Courtside Diplomacy

Hoyas in Diplomatic Exchange

SETUP FOR DISASTER

OK first of all ... if Joe Biden and Coach John Thompson, III thought for one moment that when they boarded the plane to play China this week in a fair and civil game of basketball; that it would lead to a love fest of diplomacy and end with a hand shake and a kiss on China's home court?  If they truly believed that ... They must have had Jim Jones kool-aid on the plane or they were smoking some great weed.

Now let's review the playing field. We owe China 900 Billion US Dollars, they sell us (American consumers) 600 times more products than we sell to them, their yearly growth is almost at 10 percent (ours is barely 2 percent), they train their basketball players from birth, punish and torture them into submission and finally - winning is more important than owning gold or stealing our secrets. Although they were happy when Pakistan (our buddies) showed China the tail of our Stealth Helicopter we left behind after killing Osama.

So armed with those details which are pretty much common knowledge and accessible in most newspapers and on every network weekly ... why would our VP and the President of Georgetown University consider such a no-win diplomatic farce? Not to mention the deplorable fisticuffs they engaged in at the game. We'll get to that in a moment.

It seems to me if the US and Georgetown University wanted to do something constructive with their summer vacation they should consider one of the following activities:

1. A game between Georgetown Hoyas and Congress to end the debt.

If the Hoyas win ... Congress must pass a balanced budget the following day!

I'd buy a ticket

2. How about a game between the United Nations and the Hoyas?

If the Hoyas win ... all the UN diplomats would have to go home.

The US would save Billions and stop waisting time bickering with Countries who hate us and don't deserve our Money anyway!

OK I know they'd never go for any of those choices but it was worth the "DREAM"

AND WHAT ABOUT SPORTSMANSHIP?

Regardless of who threw the first punch or who pushed who, can you imagine if the Georgetown players would have turned their backs and didn't engage - what would the headlines have been? This would have been the noble and honorable thing to do but instead they did what a large percentage of basketball teams in the US would do ... the bench emptied onto the court and they slugged it out!

China media didn't even cover the story. It didn't happen. And even if the State controlled media would have issued a story it would have stated, "Violent American basketball players dishonor America."

Is this behavior common on US pro and college basketball courts? You bet it is. Is it coached or is it managed to a tolerably level? Some would say no to both points.

Coach John Thompson III walked his players off the court after the brawl ... after the damage was done. No one can ever take that back. The scene on the front page of the Post (pictured above) was just as shocking as the lone Chinese man standing in front of the tank in Tienanmen Square decades ago. But what message did it send to the world? And is this the message we want to broadcast abroad?

Gary S. DeMoss

IN MY RIGHT MIND