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Associated Press writer on basketball stars with guns

An AP writer, dealing with professional basketball types who have guns, lets his feelings/bias flow.

""It's a pretty, I think, widely accepted statistic that if you carry a gun, your chances of being shot by one increase dramatically," Stern said earlier this week during his preseason conference call," runs one quote.

I would note in response that many studies have shown more than 94.5% of statistics are made up on the spot.

I have to admit that, while respecting the *right* in each case, I have a different visceral reaction to "NBA players carry guns on trips" and "NRA members carry guns on trips." I tend to associate the latter with firearms being carried by people who know how to use them, wouldn't use them outside of sport unless someone was advancing on them with a knife or attacking another decent citizen, and whose idea of getting wild is having a few drinks and telling war stories, rather than getting a snoot full of cocaine and figuring they're a deity and can break the law.

I guess we could solve the reporter's problems by making NBA players "prohibited persons" under the Gun Control Act (subject to provisions for restoring their rights after they retire). But maybe the sport and the reporter ought to look at a source of the problem, as his article notes:

"The NBA made it through the post-Jordan era in part by marketing itself to the hip-hop generation. It was edgy cool -- Allen Iverson with his checkered past and rebellious present, and high schoolers who thumbed their noses at tradition to become instant millionaires.

But then things started getting a little seamy. Kobe Bryant was accused of rape. The Americans looked more like spoiled brats than a Dream Team at the Athens Olympics. The Brawl at The Palace in the Detroit made fans wonder if they should fear for their safety at a game.

Edgy had gotten out of control, and the NBA has been working overtime to clean up its image."

Guess what? If you start marketing your sport (which is what was done, for the bucks), maybe the players will believe the marketing?

I love the closing quote: "After all, this is the NBA, not the NRA." Coming right after a description of a case where a team was out partying until 3 AM on the training night, and one faces a felony rap for firing five shots in the ceiling of a bar, I'm glad for that.

[Inside joke, refering "soccer hooligans" who riot -- "Camp Perry officials condemned "National Match hooligans" who muttered "Semper Fi" after a Marine competitor finished shooting. The officials stated that the muttering distracted other competitors and blasted it as "displaying a lack of the personal discipline we expect."

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