Rant #1,391: Making a Mole Hill Into a Mountain

OK, now we know that for sure, the world has gone mad, and the PC police are enforcing the law of the land.

I know that few people watched the New York Knicks game on Wednesday night, and yes, they got creamed once again, this time by the Indiana Pacers.

What got some people to be beside themselves in utter stupidity was an exchange between lead announcer Mike Breen and Walt Frazier, the Knicks all-time great who has become famous as a color commentator for rhyming words to describe the action, such as “moving and grooving.”

He also remains the NBA’s most outlandish dresser, picking up the ball from the late Lindsey Nelson, both taking the most outlandish outfits and making them sometimes more memorable than the game action itself.

Breen was talking about one of the NBA’s newest referees, Lauren Holtkamp, and saying that she was highly regarded by the league in her rookie season as an official.

Here is how it went:

Breen: “They’re really impressed with her.”

Frazier: “Yeah, she’s nice looking.”

Breen: “No, no, no, no.”

Well, this exchange has made some people so upset that they are asking for punishment to be doled out to Frazier.

To me, this was such an innocent remark that it doesn’t demand any punishment, any retaliation by the NBA, and certainly no apologies.

However, during the Isiah Thomas era in New York, there was a case of sexual harassment that the Knicks were involved with, and since the league offices are in New York, too, you can bet that something will be doled out, and perhaps Frazier will be told the error of his ways.

Holtkamp, one of two female referees in the league, has been the subject of some scorn before. Just a few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Clippers’ Chris Paul, upset at a technical foul she assessed him, said that maybe the NBA life “might not be right for her” after he objected to her call on him.

Paul was fined, apologized, and that was that.

The NBA is sensitive to issues related to sex, whether it be preference or the male/female thing, and it also is the first major professional league to have women referees.

But to chastise Frazier for what he said … you know, there are more important things in the world.

Was it inappropriate? Perhaps. Should he be suspended, fined, forced to take classes on sexual relations, dumped on by women’s groups, made the poster boy for what is wrong with our world?

No. It was an innocent remark, but unfortunately, in this PC world we live in, Frazier is certain to hear about it from someone.

And by the way, I have been impressed with Holtkamp as a referee in the few games I have seen her officiate on TV. She has an almost Jack Webb-like sternness of expression that is essential for referees and umpires, and being up to her task is not something one would question about her. She has shown nothing but  professionalism and talent for her job.

But yes, I think she is kind of cute too.

Can’t we loosen up on the shackles that the PC police have put on the way we think, and move onto more important matters?

Look, no matter how far we have come in the sexual equality game, no matter what we would like to think, or be told, men generally like women, and women generally like men. Every once in a while, that fondness for the opposite sex, which is on men and women’s minds anyway, will slip out.

We have all done it, don’t deny it. I certainly have.

But let’s lay off Frazier. He said what he said, but was it really that horrible to be getting twisted out of shape like some people are doing?

And by the way, by and large, the only ones doing the twisted out of shape routine are men, and it’s easy to figure out why: Frazier said something about a woman in the workplace that we all would like to say, but he actually said it.

And any man who is up in arms about this whole incident who doesn't admit this is pretty much a fool.

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

End of discussion.

Speak to you again on Monday.