The view from the Idea Center

My colleague Glenn Forbes and I were talking around this time yesterday about the latest John Beilein story.

Beilein, in his first year in the National Basketball Association as head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, made a startling mistake, and it was making national headlines.

ESPN.com, citing unnamed sources, said Beilein suggested during a film session Wednesday that the squad was no longer playing “like a bunch of thugs.” Beilein told ESPN he meant to say “slugs,” as in a slow-moving, gastropod that typically lacks a shell and secretes slime.

A slug isn’t a favorite object of comparison for an athlete, or anyone. But a thug is worse, especially when it’s used to describe the efforts of a basketball team made up mostly of young, African American men. National Football League cornerback Robert Sherman once said he felt the word was like “an accepted way of using the N-word.”

“Is Beilein going to get fired?” I asked Glenn.

“He might,” he said. He noted Cavs General Manager Koby Altman flew to Detroit to talk to Beilein and get a read on players’ reactions.

Frustration is high in the locker room; the Cavs are currently 11-27. Some players have taken anonymous shots at Beilein, saying they were tuning him out because he was treating them like the college players he used to coach at the University of Michigan.

But Glenn also noted Beilein had never been known to make racist or racially insensitive remarks before.

“You’d think that kind of thing would have come out by now,” he said.

That’s essentially what power forward Larry Nance Jr. said to reporters before last night’s win over the Pistons. Beilein reached out to each player individually to apologize.

“Nothing like that has ever come out of his mouth before,” said Nance, who’s biracial, calling it a “one-off.” Everyone was moving on, Nance said.

And Beilein said his future with the team didn’t come up during his sit-down with Altman in Detroit.

Moving forward, into that future, Beilein said he’ll be sure to enunciate better.
 

See you bright and early Monday morning on the radio,
Amy Eddings

Need to KnOH

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Your ideas

The SAFE Project (Students Are Free to Express), a partnership with MetroHealth system providing arts lessons for Cleveland-area kids, emerged in response to the number of high school students MetroHealth doctors screened who felt anxious, depressed or suicidal. It helps young people cope with toxic stress and trauma, building emotional understanding and expression through the arts. Hopefully those are skills they’ll use for the rest of their lives. Do you use the arts to help you cope or just decompress from tough situations? How do you pass those skills along to the kids in your life? Call us at  (216) 916-6476, comment on our Facebook page or join the conversation in Public Square. We'll feature some of your thoughts and comments here in Noon(ish) and on Morning Edition.