Stern: Can’t Take Dick Pound Seriously
November 7, 2006 by Steve
Filed under Tour De France, Weblog
Finally, some respected sporting officials are speaking out about the lack of credibility and professionalism of Dick Pound.
A couple of days ago, NBA Commissioner David Stern criticized the World Anti-Doping Agency on Friday, saying “the organization has lost respect in the international community”. Stern jabbed WADA head Dick Pound for his treatment of Floyd Landis, the Tour de France winner who tested positive for testosterone.”(WADA) is actually getting harder to take seriously,” Stern said before the Bucks-Raptors game. “Whenever an organization which purports to be even-handed and fair announces that a `B’ sample isn’t necessary, then they lose an enormous amount of respect.”
It is about time people begin to look at Dick Pound and see what a loose cannon he is, saying stupid stuff from the hip that makes him lose respect in the international community and shows him to be non-credible in his role at WADA.
Does anyone in the rest of the world actually believe that any American sporting head has serious credibility on the issue of doping given that your professional sporting leagues have no real programs to deal with this? The answer is no.
Where would you like me to start? Baseball looks like a good place. And let’s talk about Sterns own sport, Basketball, which a culture of bad behaviour and substance abuse that stretches back a long way, there doping is the least of their problems, heavy recreational drug use, mysoginistic behaviour, and generally anti social attitudes, yet the athletes always appear on the court after appearing in court.
American sport should spend a bit of time cleaning up their own backyards before lecturing anyone about this issue least of all someone who has more runs on the board on this issue.
Dear Phil, nice try at changing the subject, rather than seriously examining Pound’s utter lack of credibility you tee off on America and its pro sports leagues. How original!
So I guess Pound has your respect because he is not American, or do you just stand by Pound because Landis is? Make the case FOR Pound, rather than changing the subject, if you are actually trying to defend him.
No subject change, it’s all very pertinent, people in glass houses shouldn’t……well you know the rest…….and I know that you know what US pro sport is all about as far as doping in your Pro leagues is concerned. Modern doping started in the US with Olympic weightlifters and ‘roids, and continues to be endemic in sport there, high school footballers dope and it goes on from there right to the pro leagues to athletes like Barry Bonds today.
Anyway, I actually I do the Pound defense thing regularly on my own blog so there is no need for me to go down that road again. Pound has my respect because he has decided to bell the cat. End of story.
Pound didn’t “bell the cat”. Pound knows that all cats kill birds (even housecats and catfish) so it would just save time to put them all in sealed plastic bags and be done with it.