The Boston Bruins retired Willie O’Ree’s No. 22 jersey last week in an emotional ceremony at The TD Garden.
O’Ree, who broke the NHL’s color barrier in 1958, said via livestream video from his San Diego home, “I will never forget how my teammates in the Bruins locker room accepted me as one of their own. This was a time when some of the fans and opposing players were not ready to see a Black man in the NHL.”
Unfortunately, too many white players still hold this racist view.
The East Coast Hockey League indefinitely suspended Jacksonville Icemen defenseman Jacob Panetta then released him last week after he mimicked a monkey to racially taunt South Carolina Stingrays defenseman Jordan Subban, who is Black.
Subban’s older brother, P.K. Subban, plays for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils.
Fighting is part of professional hockey, including in the NHL’s minor leagues, including the ECHL.
After a bout of pushing and shoving ended in front of the Stingrays goalie, Jordan Subban said he tried to entice Panetta into a fight.
“As soon as I began to turn my back, he started making monkey gestures at me, so I punched him in the face multiple times, and he turtled like the coward he is,” Subban tweeted.
Panetta said he was making “a tough-guy bodybuilder type gesture” toward Subban, not a racial taunt during a weak video apology.
P.K. Subban tweeted, “They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys! Hey @jacobpanetta, you shouldn’t be so quick to delete your Twitter or your Instagram account. You will probably be able to play again… that’s what history says, but things are changing.”
Two weeks earlier, the American Hockey League suspended San Jose Barracuda forward Krystof Hrabik for 30 games for a similar racist gesture toward Black player Boko Imama of the Tucson Roadrunners. In January 2020, Brandon Manning of the Bakersfield Condors was suspended five games for shouting a racist slur at Imama.
“Enough is enough,” Imama wrote on Twitter. “I’ve been dealing with situations like this my entire life. As a person of colour playing youth hockey, through Junior and now twice as a professional, this keeps happening to me over and over again.”
The NHL must take a stand to end this on-ice racism. A suspension is one thing; a ban from playing in the NHL in the future for this type of disgusting behavior should be considered by the league.
“When is this going to end? Ban that kid for life,” retired Black NHL player Georges Laraque wrote on Twitter following the incident.
I agree.
The Reid Roundup
After missing 20 consecutive three-point shots in two previous games, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum hit 9-of-14 three-pointers in a 51-point effort last Saturday against fellow St. Louis native Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards. The Celtics cruised to a 116-87 win, with Beal leading the Wizards with 19 points. It was the fifth 50-point-plus game of Tatum’s career, and he also tallied 10 rebounds, seven assists, and five steals. “I’m always the same person whether I miss 20 straight or whether I score 51,” Tatum told reporters after the game…With trade rumors circulating, Beal said last week he prefers to remain with the Wizards. “If I have the chance to create my own legacy and make it work here with the team that drafted me, then why not give it a shot? That’s just who I am. That’s my blessing and curse, my loyalty.” …A shout out to Kansas State University’s Ayoka Lee, who set an NCAA Division I women’s basketball record with 61 points in a win over No. 14 Oklahoma on Sunday.
The 6-6 junior broke the previous NCAA record of 60 points set by Long Beach State’s Cindy Brown in 1987 and tied by Minnesota’s Rachel Banham in 2016…After two outstanding seasons as men’s basketball coach at Clark University in Atlanta, former NBA star Darrell Walker has moved to Arkansas-Little Rock. An article by Pete Croatto of “The Undefeated” examines how HBCUs are providing NBA players with coaching opportunities after being ignored by other colleges. George Lynch replaced Walker at Clark. Kenny Anderson is at Fisk University. Bonzi Wells is at LeMoyne-Owen College after replacing Rasheed Wallace when he joined the Memphis coaching staff. Reggie Theus is head coach and athletic director at Bethune-Cookman, Mo Williams is at Alabama State and Juan Dixon guides Coppin State.
