Albany, NY – Ray Richardson was suspended by the Continental Basketball Association for anti-Semitic comments the Albany Patroons' coach made in an interview.
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Richardson was ousted after he told the Albany Times Union that he had "big-time Jew lawyers" working for him.
"They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great," Richardson told the Times-Union. "I don't think there's nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they're run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they're run by Jewish. It's not a knock, but they are some crafty people."
Patroons owner Ben Fernandez denounced Richardson's comments. "We will not tolerate – and the league will not tolerate – bigots," Fernandez said.
"It's terrible and I don't think it's fair," Richardson said. "But I want to make an apology if I offended anyone because that's not me." [AP]
The remarks about jews werent that disparaging. It was a remark about people of a different persuasion “v’hameivin yavin” that cost him his job
When told by the reporters that the comment could be offensive to people because it plays to the stereotype that Jews are crafty and shrewd, he responded with:
“Are you kidding me? They are. They’ve got the best security system in the world. Have you ever been to an airport in Tel Aviv? They’re real crafty. Listen, they are hated all over the world, so they’ve got to be crafty. They got a lot of power in this world, you know what I mean? Which I think is great. I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with it. If you look in most professional sports, they’re run by Jewish people. If you look at a lot of most successful corporations and stuff, more businesses, they’re run by Jewish. It’s not a knock, but they are some crafty people.
If the quotes are half accurate I believe him when he said he didn’t mean to insult anyone. He is just suffering from idiotitis.
Perhaps someone will tell me which bank I own. I’ve got lots of credit cards, car loans and a mortgage to pay.
If only half of what they said about us were true!