NCAA Coach Won Championship but Lost Trust & This Week in Bad Celebrity Logic
Michael Cooper Inducted in Basketball Hall of Fame, Bethenny Frankel Says NYC Too Violent, MTG Says Eclipse & Earthquake Are God's Warning to Repent, What I'm Watching, Queen Sings "Bohemian Rhapsody"
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Everyone talks about “communicating,” but who knows how to do that effectively?
Michael Cooper Inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame: My former teammate and close friend deserves every accolade he gets.
This NCAA Hoops Coach Might Be Violating Her Players’ Religious Freedom: No one wants teachers telling students what to believe, why should we allow coaches to push their faith on students?
Kareem’s Video Break: Never has a ride on the subway been this entertaining.
Bethenny Frankel Says Seinfeld Was ‘Wrong’ About NYC After Getting Punched: She claims NYC is more dangerous than ever, even though statistics say the opposite.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Solar Eclipse Post Gets Brutal Fact-Check: If I said almost anything she says, I’d be too embarrassed to show my face. The fact that she isn’t, tells us everything.
Roseanne Barr warns of baby blood-drinking Democrats in bizarre communiqué from Mar-a-Lago: I’m all for holding celebs accountable for misinformation, but in this case, there may be mental health issues involved.
What I’m Watching—Movies: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is a fun and entertaining day at the movies. Wonderful effects.
What I’m Watching—TV: 3 Body Problem is a clever and complex sci-fi thriller about an impending alien invasion.
Queen sings “Bohemian Rhapsody”: Six minutes of one of the most creative, original, and fun songs in rock history.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Cool Hand Luke
Back in the 1960s, everyone from self-help authors to relationship experts was preaching the gospel of “communication.” Divisiveness between couples, family, work colleagues, races, religions, and political parties could all be resolved by better communication. Just sit down and talk.
Today, this buzzword is still being offered up as the cure-all for any conflict. The problem is that there is an art and skill to the process of better communication, and most people advocating its curative effects really don’t know the intricacies of how to communicate.
Most people believe that communicating means both sides of a disagreement share their opinions and somehow the disagreement will dissolve under the sudden shared understanding. Or they think it means spouting their opinion, which is the correct one by them being rich or in power.
The quote is from one of my favorite movies, Cool Hand Luke, in which a prisoner (Paul Newman) keeps trying to escape the chain-gang prison he’s been sentenced to for drunkenly cutting off the heads of parking meters. Luke’s unwillingness to accept his fate, as determined by corrupt bosses, leads him to not only keep escaping but turn him into a Christ-like symbol of freedom to the other prisoners. The warden (Strother Martin) utters this famous line after striking Luke for mouthing off. The line is meant to parody the use of the phrase at the time by the powerful who pretended they were listening to the people but were in fact ignoring them.
The warden is putting on a show of “communicating” with the prisoners, but if anyone expresses a different opinion, they get punished. True communication isn’t just about having an opinion, it’s about being able to support an opinion with facts, statistics, experts, and logic. Yes, we need to understand another person’s biases, but we are not obligated to accept them. Neither should we be defensive about our own biases. Communication means approaching each other with respect as individuals and then analyzing what is being communicated, not to justify the prejudices of lazy thinking, but to discover a truth. Listening to what the other person is saying is crucial, but so is listening to what you’re saying—and recognizing when it is not worth defending.
For communication to be effective, both parties must value truth over ego. Otherwise, no matter how many words they use, they’ve got failure to communicate.
Michael Cooper Inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame (NBA)
SUMMARY: Michael Cooper has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, class of 2024.
Cooper was named to eight NBA All-Defensive Teams, taking home First-Team accolades five times and winning Defensive Player of the Year honors in 1987. The former third-round draft pick (60th overall) out of the University of New Mexico spent his entire 12-year NBA career (1978-90) with the Los Angeles Lakers, winning five championships while routinely matching up with the opponent’s top shooter.
The 6-foot-5 forward largely played as a sixth man and in addition to his defense was known for his knee-high socks and being on the receiving end of alley-oops from Magic Johnson. The Pasadena native played in more than 80 games in nine of his 12 seasons.
