Further Evidence: Cowherd is an Idiot

One of the most divisive sports personalities out there is Colin Cowherd. I usually don't get too worked up about his idiotic rants. I have long realized (and he has admitted) that he picks a position and argues it just to stir up the pot. On any given rant, half the audience agrees and loves him, the other half want to kill him. Either way, it's ratings as people listen!

Every once in a while, he goes so far off the reservation that he gets in trouble. He really stepped in it when he RIPPED John Wall after he was drafted. He said he couldn't be a leader as a point guard because he didn't have a father role model (Wall's father was in prison and died when Wall was 8). He had to tuck his tail between his legs on that one.

Now, I think he may have gone a step further. I drove 5 minutes to Subway this afternoon to get lunch. In the 5 minutes I was in the car, Cowherd laid out his theory about the Pacers:

People don't go to Pacers games because Indianapolis is racist.

Wha-what? So now Cowherd is calling out an entire city (and really Indiana) as racist? I heard a bit of his argument, but not all as I expect this one to explode for the rest of his show. He claims Indy is a relatively affluent region, with not a huge minority population. He also says there is residual backlash over the Ron Artest fight incident. Does he mean the fight IN DETROIT BACK IN 2004??? Really?

Let's see if the facts back up Cowherd (hint: they don't).

Ron Artest
That fight happened over 8 years ago. The Pacers took a beating after it happened, but it also occurred at the end of the Reggie Miller era. The Pacers were in a state of decline. They continued to play well, and made the playoffs for the next 2 seasons before really hitting the skids. It was not until 2011 that the Pacers even made it back to the playoffs after 4 years missing out. That cycle of losing, more than anything else, reasonably accounts for the downturn in attendance.

Attendance
Looking at the official NBA attendance numbers, Cowherd's basic premise that people don't go to Pacers games is wrong! When sorting by % attendance, the Pacers rank 23 of 30. The 7 teams below them include other "lily white" metro areas such as Atlanta, DC, New Orleans, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit. Not only do these teams include prominent African American communities, it seems to include ALL the midwest NBA teams. That gets me to another REAL issue for Pacers attendance: NBA superstars are clustering to big market teams. All the major market teams have a "big 3" or a superstar. Look st the Eastern conference All-Star team. 2 Knicks, 3 Heat, 2 Celtics, 2 Bulls and the token single Net, Pacer, 76er and Cav. The NBA has a real problem. When you put all the superstars in the major markets, the other teams suffer.


Racism
According to the 2010 census, Indianapolis is 62% white, 28% black. That's actually quite a bit more diverse than the USA in general (78% to 13%). I would also argue that having a higher % of black population does not mean more people will go to games. Look at Atlanta (38% white to 54% black) or Cleveland (37% to 53%). They are worse for attendance than the Pacers.

I just don't see how Cowherd can claim race has anything to do with low attendance at Pacers games. The Pacers are improving, but really only just got back to playoff level basketball in 2012. They lack a legit superstar, and their attendance isn't as bad as a lot of other teams. Notably, the midwest teams (with the exception of the Bulls) all seem to lack star power and are suffering in attendance.

Cowherd needs to backtrack on this one in a hurry. I'm not sure how the rest of his show went, but I hope he was brutalized by callers, emails and guests. I do have a fondness for Indy, but I would go ballistic if he said this crap about Cincinnati!