Letters To The Editor

Jazz make him proud

I do not like Michael Jordan.

I’m an NBA fan who lived in Southern California when the Lakers gloried in basketball fame with their incredible team of Magic, Kareem and company. An awesome bunch of players. They were finesse players.

They modeled humility and still had fun during their own showtime. As viewers, we felt good about them, we loved them, they made us feel proud to be NBA fans.

No more. The Chicago Bulls give us every reason to despise the game of basketball. Jordan gave a power fist when he sank that three-pointer to win Game 1 of the finals. I see nothing but pride in this man, no humility, no graciousness. When Malone, Stockton and company won the championship in the West, I felt proud again, willing to love basketball again. Here in Spokane we love Johnny Stockton for his humility, his sportsmanship, his strength as a player.

It hurts to see the media suddenly turn their backs on Malone and Stockton when the Jazz didn’t pull off a win in Game 2. Do they ignore the fact that Malone had a hand injury, that Stockton works in tandem with the man chosen as MVP?

And John Blanchette praises Stockton in his June 4 column, then ridicules him in his June 5 column. How fickle can we get? Larry Clark Spokane

Fans being held hostage

Fear not, opponents of a state-funded stadium for the Seattle Seahawks. You won’t ever have to raise a sweat to annihilate the couch potatoes. There is no segment of society that is so complacent and lag, these people wouldn’t walk across the street to vote, let alone campaign.

They’ll pick up a phone, dial a talk show to complain about the price of tickets, hot dogs and beer, but would they ever organize to do anything about these prices. Not likely! They just keep paying the atrocious prices so they can worship their multi-millionaire stars.

At least when citizens have enough of high taxes, they organize, campaign and vote accordingly.

If sports fans stood together, these athletes would not be holding cities hostage. Fans, if united, could dictate the wages of professional athletes. Then communities could afford to build the arenas off the profits generated, instead of multi-million dollar salaries for bench warmers. Allan LeTourneau Spokane

Find neutral journalists

The headlines on the front page of today’s sports section (MVP? Maybe it’s Jordan) is really cruel. At least Jordan and Malone have enough common courtesy to respect each other. Headlines like that are meant to demoralize people. People who write things like that are people that need training in, ‘Learning how to love your fellow man.’ The articles that accompany the headlines are just as bad. Why don’t you get some journalists who just plain tell us what happened instead of injecting their own opinion? Good journalism is neutral journalism. When my subscription runs out I’m not renewing! Chuck Thiel Spokane