A Tale Of Two Beefs

You know, I suppose that I am just as guilty as everyone else of putting celebrities up on a pedestal. I have often thought that a "celebrity's" way of doing something was better than my own way or that a "celebrity" might behave a little different than me and my contemporaries (i.e. friends). That's because it never occurred to me that celebrities are just people who for whatever reason (they can shoot a basketball, run with a football, act, sing or they convinced people with lower IQ's than them to vote them into public office) have a certain bit of notoriety. I could very well be a celebrity and my way of handling a situation could very well be no different.

For instance, check out beef number one...

When he heard the criticisms from his former friend Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, Isaiah Thomas said he'd had enough. And so, he began to fight back. "I'm really hurt and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' said Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard and former NBA coach and executive, most recently with the Knicks. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knicks game, he was standing in the tunnel (to the locker room) with me. He and Knicks assistant coach, Herb Williams, and I would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.''

The criticisms are made by Johnson in "When The Game Was Ours", which he co-wrote with Larry Bird and Jackie MacMullan. The book, to be released on November 4th, tells the inside story of the most important rivalry in basketball history. Much of their story involves Thomas, who as captain of the Detroit Pistons, served as a primary threat to the championship ambitions of Bird's Boston Celtics and Magic's L.A. Lakers. The book offers revelations that have stunned Thomas.

Magic addresses years of rumors by finally accusing Thomas of questioning his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Magic also admits that he joined with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team saying, "Isaiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. Michael didn't want to play with him, Scottie Pippen wanted no part of him, and Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him, who was saying... "We need this guy? Nobody."

"I'm glad that Magic finally had the courage and the nerve to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years'', Thomas responded during one of several interviews he gave to SI.com on Wednesday. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face-to-face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it."

I'm really surprised at Magic Johnson. In the streets where I come from, we would call what he did a "bitch move". If he felt this way all these years, then why didn't he confront Isaiah about it face-to-face? Why pretend to be the man's friend, while blackballing him from the "Dream Team" and allowing another person (Michael Jordan) to take the blame all of these years for something which (it now turns out) he was innocent of? I'm sorry but, the guys I grew up with just wouldn't have dealt with the situation in that way. Magic, Isaiah, Michael, and Bird are all guys that are my age and I'm bettin' they all know better than that.

Now, check out beef number two...

Outspoken moviemaker, Spike Lee, has picked a new film fight with actor/director Tyler Perry after suggesting that the "Madea Goes To Jail" star's hit films are a step backwards for African-Americans. The "Do The Right Thing" director accuses Perry of "coonery and buffoonery" in his films... comments that the younger film maker, Tyler Perry, has taken exception to.

In a taped interview for U.S. News show 60 minutes, Tyler Perry said "That pisses me off. It really does, because it's so insulting. It's attitudes like that which make Hollywood think that these people (his characters) do not exist and that's why there's no material speaking to them, speaking to us. I would love to read that to my fan base."

In all fairness, a lot of Tyler Perry's characters don't exist. Some of his characters are one dimensional. His villains are "uber" evil and his heroes are "uber saints"... however, he has been getting better with some of his later works. In defense of Tyler Perry, Madea, Mr. Brown, etc. have usually been used as comic relief to take the sting off of a more serious situation that involves his main characters... something that I don't have a problem with. I have my issues with some of Tyler Perry's content but, I never thought of his characters as "coonery and buffoonery." I think that Spike was (kind of) out of line to put him out there like that. He could have made his point without calling the man's name.

I respect the hustle of both of these gentlemen and I know (and they know) what they had to do to get where they are today. Their journeys are much different than say a Steven Spielberg or a Martin Scorsese... and knowing that, Spike could have met with Mr. Perry over lunch and discussed whatever issues he had with his creative works. That's how I would have handled it.
but, I'm no celebrity.

I have witnessed certain bloggers (who I won't name) beefing about certain issues they have had with each other out in the open and it has gotten pretty ugly at times. You notice, I never have had a major beef with another blogger (knock on wood)? For one thing, I'm too busy doing my thing to worry about what somebody else is doing on their blog. Another thing is, if I disagree with something I've read, I respectfully disagree. If it's really a big disagreement, I'll e-mail the blogger... keeping it between us and not giving the public a show. I respect everybody's hustle. No bitch moves here!

These black celebrities, rappers, athletes, singers, actors, politicians, etc. all came up on the streets somewhat and they know the rules. Why wait until now to break them? In the words of Chairman Mao... "Beware the cult of personality." Indeed.