBA 4-time all star suspended from the league for numerous drug policy violations (like using them), who is now languishing as a coach in the NBA’s equivalent of the minor leagues (coaching the Albany Patroons)said the following:

“I’ve got big-time lawyers,” Richardson said, according to the Times Union. “I’ve got big-time Jew lawyers.”

When told by the reporters that the comment could be offensive to people because it plays to the stereotype that Jews are crafty and shrewd, he responded with, “Are you kidding me? They are. They’ve got the best security system in the world. Have you ever been to an airport in Tel Aviv? They’re real crafty. Listen, they are hated all over the world, so they’ve got to be crafty.”

And he continued, “They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean?” he said. “Which I think is great. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they’re run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they’re run by Jewish. It’s not a knock, but they are some crafty people.”

In other sports news, a two-time MLB All Star and one time World Series winner, Ugueth Urbina was convicted of attempted murder in Venezuela and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Let me first say that the comments by Richardson are ignorant, but still do not even reach the level of Tim Hardaway’s ode to prejudice concerning the John Amechi coming out story of last month. I thought the “Jew lawyer” comment was inappropriate, the use of crafty is somewhere on the Joe Biden-Barack Obama description level of stupidity and saying that Jews are hated all over the world I am sure would get agreement from many Jews. And then there’s the source, an ex-junkie, ex-NBA player. What is next: Today in New York the Knicks ball boy told the following joke: “What is the goal of Jewish football? To get the quarterback.” The League has suspended the ball boy indefinitely.

No one would really care. And I’m still not sure we can look to former drug addicts and 1970s NBA players for politically correct and insightful comments.

That said, anti-Semitism is real and bad, but I don’t think it required the coverage it was given, most significantly in the NY Daily News, concerning Richardson. Especially in light that its coverage, at least in that publication, dwarfed the coverage of a current baseball player (at the time of his arrest) and two time all star who was convicted of attempted murder. I was a little more interested in that.