ESPN analyst wants to cancel the sports metaphor 'Mount Rushmore': 'Not even the four best presidents'



ESPN analyst Jay Williams wants to retire the sports reference to Mount Rushmore.

Referring to the national monument in South Dakota where the faces of four former U.S. presidents are carved into a mountainside, sports analysts regularly use the phrase to refer to the greatest players of a particular sport.

On Wednesday, ESPN host Stephen A. Smith suggested that NBA superstar Steph Curry might replace LeBron James on the "Mount Rushmore" of professional basketball if the Golden State Warriors win this year's NBA championship. Though Curry is already considered the greatest shooter in NBA history, another championship would make him a five-time champion.

On Thursday, Williams responded to Smith's comments and registered his disdain for the reference.

"Can we first off just stop with the Mount Rushmore talk," Williams said on ESPN. "They're not even the four best presidents this country has ever had. Everyone in this room was not even able to vote. I just want to say that off the top. That’s our metric for success? That’s our king?"

Smith responded that the reference "is just used as a metaphor."

\u201cJay Williams encourages everyone to stop the Mount Rushmore talk\u201d
— Awful Announcing (@Awful Announcing) 1683216023

While it's debatable who the four best presidents are — though many would include the George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt on their list of best presidents — it's true that black Americans did not have full voting privileges when Mount Rushmore was constructed or under any of those four presidents.

The 15th Amendment gave black men the right to vote, but because of Jim Crow laws and poll taxes, many weren't able to exercise their full rights for another century. The 24th Amendment, ratified in 1964, constitutionally outlawed poll taxes.

Anything else?

Williams isn't the first sports analyst to blast the "Mount Rushmore" metaphor.

Last year, ESPN analyst Jalen Rose said using the metaphor is "offensive," especially to Native Americans. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) blasted "woke leftists" in response.

"The four men on Mount Rushmore were amazing, flawed American leaders who helped make America what it is today — the greatest country the world has ever known," she responded. "To the woke leftists obsessed with attacking these leaders, I’ve got news for you: not on my watch."

\u201cThe four men on Mount Rushmore were amazing, flawed American leaders who helped make America what it is today \u2014 the greatest country the world has ever known.\n\nTo the woke leftists obsessed with attacking these leaders, I\u2019ve got news for you: not on my watch.\u201d
— Kristi Noem (@Kristi Noem) 1659801645

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Whitlock: ESPN’s Jay Williams stars in Twitter’s Special Olympics for race-baiters and critical race theory



Wednesday afternoon, ESPN reported that the Boston Celtics reached an agreement for Ime Udoka to coach their squad.

ESPN basketball analyst and former Duke Blue Devils star Jay Williams immediately racialized this news, tweeting:

"The first head coach of color for the Celtics & even more importantly… he is one talented individual who has paid his dues." Williams' tweet included a black-fist emoji.

The problem is that Udoka, whose dad is Nigerian, is the Celtics' sixth black head coach. In fact, Bill Russell, one of the league's most famous players, was Boston's and the NBA's first black coach in 1966. He led the Celtics to two titles. Another black Celtics legend, K.C. Jones, coached Boston to two titles in the 1980s. Doc Rivers, who is black, coached Boston for a decade and led the organization to the 2008 championship.

Williams deleted his tweet. Hours later, he claimed his account was hacked and that he'd changed his password.

No one believes Williams' Twitter account was hacked. What's true is that Twitter has hacked Williams' brain and the brains of most of the athletes, media members, and public figures addicted to social media.

Twitter is the lifeblood of racist thought, the playground for critical race stupidity, aka critical race theory. Twitter baits its most insecure and needy users into seeing the entire world through a racial lens. On Twitter, every human interaction is driven primarily by race. On Twitter, no individual, no group, no organization makes decisions based on a set of agreed-upon values, principles, or culture.

Twitter is where humanity, complexity, and nuance die and critical race theory flourishes. Race, according to CRT, centers and/or disrupts our values, principles, and culture. Race trumps Jesus, morality espoused in the Bible, the Koran, and the Torah, parental upbringing, and everything else. Critical race stupidity is secular and therefore rejects all religious values, including the nuclear family.

So, Jay Williams, like his overlords at ESPN, learned the news of Udoka's hire and, as quickly as he could, took to Twitter to spin the news through the prescribed narrative that highlights black racial oppression.

It's 2021 and the Celtics are just now hiring a black coach! No justice, no peace!

Williams expected to be flooded with likes, retweets, and replies affirming this groundbreaking moment of racial history. Oops, that ground was broken 54 years ago.

Williams isn't a bad guy. Like all of us, he's been cast into a new media dynamic that most do not understand. Twitter, a 2006 invention, hijacked the editorial voice of corporate media. The importance of building a social media following perverts what public figures say.

