I was thinking about Don Imus, because they have TVs playing CNN at my gym, and there is no way you can be anywhere near CNN these days and not think about Don Imus.

And then I was thinking that this was a case that made me want to look up that old Voltaire quote about how I hate what you're saying but I'd die for your right to say it.

But then I thought -- damn -- I just looked up that same quote! It was back when Micheal Ray Richardson was in the news.

Both cases, it seems to me, are examples of what you can expect when you have free speech: people saying things that are hurtful and ridiculous.

Did you ever think we'd have a world without people acting like idiots? Ask any grade school teacher. There are always one or two.

The great thing about free speech is that it encourages those people to identify themselves ...

New York Times columnist Harvey Araton also connected those dots -- between Richardson and Imus -- and checks in with his friend Micheal Ray Richardson (Select), who is freshly out a job as coach of the CBA's Albany Patroons. Richardon has made apologies, is said to be considering suing the reporter involved, and more than anything is looking for a decent job.

David Stern has piped up for Richardson, but that didn't save Richardson's job. Araton has word of what might be next for him, and wonders if Imus wouldn't have been better off with a David Stern figure in his life -- a powerful boss to rein in his worst impulses. Araton writes:

Stern's support didn't get Richardson reinstated in Albany or a contract for next season. Jim Coyne, the Patroons' general manager, said there were other issues: a midseason powder Richardson took to attend the N.B.A. All-Star Game in Las Vegas, a trade he made without consulting Coyne.

There were also earlier exchanges with fans, Coyne said, situations that "a coach should be above." Coyne and the team's president and owner, Benito Fernandez, decided after the playoffs that it was best for Richardson to move on. But where?

"The best thing for Micheal would be to work for the N.B.A. or one of its teams, scouting in Europe," Coyne said. "He knows the territory, he knows talent, and that would take him away from the pressure of the game, the heat of the moment."

And out of the combustible environment that always made him such a risk to implode.

It has been 10 years since Richardson startled Stern in Paris at a McDonald's Open game, held out his hand and thanked him for sending him away, for setting him straight. Kicking Richardson out of the N.B.A. was no act of friendship. Hindsight allows us to define it, in part, as one of mercy.

Hard truths are invaluable for those who believe they are untouchable, who stretch the rules, or the limits of decency. As he most likely heads to the satellite dial, the talk-radio European league, think Imus isn't wishing that some of his big-shot friends had been willing to sacrifice their own airtime and agendas until he curtailed the crudeness? That he had had a corporate commissioner to administer tough love?