mikhail1973
07-16-2007, 08:35 PM
SLAM ONLINE | » An Open Letter to Andrew Bogut (http://slamonline.com/online/2007/07/an-open-letter-to-andrew-bogut/)
About a month ago, Andrew Bogut decided to share (http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/06/18/andrew-bogut-the-publics-image-of-nba-players-is-true/) some of his opinions with us regarding his perceptions of his fellow NBA players. His views were mostly made up of generalizations that reaffirmed some negative stereotypes of the league's culture. For the most part, the remarks were seen as one man's (unfortunate) opinions, and thus received only a small amount of attention from the media.
One person that did notice Bogut's comments, however, was SLAM columnist (http://slamonline.com/online/2007/07/an-open-letter-to-andrew-bogut/) (and occasionally effective NBA player) Etan Thomas. Etan had several issues with Bogut's remarks, including the fact that Bogut came across as an elitist and a hypocrite in some of his criticisms:
"I found it interesting that you said you were not perfect, and that you have admittedly bought yourself a nice car, some jewelry of your own, and that you didn't want to come across as arrogant, but that you also wanted to separate yourself from the image of most players. But, that's exactly how you came across: You exuded an overall elitist attitude. Your words showed that despite your desire in buying a nice car or jewelry, you viewed yourself as somewhat better than everyone else who does the exact same thing." Even though Etan Thomas has never been into the whole "brevity" thing, he does make some good points. If you can get past the tangential comments about the United States invading other countries, and the over-analyzation of certain phrases from Bogut's initial interview, it's definitely worth checking out the entire piece.
About a month ago, Andrew Bogut decided to share (http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/06/18/andrew-bogut-the-publics-image-of-nba-players-is-true/) some of his opinions with us regarding his perceptions of his fellow NBA players. His views were mostly made up of generalizations that reaffirmed some negative stereotypes of the league's culture. For the most part, the remarks were seen as one man's (unfortunate) opinions, and thus received only a small amount of attention from the media.
One person that did notice Bogut's comments, however, was SLAM columnist (http://slamonline.com/online/2007/07/an-open-letter-to-andrew-bogut/) (and occasionally effective NBA player) Etan Thomas. Etan had several issues with Bogut's remarks, including the fact that Bogut came across as an elitist and a hypocrite in some of his criticisms:
"I found it interesting that you said you were not perfect, and that you have admittedly bought yourself a nice car, some jewelry of your own, and that you didn't want to come across as arrogant, but that you also wanted to separate yourself from the image of most players. But, that's exactly how you came across: You exuded an overall elitist attitude. Your words showed that despite your desire in buying a nice car or jewelry, you viewed yourself as somewhat better than everyone else who does the exact same thing." Even though Etan Thomas has never been into the whole "brevity" thing, he does make some good points. If you can get past the tangential comments about the United States invading other countries, and the over-analyzation of certain phrases from Bogut's initial interview, it's definitely worth checking out the entire piece.