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Taylor Brown started this past season with Wilki Morskie in the top Polish pro league, and had a great season there. But late in the season, his contract was purchased by Lietuvos Rytas, a team in the Lithuanian Pro League that wanted to strengthen their team to make a run for the league championship. He played great for them as well, helped boost them to a 2nd place finish in the league, and stepped up his game to carry them through the Lithuanian Pro League postseason tournament, where they were finally eliminated in the semifinal series by the 3rd seeded team. This was considered a big disappointment to the fans and the team. So looking for a scapegoat, the team blamed Taylor and the other black American players on the team for damaging team chemistry, even though the black American players were the best players on the team!
Read the unbelievably racist statement from the President of the media company that owns and sponsors the Lietuvos Rytas team-
We've always held the stance that there shouldn't be more than two black players on the team. What happened was that Coach Tomas Pacesas likes to play with black players- to control them, to teach them to tutor them- and we ended up with four players who are black. All of a sudden, they came together to form... how should I put it... a sort of a gang. It cannot be that way; no more than two black players - I can say that from my 23 years of experience in the business. Teams, don't ever have more than two black players...(smiles). Because that is when bad things start to take place.
The reason Americans (especially black American players) are signed is because they are almost always better and more skilled basketball players than the usual Lithuanian pro players, and they improve the team and help the teams win games. And I suspect the reason the coach and whoever else is involved in signing players signed all the players they did was because it helped them win games.
Taylor and other black American players were suspended after the season in an obvious move to make them appear to be the scapegoats. He has another year on his contract, but he will not return to the team next year. I expect this idiotic President of the team will not have an easy time signing American players for his team in future years.
Here is the story from a Lithuanian newspaper, where they apparently accept blatant racism-
Check out the same story in a Spanish newspaper, where they point out the stupidity of the racist statement-
Read the unbelievably racist statement from the President of the media company that owns and sponsors the Lietuvos Rytas team-
We've always held the stance that there shouldn't be more than two black players on the team. What happened was that Coach Tomas Pacesas likes to play with black players- to control them, to teach them to tutor them- and we ended up with four players who are black. All of a sudden, they came together to form... how should I put it... a sort of a gang. It cannot be that way; no more than two black players - I can say that from my 23 years of experience in the business. Teams, don't ever have more than two black players...(smiles). Because that is when bad things start to take place.
The reason Americans (especially black American players) are signed is because they are almost always better and more skilled basketball players than the usual Lithuanian pro players, and they improve the team and help the teams win games. And I suspect the reason the coach and whoever else is involved in signing players signed all the players they did was because it helped them win games.
Taylor and other black American players were suspended after the season in an obvious move to make them appear to be the scapegoats. He has another year on his contract, but he will not return to the team next year. I expect this idiotic President of the team will not have an easy time signing American players for his team in future years.
Here is the story from a Lithuanian newspaper, where they apparently accept blatant racism-
Check out the same story in a Spanish newspaper, where they point out the stupidity of the racist statement-
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