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June 27, 2005

Maybe You Can't Say "Dirty Argie" On TV

In which we import a British ethnic slur to better explain the success of Argentine Manu Ginobili

In the space of ten months, Argentine forward Manu Ginobili has won the NBA Championship with the San Antonio Spurs and the Olympic gold medal with Argentina (besting his Spurs teammate Tim Duncan in the process). Not a bad haul for a guy that most American basketball fans had never heard of as of four years ago. In fact, this was the first year that Ginobili was even a full-time starter for the Spurs -- and yet by the end of the season, the NBA blathermonkeys were tripping over themselves to praise Ginobili's "gritty all-around game" and basketball IQ (especially once the Heat and young Master Wade were eliminated).

At the same time, the praise for Ginobili has been tempered somewhat by accusations of unsportsmanlike play. Specifically, certain opponents (and more than a few opposing fans) will readily assert that Ginobili is the most egregious flopper the NBA has seen since the prime of Vlade Divacs. Not that flopping is against the rules, per se (certainly not as it exists in soccer, where it is a bookable offense), and not that star players don’t routinely exaggerate body contact to influence referees’ whistles, but the boldness with which Ginobili has come to launch himself backwards at the mere suggestion of impact has earned him something of a reputation among NBA fans.

While it would certainly be tempting to connect the dots from Divacs to Ginobili and generalize that international players have more of a predilection for flopping than do American players (the legacy of Bill Laimbeer notwithstanding), there exists a far more elegant connection. For if we were to show Ginobili’s on-court flopping to any self-respecting British sport fan and then explain that Manu was from Argentina, their explanation would be quick and decisive: well of course this Ginobili is a dirty argie.

Dirty argie. This is the catchall Brit term for behavior (typically sporting) from Argentines that they categorize as unfair, sneaky or otherwise not in tune with the agreed upon customs of good sportsmanship. Mostly it’s their way of asserting that Argentine players have a penchant for cheating. Though I wouldn’t presuppose to be able to explain the deeper sources of British-Argentine animosity, we can safely assume that the 1982 Falklands War has something to do with it.

Of course, wars are wars, and there is something that both nations take a bit more seriously than even armed conflicts: the quadrennial FIFA World Cup. Though every soccer fan in every nation has a tale of woe relating to some questionable refereeing decision that cost their country/ favorite club some important or otherwise deserved victory, perhaps the most famous bad call of the past 30 years was Argentine Diego Maradona’s “Hand Of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup. As the endless television replays incontrovertibly demonstrated, Maradona used his hand (and not his head) to punch home a goal against England, and later cheekily explained that it was actually the hand of God, and not his, that scored the goal. Brits remain outraged by the goal to this day (though they don’t have so much to say about the other goal he scored against them, in which he dribbled 60 yards through the entire England defense before flipping the ball past England keeper Peter Shilton).

Argentina and England met again at the 1998 World Cup in France, and this time it was a different Diego, Diego Simeone, who earned the ire of English supporters with a flopjob that got England star David Beckham tossed from the game – and England essentially bounced from the tournament. Though it was certainly a silly move for Beckham to have lunged at Simeone following a tough tackle, Simeone “made a meal of it”by acting as though he’d just absorbed a volley of heavy artillery and collapsed writhing to the ground (when barely any contact had been made). The incident may be the defining moment of Beckham’s career (though Beckham could change that if he continues to miss important penalties) and he claims that the Argentine players taunted him mercilessly after the game in the parking lot (I guess Becks’ precious feelings were bruised). Simeone (not exactly the most graceful or skillful player) didn’t have a cheeky explanation or name for the flop – he was just happy to have helped his team win the game.

Is it fair to apply this admittedly prejudicial and nasty stereotype to Ginobili? Probably not. He’s a good player and his flopping doesn’t ruin the NBA (in the way that some soccer players’ persistent simulation can render games unwatchable). I’m just surprised that I haven’t read or heard a single word from the blathermonkeys on the topic. Maybe they’re just being polite, or maybe they don’t care much for soccer, but it seems pretty unforgivable that no one (not even on the Internet!) has mentioned it. (Someone needs to get Sir Charles in a room with an excitable English dude and some soccer tapes – I guarantee we hear “Dirty Argie” broadcast live on TNT within hours.)

At the same time, it’s a pretty ugly term, and a pretty broad stereotype to apply (and one which most certainly involves some English jealousy about Argentina’s successes over the past 30 years in international football) to a large and diverse nation. But in a sporting culture where the Washington Redskins and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are perfectly acceptable, a little jingoism wouldn’t shock me.

Note: everything I said in the previous post about my computer working well was a complete lie. Structural problems persist. Sigh.

Posted by thatkid at June 27, 2005 1:00 PM under Sports

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