Following his playing career, Cooper entered the coaching ranks and earned WNBA Coach of the Year accolades in 2000 with the Los Angeles Sparks before winning back-to-back WNBA titles in 2001-02.
MY TAKE: I’m starting today’s newsletter, not with a controversial article sure to provoke outrage, but with an appreciation for and congratulations to my former teammate, and still very good friend Michael Cooper. Coop was the kind of player I always knew I could count on. I’m sure he had some bad games—we all do—but I can’t remember any. When I think of Coop on the court, I picture him slapping the ball away from another player or soaring through the air for a dunk. When I think of Coop off the court, I picture one of the funniest and most energetic people I know.
This NCAA Hoops Coach Might Be Violating Her Players’ Religious Freedom (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: After the University of South Carolina’s women’s basketball team beat Oregon State on Easter Sunday to secure their fourth straight trip to the Final Four and continue their undefeated season, Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley gave an on-court interview to ESPN’s Holly Rowe while her players showered her with confetti. “If you don’t believe in God,” Staley said, “something’s wrong with you.”
Later, in the post-game press conference, she added, “He is Risen.” By “He,” Staley meant “Jesus Christ,” the God she has credited throughout the years for her team’s many successes. But there was something about her statements this time that seemed to hit a different chord, particularly Staley’s phrasing that there was “something wrong” with people who don’t believe in a higher power of some kind, though in Black American vernacular that phrase is often not used literally.
It’s not uncommon to hear athletes or coaches thank God after winning a game or a championship. But as an employee of a public educational institution, there is a fine line between a coach expressing their personal religious beliefs and venturing into advocacy and violating students’ First Amendment rights. Staley has toed that line for years—and, according to some people, has blatantly crossed it.
“She may have coaching skills that are exceptional, but her understanding of freedom of conscience is exceptionally bad. Her understanding of the law is exceptionally bad,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), tells The Daily Beast. “She appears to have no boundaries when it comes to pushing religion on a captive audience of students dying to please her.”
MY TAKE: There is no denying that Dawn Staley is one of the best coaches in history. I couldn’t admire her ability more. She deserves to be praised for her coaching ability. She is one of the main reasons women’s basketball is prospering. However…
My UCLA coach John Wooden was a deeply religious man whose dominant philosophy of coaching was to turn out good men as well as good players. He was my coach, mentor, and close friend for more than 50 years and one of the few people I’ve ever met who practiced what he preached. Though it was clear he was a devout Christian, he didn’t push his beliefs on his team. He taught us his values through his example and we all became better men because of that.
There’s a disturbing trend among high school and college coaches to assume the roles of both pastor and coach for students. They seem to believe that they have the authority to not just teach sports but also to preach religion. They believe that being smart in their jobs translates to them also being smart about social and political issues. That’s not smart, it’s arrogant. It’s pride. Perhaps their faith has helped make them successful and therefore believe their faith will help the students be successful. Like being on a particular diet helped them lose weight so it will help others. It doesn’t work that way. The benefits of faith can be discipline, ambition, and teamwork. But a student can learn those qualities in other ways that have nothing to do with religion. Or they can learn them from religions other than that of the coach.
The coach pushing her religion on the players, under the approval of the school, is state-sponsored religion. That’s unconstitutional. It’s also dictatorial: those who don’t share her beliefs are forced to feel marginalized by an authority figure. Instead, be the person you want them to be and let them choose their path. No prayer huddles. No group God talk.
This has to stop. If schools won’t protect their students from this sort of illegal and certainly immoral behavior, then let the lawsuits flow. Winning games is very lucrative for schools, but they don’t exist to support sports programs, they exist to teach students. No teacher or coach is above that mandate. We don’t want teachers preaching their political beliefs as gospel in the classroom, nor should it be allowed in sports.
Kareem’s Video Break
I used to ride the New York City subways a lot as a kid. I never saw anything as entertaining as this. There’s something very exciting and hopeful about spontaneous displays of talent like this.
The video makes you want to dance. The newsletter makes you want to share.
