The AABA: A League of Racial Overtones?

On Jan. 19, a new professional league, The All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA), announced that it intends to start its season in June.

However, the AABA is not your ordinary basketball league: it only allows natural-born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race to play in the league.

In other words, the league consists of white players only.

Why would the AABA commit to creating a league with such racial implications?

"It has come to the attention of the principals of the (All-American Basketball Alliance) that white basketball players are essentially "shut out" of conventional professional basketball due to the proliferation of non-organized play on the court," AABA organizer Don Lewis told newsone.com. "With players on other professional teams carrying guns, attacking fans in the stands, and going through the motions of playing the game, fundamentally sound white players are a vanishing species."

"Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like," Lewis added.

By claiming that white players have the ability to play more sound and fundamental basketball stands as a great insult to all the non-white NBA legends over the decades: Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Connie Hawkins, and Kobe Bryant, just to name a few.

Lewis' comments primarily pertain to the athleticism African-American players possess in leagues all over the U.S, particularly in the highest league of all, the NBA, in comparison to the white players who allegedly lack athleticism.

In no way, shape, or form do all white players in the NBA who are deficient in athleticism, for instance, have more fundamentally sound games than other "colored players" in the league.

Lewis even implied that current basketball players do not engage in organized basketball play, while hinting that the AABA players will change that major defect in basketball nowadays.

That's amazing, Mr. Lewis.

The AABA organizer's comments also touched a very delicate and often un-addressed issue in today's society: racism.

Even though Lewis pointed out that his remarks do not indicate any kind of hatred or bias towards one race over the other, his comments contradict his rather outrageous claims.

Hinting to Gilbert Arenas' gun incident and the famous Indiana-Detroit brawl in 2004 while pinning those skirmishes to African-American behavior is saddening and racist.

In addition, if the AABA league truly gets underway by June, there will be a necessary change that will have to occur to the name of the league: The word "American" should be completely omitted.