Heat from Down Under: Aussie hoops ad slammed as racist


By Rick Chandler

So is this National Basketball League promotional TV commercial from Australia infested with racism, as many are claiming? You be the judge ... I'm washing my hands, and my feet, of the entire thing.
OK fine, here's the background: The commercial shows various NBL players running through a family's home, throwing passes, taking shots and generally destroying everything in sight. I assume they have home insurance for that sort of thing in Australia. Anyway, at one point, Sydney Kings forward Taj McCullough, who is African-American, leaps onto a white couple's bed and nuzzles up to the woman. This has outraged several African-American NBL vets, who say it's insensitive and racist.
Former Melbourne Tigers player Darryl McDonald:
"It puts black Americans in a bad light," McDonald, who is also African-American, told Sydney's Daily Telegraph. "That commercial has nothing to do with basketball. Nobody else would present their sport this way."

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