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MENTAL WARD
Charlie makes the point
Charlie Ward is the backup point guard for the New York Knicks. Until this week, he was famous for two things: 1) Winning the Heisman Trophy after quarterbacking Florida State to a national college football championship, and 2) Tackling Miami Heat power forward P.J. Brown at the knees -- thereby instigating a brawl that saw Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson, and John Starks suspended for the next two playoff games and, in effect, ruining what should have been a championship season for the Knicks in 1997.
Otherwise, there's not much to say about Charlie Ward. He's a decent player, for a late first-round pick, and the most senior of the current crop of Knicks. He's a decent three-point shooter, an able defender, and, as you would expect, heaves the ball downcourt with the precision of a Heisman-winning quarterback. When he opted to play basketball instead of football, the joke around town was the best quarterback in New York played for the Knicks.
Now he's famous for something else: his religious intolerance. See, Ward is a paradigmatic Jesus Freak. If you say, "Charlie, Proverb 29," he'll fire back with, "If you get more stubborn every time you are corrected, one day you will be crushed and never recover." His bracelet reads WWJD -- What Would Jesus Do? -- and he claims to ask himself that question before acting rash.
Jesus, apparently, would also have clipped P.J. Brown at the knees.
Ward holds weekly Bible study sessions with other members of the Knicks, namely Allan Houston, Mark Jackson, and Kurt Thomas -- the same Kurt Thomas who was suspended last season for punching the Pacers' Jalen Rose in the face during a nationally televised game on Christmas Day. But I digress.
Eric Konigsberg, a reporter for the New York Times Magazine professionally and a Jew theologically, sat in on one of the prayer sessions. Ward quizzed him on aspects of Jewish life and offered his belief that Jews were "stubborn" and were to blame for killing Christ. Konigsberg, smelling a scoop, printed this exchange in his piece about the Knickerbocker Holy Rollers.
Jewish groups were horrified. One insisted he be replaced as the spokesman for literacy for the state of Florida (explains a lot, huh?). Columnists, like terminal sourpuss Phil Mushnick of the New York Post, chastized him. Always a popular player, Ward was booed mercilessly at the Garden. His picture graced the front page of a prominent Jewish weekly this week. Everyone agreed, more or less, that Ward should apologize. Which he did, after, we assume, deciding that that's what Jesus would have done.
That we shouldn't get so worked up every time a Charlie Ward, John Rocker, Allen Iverson, or Reggie White opens his ignorant mouth is axiomatic. These people are athletes, for crying out loud, who don't have, for the most part, the benefit of a four-year college education. Why do we care what they think? Since when does striking out Mike Piazza entitle you to pontificate? I don't listen to the Pope about religion; why the hell would I listen to Charlie Ward? Because he can draw a charge better? Because he can stick the three?
I would have had more respect for Ward had he not apologized. He is one of those close-minded Christians who think everyone else will burn in hell: Jews, Muslims, heathens like me, what have you. He thinks Jews are stubborn and have the blood of Christ on their collective hands, or whatever he said? Let him. Let him proclaim his profound ignorance to the world. Let's not make him into a hypocrit just to sell more overpriced seats at the Garden.
In this country, we have freedom of speech. Here, the White Aryan Resistence can maintain a Web site, complete with racist propaganda and photos of their trailers. The Ku Klux Klan can meet freely and discuss their benighted contempt for non-rednecks. Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky can publish their radical critiques of the government. Linda Chavez can print that she found George W. Bush to be "intelligent."
When we make Ward apologize for his opinion, however misguided, we deprive him of his freedom of speech (and, in this case, his freedom of religion). Let the guy talk. Let him be himself. Let him get traded to Sacramento with Houston and Thomas for Chris Webber and Jason Williams.
And Charlie, if you want to know what Jesus would do, the answer is, take it to the hole more, don't pick up your dribble, and if you have an open shot, can it.
By Greg Olear
050101