Friday, September 19

Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban's Response to Josh Howard's Star Spangled Disrespect

On his Blog, Mark Cuban had this to say about Josh Howard's comments:

"I wanted to thank all of you who took the time to email me with your comments on how best to deal with Josh. They were so good, I thought I would share a few of them with everyone. Including the email addresses of those who were bold enough to use real email addresses.

Josh realizes his comments were wrong, he understands why people are upset. He knows he has made a mistake, has apologized and will work with us . Beyond that, its a private issue."
Cuban then goes on to display a bunch of emails he received from outraged people. At first glance the Cuban response is flippant, but after reading the emails, it's easy to understand why. Many of them are down right hateful, and would give credence to Howard's stance. If Howard's comments were truthful, it's a shame, because thousands of Black men and women have died defending this country. If for no other reason, Howard should take pride in honoring them, but so should the thousands of other young men and women of all colors who send text messages, think they're too cool to remove their hats, or continue their conversations during the anthem. As an athlete that hears it at least 80 times a year, the anthem may become dull and meaningless to Josh, but those men and women that served and died, they gave their lives so that young men like Josh could have a life where the Star Spangled Banner becomes pedestrian, rather than the long hours of hard labor. Based on the actions of other people in the video, Josh is not alone in his sentiment, just the only one opening his mouth to say as much, a problem he's had before. You can read Cuban's original post and all the hateful e-mails here. You can see the full length video of Howard's comments here.

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