Newspaper Page Text
Monday, March 30, 1998
THE MAROON TIGER
PAGE 15
SPORTS
: - . .' ■ ■ ■ ■
Mason's Future Hazy after Rape Accusation
By Johnathan Howard
Asssociate A&E Editor
Latrell Sprewell is banned
for sixty-eight games. Patrick
Ewing breaks his wrist. It's
Michael Jordan's last go-
round. 2-Ball replaces the
Dunk Contest. Now, Anthony
Mason, current Charlotte
Hornet and former New York
Knick, is charged with rape.
This NBA year is one for the
history books.
This is far from the first
time "Mase" and the
authorities have crossed paths.
His escapades as a Knick are
nigh legendary. For example,
there were arrests for
hundreds of dollars in unpaid
parking tickets, charges of
punching out a patron in a
N.Y. bar, and the list goes on.
That Mason got into trouble
upon a return to New York
isn't totally shocking. What's
shocking are the details of the
accusation.
Apparently, Mason was
riding around Queens, NY,
with two underage girls in the
back of a limousine. No, wait.
Underage is too light a word.
These girls were 14 and 15-
y.ear-old sisters, -barely
pubescent, hardly legal. The
explanation for the event is
that Mason and the girls were
"driving around," according
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/ 'what does
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Lerone Bennett Julian Bond
Robert Johnson Howard Thurman
Charles Willie
HAVE IN COMMON?
They Are All Former Maroon Tiger Writers.
to Mason's agent. A week or
two later, Mason is charged
with rape and his face is
plastered all over the papers.
He now awaits the results of a
March 9 court date where he
gave a blood sample. If DNA
evidence matches Mason to
the girls, he will undoubtedly
face some serious jail time.
Two questions come to
mind in this situation. The
first is: What the hell was
Anthony Mason thinking?
What is a 26 or 27-year-old
man doing having sex with
adolescents? And if the
charges are false (and let's
pray that they are), why was
he riding around with these
two girls anyway? Everybody
is out to make a dollar these
days. I know Mason has
always been one to remember
where he came from, but
sometimes you have to be
careful of who you're with.
Not everyone has his best
interests at heart (see Wyclef's
"Words of Wisdom.")
The second question is:
What now? For fans he was
an inspiration; the hard road
player who fought his way to
the NBA, while taking stops in
the CBA and even Turkey.
Mason blossomed into a "Poor
man's Scottie Pippen." Mase
was the first point forward on
the East Coast since Larry Bird.
His selfless play was rewarded
with a fat contract extension
from his current team, the
AP
Mason's brushes with the
law extend far beyond the
current rape charges against
him.
Charlotte Hornets. Innocent
or guilty, what happens to all
of this? Regardless, he'll
probably lose fans and gain
critics. Mason denies the
charges, and his legal team
portrays him as the victim.
When this is all over, Anthony
Mason won't forget this brick
for a long time.
The Last Shot
It's All About the Benjamins:
Salaries in Pro Sports
By Brian L. Thompson
Editor-In-Chief
Do you realize that in the time it takes me to write this article,
there's a basketball player sitting on a bench making more money
than I'm likely to see during my lifetime?
If I offered to write articles for a magazine but demanded
that they pay me $200 million over seven years, which do you
think I would get first: a strait jacket, a urine test, or thrown out
of the building?
Here's the funniest thing about it: the athletes do whatever
they want and get away with it. Half of the NBA players get
drunk and high and their punishments are the equivalents of
"Go to bed without dessert." Of course, testing positive for
cocaine is out of the question. Choking a coach and threatening
to kill him will buy you a 68-game suspension and lose you a
few million. But if a player spits in another player's face, it's all
good.
Baseball is no different. Albert Belle once corked his bat
(like he needed to) and gave Fernando Vina a Lex Luger-like
forearm shot that likely had Vina looking for a three-count pin.
Roberto Alomar has made spittle a household word. Yet both
these men combined make more than a few Major League teams.
Even in hockey, which black folks are actually starting to
play, is getting bad. What has the world come to when a Native
American is throwing racial epithets at a Black man?
Now as for the NBA, the owners do have the collective
bargaining agreement. It'll be reopened at the end of the season
to put a ceiling on the skyrocketing player salaries and place
marijuana on the list of drugs the NBA won't tolerate. Since the
players want a load of money and believe they have the right to
do whatever the hell they want, they'll threaten to walk out.
Being the type of people that they are, the owners might let them.
Even if this is not the case, if the issues are not resolved in a few
months, there will be a lockout. Game, set, match. We have no
NBA season.
Whatever happened to the Tony Gwynn's and the Cal
Ripken's of the world? It used to be all about the love of the
game. These men have played for the same teams their entire
careers. Cal Ripken has played for over thirteen years without
missing a game while Tony Gwynn strikes out about the same
amount of times per season that Morehouse wins football games.
It's about baseball for these men. Yet Deion Sanders, who bats
about as good as he tackles, clamors for a bigger salary.
No one likes to lose. But if you're Rony Seikaly and traded
to a team one piece away from making the NBA Finals (Utah),
why do you accept a trade from a team a few years removed
from the NBA Finals (New Jersey)? Locale? New Jersey is not
the best place on earth but at least there are more than five black
people living there. Hell, give me the league minimum (around
a modest $272,000) to play for Utah (ugh) and I'll go out there
and actually give a damn every night. And if I were traded to a
team like Toronto, I'd be a cold brother with about half my salary
eaten up by taxes but I'd shut up and play my butt off every
night. Why, you ask?
For the love. Not just for the Benjamins.
