Did every single State News staff person who has some sort of affinity toward sports leave for the summer? Does someone have a personal agenda with the athletics department that they only have the guts and support to write anti-athletic editorials in the summer?

First I see an editorial writing off the so-called "BasketBowl" ("Athletics antics," SN 6/2) as an over-glorified event and we should condemn those involved for even thinking of such an outrageous idea. According to the editorial, it would be giving up our home-court advantage at Breslin Center. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Anyone who has attended a game at Breslin Center knows that it's the 2,000 people in the lower bowl bleachers who actually make some noise and 13,000 rich alumni who only stand up to itch their butts.

When you bring in 65,000 people to Ford Field you bring 50,000 people who normally do not get to see Spartan basketball and will make some noise.

Lest we forget "The Cold War?" I know the hockey team appreciated playing in front of 75,000 rambunctious fans, rather than 6,000 people at Munn Ice Arena, known for being one of the quietest hockey arenas in the nation.

This idea is the type of thing our university is built upon. We thrive on being cutting-edge and ambitious, which is what makes us better than our tradition-loving neighbors in Ann Arbor. MSU has been the pioneer in many areas, academic and athletic. If we settle for the status quo, we are no better than a bunch of maize and blue rodents.

I'm assuming the same person who peddled their propaganda to the State News staff about "The BasketBowl" also did the same with the Earvin "Magic" Johnson statue. Do we really need to get upset with every single thing that goes on around campus? The university is not even spending any money on the statue, and there is an uproar about it. Yes, Johnson was a great athlete who happened to leave college early after winning a national championship (which still has the highest television rating of any NCAA Championship game), and who went on to have a spectacular NBA career.

But he also has been a great humanitarian, especially for the Lansing area. To say he has forgotten about the university and has not supported MSU is incredibly myopic and borders on such shortsighted thinking that only deserves a slap in the face.

Do we only live our lives in the confines of the area south of Grand River Avenue? Do we think of people as one-dimensional? Johnson is not only an athlete and nothing else. He has been a great humanitarian, philanthropist and spokesperson for the university.

Is the university really choosing athletics over academics? Of course not, but if we are going to erect a statue, why don't we choose someone people will actually recognize.

Let's face it, we don't have any alumni who have been president or Nobel Prize winners. We are, however, choosing a man with great integrity and one who we should hope our kids pick as a role model.

Josh Hausmann
sports administration
graduate student