Race bait is the gold standard. Jemele Hill spent nearly 15 years trying to build a reputation as a public intellectual and journalist. Frustrated in her pursuit, she took the easy shortcut. She tweeted that "Donald Trump is a white supremacist." That tweet is her greatest journalistic accomplishment.

Twitter requires no skill, intellect, nuance, research, facts, reporting, proper grammar, or common sense. A single barbershop-style racial allegation made Hill a star, a public intellectual worthy of five-figure college speaking engagements, consulting contracts, and the adoration of elite puppet masters.

Spewing race bait via social media is the cover for a lack of talent, a lack of work ethic, and being well beyond your intellectual skis.

Jay Williams is one of the highest-paid basketball analysts at ESPN. He's on ESPN's premier basketball show, "NBA Countdown." He's qualified to talk hoops. Before a motorcycle accident, he was headed for NBA stardom. The problem for Williams and most of the athletes and broadcasters at ESPN is that he's required to talk about race and other societal issues beyond his expertise. Twitter is their source for racial expertise.

I hope everyone is sitting down before reading this next sentence.

Black or brown skin color is not an ingredient for talking intelligently about complex racial issues. No skin color is. Research, study, reflection, writing, willingness to engage with differing opinions, emotional self-control, thick skin, and an open mind are all far more important than skin color when it comes to discussing race.

When your skin color is your only weapon in a discussion about race, you are unarmed. You're just entitled and clueless.

The best thing ESPN could do for the betterment of America is muzzle all of its unarmed race-baiters. If the network needs help identifying its unarmed race-baiters, I'll be more than happy to identify them. It's pretty much all of them.

Writing — not tweeting — is the highest form of communication. There's a reason God released the Bible in a book rather than on DVD, cassette tape, CD, MP3, or Netflix. Writing forces you to think deeply. The process of writing naturally challenges your thoughts and assumptions.

The loudest voices at ESPN talking about race rarely, if ever, write. The process of writing at a high level requires editing, by the writer and an editor. The writing process naturally filters a great deal of idiocy.

If Jay Williams had an editor, he would never have tweeted that foolishness.

On public platforms, Williams, like LeBron James and countless other athletic prodigies, needs to stick strictly to talking about the athletic activities that happen between the whistles. Their thoughts about social issues are primitive and should be restricted to barbershops, dinner tables, and nightclub VIP areas.

They don't have the guts or the work ethic to compete in the intellectual Olympics, the marketplace of ideas. That's why they choose to compete in Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's rigged Special Olympics.

Black ESPN host tears into NBA star who targeted white player with racial slur: 'B**** a** white boy'



ESPN host Jay Williams unloaded on NBA player Montrezl Harrell Saturday after the Los Angeles Clippers' power forward targeted Luka Doncic, one of the NBA's top players, with a racially-charged comment.

What happened?

During a Friday playoff game between the Clippers and the Dallas Mavericks, Harrell and Doncic got into a scuffle, causing Harrell to call Doncic a "b**** a** white boy."

From USA Today:

Harrell and Doncic got into a scuffle after the two players tripped each other at the Clippers' defense end, and Harrell ended up on the court. Doncic told Harrell: "Stop flopping man." That didn't sit well with Harrell, who had to be separated from Doncic. After Harrell scored on Doncic later in the game, he appeared to hurl a racially-charged insult at Doncic.
Clippers player Montrezl Harrell called Mavericks player Luka Doncic a "b*tch a** white boy" during an NBA playoff… https://t.co/lWkcxdsvW9
— Robby Starbuck (@Robby Starbuck)1598067474.0

What did Williams say?

In a lengthy response posted to Twitter, Williams slammed Harrell and highlighted the hypocrisy surrounding the reaction to Harrell's comments, or more accurately, the lack thereof.

I am no lip-reader, but d**n Trez. D**n Montrezl. I can only imagine if Luka Doncic had said something like that to you and it got caught on tape. I can only imagine during Black Lives Matter how much of a big deal that would have been, considering today's climate and state. It would've been a massive story. Luka would've lost all credibility in this space. Everybody would've been commenting on it. People would've asked LeBron [James] about it. People would've asked Kawhi [Leonard] about it. Everyone would've had some kind of statement about it.

But it's not that big of a story because Trez said it to a caucasian person. It should be a big story because it's not acceptable man. Look, I'm a hooper. I talk trash. I cuss people out. We can get into the nuances of whether that's right or wrong, too. But what you said, when involving race in it? And I've heard people say this back in the day that basketball scenarios and playing hoops in the inner cities. I still didn't find it acceptable then. I don't find it acceptable now, especially when cameras are on you 24/7. Get lost in your battle, man. But don't get lost in saying things like that.

"We don't need that in today's game, especially with everything that we're fighting for as it related to equality," Williams went on to say. "Not acceptable. Not acceptable.

Regarding the @dallasmavs @LAClippers game last night & the words we all know that came out of Montrez Harrell’s mo… https://t.co/g8IygnIE9N
— Jay Williams (@Jay Williams)1598127319.0