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maandag, mei 09, 2005

Shoot baskets, not people

I have to say I'm pretty happy to see Steve Nash voted Most Valuable Player in the NBA this week. Not merely because he's from my home town, Victoria (exactly how many hometowns does Victor S have? Complicated question. I was born in Cannock, Staffs., spent my earliest years in Fordingbridge, Hants., grew up in Whitby, Ont., but was schooled in Oshawa in the same province, attended high school in Vancouver, BC, and have lived for extended periods in London, Amsterdam, Wadebridge in Cornwall [hence the familiarity with Mebyon Kernow], and now Brussels - but my unnaturally-extended university years were spent in Victoria - the longest time I've lived anywhere - so I guess that's as close as I get to a hometown), or because he completely turned around the fortunes of the Phoenix Suns, but because of his unwavering and outspoken opposition to the war, which has earned him the opprobrium of his boss, other players and sections of the US media.

As great commie sports writer, Dave Zirin, notes, Nash

'was the first high profile athlete to come out against Dick Cheney's "war of a generation", showing up at the 2003 All-Star game in 2003 wearing a T-shirt that read, "Shoot baskets not people."' When questioned on his incendiary attire, Nash said, "I think that war is wrong in 99.9 per cent of all cases. I think [Operation Iraqi Freedom] has much more to do with oil or some sort of distraction, because I don't feel as though we should be worrying about Iraq…Unfortunately, this is more about oil than it is about nuclear weapons.""'

Oh, and according to an interview earlier this season, he said that the last book he had read was The Communist Manifesto.