Monday, Fox Sports 1 “Speak for Yourself” host Jason Whitlock reacted to the video of a youth basketball referee being attacked by players, saying it shows the lack of sportsmanship and respect for authority in our culture.
“[S]portsmanship is just going down, down, down,” Whitlock stated. “It’s not a priority. Only winning matters. How you win, how you lose doesn’t matter anymore. And this team was struggling and losing and got into it with the refs. … I would love to see just more of an onus placed on sportsmanship. We’ve turned it into a competition to make it to the pros, but at its heart, it’s supposed to teach you how to compete and win and lose with class and dignity.”
He later added, “I think it says something about our culture and our lack of respect for authority. It’s pervasive throughout everything. We want to confront and challenge it — if a ref makes the wrong call, it’s because he’s out to get us and it’s some kind of conspiracy and therefore, I’ve got to confront him. We’ve got to give people more benefit of the doubt and we’ve got to get back to a little bit more idealism, in my view, Colin, and really put an emphasis on sportsmanship and how you conduct yourself when you win or lose.”
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