This Week in Celebrity Logic Check
Our periodicals and social media feeds are overflowing with celebrity opinions. Every day, dozens of celebrities tell us what they think about other celebrities, popular culture, and politics. I’m one of those celebrities. Celebrity opinions can seriously impact society. Because our words and actions can carry some weight in affecting public opinion, it’s important that they speak responsibly, which means knowing the facts and using logic.
I sometimes wish that news programs had some sort of Celebrity Logician whose sole job was to point out the critical thinking flaws every time one of us pontificates an opinion. (My readers do that for me and I love them for it.) Until then, here are some flawed celebrity opinions this week:
Bethenny Frankel Says Seinfeld Was ‘Wrong’ About NYC After Getting Punched (The Daily Beast)
SUMMARY: Bethenny Frankel recently spoke out about being a victim of the string of random punching incidents that have plagued women in New York City, saying she was too “embarrassed” to disclose the incident when it originally happened. Now, she’s opened up about the experience on Dana Carvey and David Spade’s Superfly podcast, saying she’s convinced New York City has changed for the worse.
…“I walked in and it was this tiny place that had all these different kinds of desserts that I was interested in, and I took my phone out to take a picture of them,” she continued. “I turned around and a guy, just as I was walking out the door, just whacked me in the face.”
The Bravo star said the experience colored her already wobbly opinion of the city. “It is a whole macro situation,” she explained on the podcast, “because if I go there and then I text the realtor, ‘Screw this, I don’t wanna live here, this place is nuts,’ because I identify the entire place with that experience.”
Frankel said she foresees the punching trend having big consequences for New York’s economy. “I go to a normal drug store and things are in cages,” she said, referring to items that are locked up behind clear cases in stores like Rite Aid or CVS—a common practice across the country in light of increasing retail theft. “It’s going to affect the real estate market and the economy, and then it’s really going to be a circular reference of ‘New York Doom,’” she continued.
She then referenced Jerry Seinfeld’s 2020 New York Times op-ed in which he fought back against a writer’s claim that New York is dead, as people fled the city en masse during the pandemic. Frankel said her recent experience taught her that Seinfeld was wrong.
“Some guy wrote an article during the pandemic about crime, Seinfeld pushed back on it,” she said on the podcast. “It’s been a discussion and there’s been a defensiveness about it, because New Yorkers wanna gaslight and pretend it’s not actually happening and close their eyes and pretend they’re not seeing it.”
“Jerry Seinfeld, I hate to say, ’cause I love him and I know you guys love him, but he was wrong,” she said, adding that New York has “kind of not been great” since 2020. “When I’m in a drug store, my shoulders are up—like any human that’s near me, I feel like they’re gonna do something to me in the city.”
MY TAKE: Frankel’s horrific experience has made her rightfully wary. She said the punching trend will have big economic consequences for New York City. Possibly, but doubtful. These violent trends—like thugs randomly hitting strangers with a “Superman punch” on the streets a couple of years ago—come and go. They are not to be treated lightly, nor are they signs of the Apocalypse. Frankel is like someone whose home has been burglarized and now doesn’t feel safe in their home anymore. Legitimate emotion, but not necessarily indicative of an actual threat of mass burglaries.
Though I understand her feelings, she still has a responsibility to not sound the alarm of lawlessness in NYC simply because it’s now her anecdotal perception. We know that people believe crime is worse than it is because crime is sensationalist and is reported steadily on the news (“Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don't believe it”). According to Jeff Asher, a crime analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics, “At some point in 2022 — at the end of 2022 or through 2023 — there was just a tipping point where violence started to fall and it just continued to fall.” Yet, a Gallup poll from November 2023 showed that 77% of Americans believed crime increased.
What are the facts? According to NYC, crime is down (“NYC officials announce city crime 'continues to trend downward'”). According to the city:
Murder is down 17.2%, rape is down 3.7%, burglary is down 13.8%, grand larceny is down 2% and grand larceny auto is down 9.7% this first quarter of 2024 compared to the same time period in 2023.
