August 9, 2011, Mike Milbury should be fired column for HockeyPrimeTime.com
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| HPT Bold Prediction #23: Mike Milbury will be fired |  |
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Written by Denis Gorman |
| Tuesday, August 09, 2011 04:37 |
 The former executive has pushed the envelope long enough with his commentary. It's just a matter of time until NBC puts its foot down on Mike Milbury's broadcasting career.
During intermission of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, Mike Milbury evidently felt a burning desire to share his inanity with a nationwide television audience.
Standing between Dan Patrick and Jeremy Roenick as the Rogers Arena ice lay far below, Milbury looked into NBC’s cameras and called Daniel and Henrik Sedin “Thelma and Louise.”
It was a mean-spirited slur, a stupid, not-at-all clever comparison to women that instantly earned the failed former executive well-deserved condemnation from within and outside the hockey world.
At the time, disappointment was expressed here that Milbury’s employers – NBC, Versus, CBC and NESN – felt “honor bound” to provide platforms for his small-minded drivel.
What it did not do was cause Milbury to be relieved of his duties as a broadcast analyst. But he will be fired. Soon. Maybe as early as this season.
Milbury’s jingoistic, xenophobic, sexist act has grown beyond stale. Moreover, it is not original. Ostensibly, he is imitating his former coach Don Cherry, the veteran Saturday night presence on CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada.
It is a calculated decision.
Cherry is 77 years old. Eventually, CBC will need to replace him on Coach’s Corner, a five-minute segment between the first and second periods of the first game of the network’s Saturday night doubleheader in which he espouses his views on the game. Cherry has routinely been criticized for his decidedly unenlightened stances.
The difference is that Cherry is set in his ways. Cherry comes from a non-PC age, a time in which society praised those who did not question power. Milbury is 59 years old and college educated. He has worked in large media markets as a coach and general manager following a career in which he was a players’ representative. If anyone should be aware of the power of words and societal transformation, it should be Milbury.
Instead, he takes delight in slandering non-North American players, simply because he can. Prime on his hit list is Jaromir Jagr. Jagr is going to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame eventually, an honor to be awarded for being one of the most dominant players of his generation including winning two Stanley Cup Championships.
Milbury? He’s best remembered as a player for jumping into the Madison Square Garden stands in 1979 and beating a New York Rangers fan with his shoe. His tenure as New York Islanders general manager was marked by baffling trades that ruined what was once professional sports’ pre-eminent franchise. Darius Kasparaitis, Wade Redden, Mathieu Schneider, Bryan McCabe, Todd Bertuzzi, Roberto Luongo, Olli Jokinen, Eric Brewer, Zdeno Chara and the No. 2 pick in 2001 draft, which turned out to be Jason Spezza, were amongst the franchise talent that Milbury parted with as GM.
If anyone in any endeavor should not offer commentary regarding questionable personnel decisions, it is Mike Milbury. Yet, with unquantifiable chutzpah, Milbury feels no embarrassment as he mocks and ridicule executives and athletes.
It is enough to get him fired.
On Twitter: @HockeyPrimeTime and @DenisGorman Photo by Getty Images |
http://www.hockeyprimetime.com/news/features/hpt-bold-prediction-23-mike-milbury-will-be-fired
posted by Denis P. Gorman at 10:36 AM
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