“Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping youoff or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?” he said.”That’s the culture today, and in a free country we should have theright to move ourselves in a better direction.”
A new professional basketball league boasting rosters made upexclusively of white Americans has its eyes set on Augusta, but theteam isn’t receiving a warm welcome.
The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news releaseSunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in Juneand hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.
“Only players that are natural born United States citizens with bothparents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league,” thestatement said.
Augusta Mayor Deke Copenhaver, who has publicly expressed hissupport for minor league teams in the past, said he would not do thesame for this team.
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Don “Moose” Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league’s roster restrictions is not racism.
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’thate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens arein the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to playfundamental basketball, which they like.”
Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of”street-ball” played by “people of color.” He pointed out recentincidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspensionafter bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, asexamples of fans’ dissatisfaction with the way current professionalsports are run.