Even though there have been highly publicized attacks on subways, crime in the transit system is down 23% in March, in part because of the influx of a thousand officers.
Unless Frankel has statistics or any proof that suggests otherwise, she is spreading misinformation about the city that could have a negative economic impact on tourism. She should know better than saying it—we should know better than to listen.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's Solar Eclipse Post Gets Brutal Fact-Check (Newsweek)
SUMMARY: Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, was fact-checked on her social media post on Friday about the upcoming solar eclipse.
The total solar eclipse, which is when the moon completely passes over the sun creating darkness during daylight hours, will be observed in North America on Monday. The eclipse's path will move across Mexico, parts of the United States, and a small part of eastern Canada. The total eclipse will last up to 4 minutes and 28 seconds in some areas.
Greene wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, "God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens."
The congresswoman's post then got hit with a community note, which is a small blurb below a post that gives readers added context and typically disputes the X user's claims.
"Earthquakes happen all the time, all around the world," the community note read. "Eclipses are not random, they follow strict mathematical rules and can be predicted centuries before they happen. NASA has a site listing eclipses until the year 3000."
RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene pushes unfounded 'blackmail' conspiracy about Speaker Mike Johnson (MSNBC)
SUMMARY: Mike Johnson didn’t vote the way Greene wanted so she did an interview with Tucker Carlson during which she suggested that the only reason for his vote was he was being “blackmailed.” In February, when three Republicans voted against impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, right-wing activist Charlie Kirk suggested to Greene that maybe they, like some Republicans who’d been blackmailed with “naked pictures” of them with “underage girls,” might also have been “compromised.”
Green agreed: “You know, I have no proof of that but, again, I can’t understand the vote. So, nothing surprises me in Washington, D.C., anymore, Charlie. Literally, nothing surprises me because it doesn’t make sense to anyone, right? Why would anyone vote no? Why would anyone protect Mayorkas, unless they’re being bribed, unless there’s something going on, unless they’re making a deal, because you can’t understand it.”
MY TAKE: Yes, this is low-hanging fruit. Someone as intellectually compromised as Greene will throw accusations around without any proof, regardless of the damage it does to others. Ironically, Greene and Kirk both consider themselves devout Christians who don’t see a contradiction in their faith and in making unfounded accusations. Hypocrisy doesn’t bother them because they are certain their followers won’t notice. The disturbing thing is that they are probably right. The more dumb things they say, the more their influence grows.
More troubling is that the statements Greene made about earthquakes and eclipses as being signs from God to repent are so ridiculous that even middle schoolers would reject them. Yet, she is so far gone mentally that she doesn’t recognize how crazy they are. And still, she’s having a major influence in Congress. It’s a perverted form of the American Dream when the least educated (she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, yet still doesn’t understand how eclipses work) and least logical thinking person in the room can still be elected into Congress where they can hinder any real progress.
Roseanne Barr warns of baby blood-drinking Democrats in bizarre communiqué from Mar-a-Lago (Salon)
SUMMARY: Roseanne Barr was front and center at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser for Kari Lake’s Arizona Senate campaign this week, and took it upon herself to deliver a terrifying warning to college students via a strange video where she urges them to drop out, or find their lives ruined at the hands of Democrats.
In the clip, Barr holds what looks to be a glass of white wine, praising Trump's DJ skills before beginning her horrific communiqué amidst the Republican revelry.
“How’re you doing? I’m here at Mar-a-Lago supporting Kari Lake,” says Barr, sounding a bit buzzed. "And it was a fantastic evening and our Trump is here, being the DJ, and I’ve just danced and everyone’s amazed."
Here comes the twist.
"So I’m just going to say to you, please drop out of college, because it’s going to ruin your liiiiiives,” Barr continued. “Do me a favor, drop out, they don’t teach you nothing good, uh, email me or Twitter me or whatever you call me, and I’ll help you with your life, but you gotta get out of college, because it isn’t nothing but a bunch of devil-worshipping, baby blood-drinking, Democrat donors.”
