If you haven’t heard the news in the past week, a man by the name of Don “Moose” Lewis has decided to start an all-caucasian basketball league:
The All-American Basketball Alliance announced in a news release Sunday evening that it intends to start its inaugural season in June and hopes Augusta will be one of 12 cities with a team.“Only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league,” the statement said.
Getting past the initial shock (an all-white league!? But they’re white! They can’t dunk!), people then probably wonder if this is even legal :
Eric Lipman chimes in… Lipman first refers to a post by sports agent Jason Wolf, who says the league might not be illegal, but does raise “interesting theoretical legal questions about private entities setting up entry barriers.”
Lipman challenges the idea on antitrust grounds, however:
I couldn’t help but notice that the league has apparently declared itself a “single entity” which will own all 12 proposed teams. Presumably, Commissioner Moose has already deconstructed the oral argument transcript of last week’s Supreme Court battle between the NFL and spurned team apparel manufacturer American Needle, in which that league’s single-entity status, and attendant antitrust immunity, was seriously questioned by the justices. No word yet on whether the AABA has decided which lucky company will be licensed to produce “Kentucky Klavern” caps or “Georgia Grand Dragons” jerseys.
It wouldn’t be an all-white league, though. As the link above discusses, the rules would not prohibit other races from refereeing, coaching, general managing, or owning a team. I imagine perma-bench players could be of other races, too, as long as they don’t “play.”
If this somehow comes into fruition, varsity cuts around the nation will begin re-lacing their sneakers and hiking up their John Stockton shorts, while watching clips from White Men Can’t Jump. I better go work on my game, you’ll never know when the Tennessee Kluxes could use another point guard.
Definitely no more of this:
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