Ime Be Enough?

What should we make of the Spurs signing SG/SF Ime Udoka (pronounced EE-may you-DOE-kuh)?

Blazers fans aren't happy about it. Spurs fans are generally pleased.

It wasn't an impulse buy -- RC Buford called Udoka's agent as soon as NBA rules allowed, so you know it was in the works for awhile. (I know, I know, like the Spurs ever make impulse buys.)

Udoka's work ethic and defensive abilities have drawn comparisons to Bruce Bowen, which Udoka appreciates.

"[Bowen] keeps the game simple and is known as one of best perimeter defenders," Udoka said. "That's what I am: a hard worker who takes challenges against the top scorers. That's what I did every night in Portland."

"I just want to come in and work hard and learn from great teammates like Bruce. I understand defense is a team thing, and they're one of top defensive teams in the league. It has been an honor to be compared with great defenders like Bruce and Mario Elie. I definitely don't try to be something I'm not."

"Overall," Udoka said, "I think I have a style of play that I can come in and fit well with what they do. I'm not a young guy, but a guy who started every game (last season), and now can come off the bench and, hopefully there is not a dropoff.

"I'm a thinking player, so I think I can pick up their system. I can defend and shoot the ball. It was a privilege for them to contact me the first day of free agency. It showed they really were interested in me."

And our friend, Matthew Powell, likes the acquisition, but raises an important question: have the Spurs improved?

How could you not approve of paying a little over $2 million for two years of service for a guy that can hit the corner three (40.6% last year from three) and, if you believe the general consensus, defend.

While the signing of Udoka makes the Spurs better than they were a week ago, it falls short of satisfying what should be every team's goal every off season: improve from June to June.

"THIS MESS"

No, not the mess that is the NBA referee gambling crisis (sadly, Donaghy's last game was reffing Game 3 of the Spurs-Suns, and NO, that doesn't mean the Spurs didn't win that series... sorry you embittered Suns fans, but NBA ref conspiracies involve a long line of legitimate complaints, so take a number and get to the back of a very, very long line).

No, not the mess that is the NBA ref crisis with Joey "HEY, You Wanna Fight?" Crawford (also sadly involving our Spurs).

The mess that is the theft, the "hijacking of BlackAmerican culture" by greedy corporate sponsors pushing thugs and punks as role models. You know its true, Spurs fans...

One writer (African American too) describes how it has happened as:

"the misguided notion that the only way to appeal to the young demographic of the sneaker-buying public is to adopt the negative attitudes of the thug life popularized by black gangster rappers. It is all part of the systematic hijacking of the Black American culture. And the worst part is, too many of us just let it happen. We let it happen by passively condoning this mess.

The minute we started embracing the images of Allen Iverson as the edgy iconoclast, but sniffed our noses at a straight arrow like David Robinson as “too soft” and lacking in “street cred,” we helped fuel this mess. We fueled it every time we sanctioned the repeat violations of stupidity by Vick and all the other new athletic minstrels every time they stumbled and we accepted their sorry alibis."

ELOQUENT ARTICLE HERE

David Robinson is my personal hero and has been for decades. I love the man. I shook when I met him, in awe of his incredibly powerful presence, when he chose to sign autographs, amid loud/drunk hecklers in LA as the Spurs were getting swept in the WCF in 2001. David Robinson radiates class, power, dignity, sophistication, and soul... as no one else I've ever met.

Its sad Michael Vick has that level of talent but nowhere near that much soul.

Athletes should build Carver Academies, not federally criminal dogfighting operations.