I wish Nash just kept his liberal pie-hole to himself. It's actually damaged his reputation from both sides of the spectrum.
He's a
foreigner who has no business meddling with an age old
American dilemma, not to mention seems ungrateful for enjoying the "American Dream," while
REAL Americans are suffering!
Your gonna love this piece of work!
http://www.examiner.com/x-19823-PostPartisan-Examiner~y2010m5d5-Los-Suns-Steve-Nash-overrated-uninformed-Canadian-point-guard-slams-Arizona-immigration-law
Los Suns: Steve Nash, overrated Canadian point guard, slams Arizona immigration law</font>
May 5, 5:07 PM
Post-Partisan Examiner
D.K. Jamaal
The past decade marked the
end of the NBA's Jordan era. Winners of the NBA MVP award over the past decade, in order?
Shaq, AI, Tim Duncan (twice consecutively), Kevin Garnett,
Steve Nash (twice consecutively), Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe, LeBron (twice consecutively)"¦
Wait"¦Steve Nash?
Twice? Consecutively?
At some point in the next decade, the sportswriters are going to have explain why
Shaq retired with five rings and only one MVP award, Kobe retired with four* rings and only one MVP award, and Steve Nash has two consecutive MVP awards -- and almost won a third -- and never even played in the NBA finals.
(They'll also need to explain the
inexplicable Notwitzki award, and the also suspect Garnett award, but that's another article for another day...)
Nash is already most overrated thing to come out of Canada
since they invented daylight savings time. Widely read white columnist Bill Simmons swears it's due to race â€" that if Nash was not white his inflated statistics and lackluster-to-nonexistent defense would have regulated him, appropriately, to the dustbin of also-ran history.
But His Overratedness just got an eensy bit more unlikable. Nash took to the airwaves yesterday to complain on ESPNs's Pardon the Interruption about
the Arizona law requiring law enforcement officers to check the resident status of suspected illegals after lawful stops:
"I'm against it"¦I think that this is a bill that really damages our civil liberties, I think that it opens the potential for racial profiling, racism. I think it's a bad precedent to set for our young people. I think it represents our state poorly in the eyes of the nation and the world"¦I think it's something that we can do without, and I think it hopefully will change a lot in the coming weeks. This league is very multicultural. We have players from all over the world. Obviously myself, being a foreigner, and my teammates, players on the other teams. Our communities are very multicultural, so I think we have to find a different way to combat the issues that we face in our society. And I think this is the wrong way to go about it."Â
Oh brother. There are several key lines here,
let's take them one by one.
First, Nash's assertion that the Arizona immigration law damages civil liberties. This is a somewhat legitimate concern by the bill's critics -- as
any potential threat to civil liberties must be examined and taken seirously. A quick examination shows those fears are overblown. The concern is that the law will prompt harassment of legitimate American citizens and circumvention of due process by authorities.
Good red meat campaign fodder, but unfortunately for the bill's hyperventilating critics this likely will not happen (no doubt,
another disappointment for MSNBC's Contessa Brewer). This is not a surveillance law, nor does it mean officers can simply stop anyone on the street and demand papers.
What it means that once police officers make lawful contact as they already do â€"
stopping you for speeding, responding to a call, investigating a crime â€" they can ask for proof of citizenship.
For most Americans this is moot: officers already ask for official identification during routine stops and investigations. This
law simply empowers still reticent officers to enforce federal immigration laws, with the knowledge that the full official support of the state is behind them.
Unlike in Mexico â€" where illegals are assumed guilty of felony crime against the state, thrown in jail, and deported without hearing â€"
those without ID will be charged with a misdemeanor and asked to either prove citizenship or go through legal immigration procedures.
Second, Nash's assertion that the law invites racial profiling and racism. Nice pro-illegal immigration talking point, but both the law and
the accompanying executive order explicitly outlaw racial profiling. Racial profiling is still illegal in Arizona.
Again, the law does not invite officers to invent racist reasons to stop random people on the street. The law
does not make suspicion of illegal residency a new crime worthy of a new standard for stopping people on the street. This suspicion alone is not enough for a lawful detainment.
It merely allows officers to
ask for proof of citizenship in the course of their already established routine â€" making lawful stops and investigating crimes as they already do.
Third, Nash's suggestion that the Arizona immigration law pits Arizonans against public opinion. Maybe within the
privileged enclaves of multimillion dollar homes, private airplans, and fancy high tech training facilities available to Los Suns and their rarified world, but not true of everybody else.
70% of Arizonans support the law. 60% of all Americans support the law. I don't know how the law has been greeted internationally,
nor do I care. Their governments are not being bankrupted in part by the cost of raising anchor babies on the dole.
Four, Nash's reminder that he is foreign. That's right.
Until he starts playing for USA basketball during the Olympics, we'll thank him kindly to let Americans manage American borders.
Five, Nash's declaration that the Arizona immigration law is the wrong way to go. That could very well be.
It's a sticky issue with no easy answers, deserving of both a national conversation and quick action by border states who suffer the consequences of unchecked illegal immigration.
But if Nash is so sure
this is the wrong way, pray tell, what is the right way?
It is easy to criticize. It is
harder to come up with viable solutions for a real problem. Predictably, uniformed and overrated Canadian point guard Steve Nash offers only the former and none of the latter.
Gov. Jan Brewer's mandate includes protecting the borders of Arizona and dealing with the fiscal consequences of illegal immigration,
not just shooting hoops and endorsing cola products, and making so much in the process that the negative effects of illegal immigration are moot.
The smug few who
stand in judgment of working class, struggling Arizonans would do well to keep that in mind.
Edited by: j41181 