MY TAKE: Roseanne Barr starred in and had a lot creative input into Roseanne (1988-1997), one of the best and most innovative sit-coms in history. That achievement must be respected. But lately, she has said a lot that is neither funny, reasonable, nor factual. It’s more like granny-in-the-attic rantings. For example, Barr did not attend college so her warning against attending would have to come from some other source of information, which she never gives. Her admonishment that college “isn’t nothing but a bunch of devil-worshipping, baby blood-drinking, Democrat donors” is especially odd since that is exactly what has traditionally been said about Jews, which is her family background (her great-grandparents were victims of the Holocaust). Even as comic hyperbole it’s bad.
This situation is tricky because of the nature of what Barr said and how she said it seems to indicate someone with mental health issues rather than a spokesperson for a political cause. I’m more sympathetic to her health issues rather than wanting to address what she says with any seriousness. It’s tawdry that Trump’s people were so desperate for a celebrity endorsement that they would exploit her this way.
I’m sure Barr would disagree with my armchair assessment and she would be right to question my authority for making such a conclusion about her. I’m not a professional. But I’m erring on the side of wanting her legacy to be her great achievements in comedy and not the incoherent ramblings of loathsome ideas.
I’m for just ignoring her. Yes, she’s a celebrity, but those who would be influenced by what she says are too far gone to matter. Let’s let her rant in obscurity.
What I’m Watching
Movies: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
If you don’t think too much about the plot involving a lost civilization, a Chosen One, and Godzilla traveling around the world to recharge his batteries, you will enjoy the non-stop action that is what Saturday matinees are all about. There are some nice character touches with Kong and a young protégé, along with a villainous ape and his gang out to destroy Kong. Godzilla is still a rampaging beast who kills by the thousands. The effects are startlingly good. You go to a Godzilla/Kong movie for amazing battles and this movie delivers more than you’d expect.
TV: 3 Body Problem
This complex sci-fi series from the producers of Game of Thrones is a bit more cerebral than GOT but is every bit as compelling. Adapted from a Hugo Award-winning novel by Liu Cixin, the story follows a group of scientists and government agents discovering that there is alien life out there—and they’re on their way to conquer Earth.
Like GOT, the series is ruthless in killing off characters, but it’s more clever and mind-challenging. The heroes here don’t fight dragons, but they wrestle with ideas and concepts. There is also plenty of action as one group of people works with the aliens to assassinate major scientists who might threaten them. I hope there are more seasons because this first one was truly engaging and thought-provoking.
Kareem’s Jukebox Playlist
Queen: “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975)
Last week it was classical music, and this week it’s classic rock. Critics have called “Bohemian Rhapsody” one of the greatest rock songs of all time. I agree.
What I like about this song is the creativity and courage it took to write and record it. It’s whimsical, it’s funny, it’s catchy, and it’s great fun to listen to. It’s part ballad, part opera, part hard rock, and part other musical genres. A grotesque yet gorgeous hybrid like a mythological animal coming to life. Although the song wasn’t recorded until 1975, singer Freddie Mercury had begun working on it in the late sixties. It took three weeks to record, with band members singing their parts for 10 to 12 hours a day. It broke all the rules of songwriting and still was able to find an enthusiastic audience.
It’s six minutes long, but what an entertaining and unforgettable six minutes. It’s an ode to originality and daring in art.
On Dawn Staley. First, if higher powers intervened to help her win, then these same higher powers helped other teams lose. I don't want my spiritual boss to get involved in deciding outcomes of sports events either; and if my god does pick sides, I would switch faiths. Second, with all the horrors and wars, why isn't god intervening in things like Ukraine or the Mideast wars?
Please cite the source of the crime statistics. Is it based on indictments or is it based on raw police reporting. For example if a criminal commits a felony, like armed robbery, but he is indicted for a lesser crime then the statistic becomes questionable. If a criminal commits a crime, and the sergeant in charge orders his officers to change the charges, how does that get recorded into the raw stats. These questions may help to elucidate the state of our cities. When old people are afraid to ride the subways it calls into question what is really happening under ground and on the streets of NYC. Transparency is the key to perception. And right now, due to skepticism about media sources, most citizens are wondering about what is real and what is perception .