Author and poet Sherman Alexie is best known for his writing (in a whole bunch of books and movies) about the contemporary Native American experience. He's also a big basketball fan, and a TrueHoop reader. (More than a decade ago, he says Time magazine called him "septic with his own unappeasable anger." A guy with a great sense of humor, he had that phrase printed on a t-shirt and plays basketball in it.) He emailed some thoughts about all the anger out there towards the NBA:

I'm positive the anti-NBA reaction is racial AND racist.

First of all, in racial terms, the game has become so black American and internationally dominated that the typical white American fan has nobody special to root for. That's not racism, but it is racial. And it's not a problem. If a Native American ever makes it into the NBA, he will instantly become my favorite player because I will racially, culturally, and physically identify with him. I understand and completely accept why so many white guys love Larry Bird, just as I understand why there are 1,000 black kids in Kobe Bryant jerseys at every Laker game played here in Seattle. It's a tribal thing.

But the racial aspects of fandom can easily become racist. And I think that many white fans, having no player like Larry Bird or even Tom Chambers to root for, have consciously and/or subconsiously turned that lack of a special white player into an indictment of the league in general. And since the league is black it becomes an indictment of blackness.

The language is coded (those NBAers don't play basketball "the right way") but it's not hard to figure out the true meanings.

I think there's also an anti-superhero bias, too.

Stay with me on this one.

NBA players have completely transcended the game. The typical fan goes to the arena to watch a basketball game, but that's not what's happening anymore. It's a whole new sport. I don't even watch college games and NBA games with the same eyes anymore. I have two sets of eyes, or perhaps the better (tortured) analogy is that I have learned to be basketball bilingual. I understand that basketball is played in two different languages: the NBA and everybody else. And I think that a vast majority of NBA fans are just not interested in learning the new language. I think of the hundreds of people over the years who have sat near me at Sonics games and completely misunderstood the illegal defense rules, or the charge circle rules, or, well, you get the point ...