His Status Should Be No Slur Thing

Dan Issel shouldn’t be fired because he used an ethnic slur to insult a fan Tuesday night.

No, that’s merely the last and final reason he should be fired.

His continued tenure as coach of the Denver Nuggets, with a record descending farther and farther below .500, was a mystery anyway. It’s inconceivable how anyone--let alone a guy with such a tenuous hold on his job--could use such bad judgment.

A local television station captured Issel’s insult after the Nuggets lost to the Charlotte Hornets. After a fan yelled at Issel, Issel said: “Hey, go buy another beer. Go drink another beer, you ... Mexican piece of...”

Why did he have to go there? Sure, Issel was frustrated, but when someone’s ethnicity is the first thing to come to mind when you want to insult him, that’s a sign you have a problem.

To the Nuggets’ credit, they acted swiftly, suspending him without pay for four games. The NBA is sensitive about these matters. In 1997, when then-New Jersey Net coach John Calipari called a reporter a “Mexican idiot,” Commissioner David Stern fined Calipari $25,000.

This time the league asked the team to handle it itself.

At a little more than $28,000 a game, Issel’s tab will come to more than $112,000. If I lost that much cash I’d be crying too, as Issel did at his news conference Wednesday.

Actually, he looked legitimately distressed. He called his remarks “uncaring and un-Christian-like” and said: “I take full responsibility for my actions and I’m sorry for the embarrassment it’s caused the team, my family ... “ and then he choked up.

The punishment for a person’s views should escalate with their prominence. With a player, slurs simply are insensitive. For an official with hiring and firing capacities, slurs can be evidence of discriminatory behavior. Issel, who was replaced by Kiki Vandeweghe as the team’s general manager last summer, is somewhat in between. That’s why the suspension was the right punishment for this offense. It just wasn’t the right move for the team.

Just because the Nuggets don’t have any Latino players doesn’t mean they won’t react to this. They have 12 African Americans, including players on injured reserve. Here’s the thought process: If he can say that about the Latinos, what could he say about us?

There haven’t been any previous indications that there was a racial problem between Issel and his players. He has a problem, period.

Last year, he dogged out Raef LaFrentz, who is white, and the entire team rallied behind LaFrentz. They boycotted a practice and were about to mutiny.

You didn’t see any players showing up to defend Issel at his news conference, did you? The Clippers stood behind Lamar Odom and his drug suspension, the Golden State Warriors stood behind Latrell Sprewell after he choked P.J. Carlesimo. When Issel became too emotional to continue, he stood up and left ... alone.

My favorite element of this story was the part about Nick Van Exel trying to defuse the situation Tuesday night and lead Issel back to the locker room. When Van Exel is the voice of reason, it’s time to get out.

Van Exel is only one of the headaches Issel will have to face when he comes back. Earlier in the week Van Exel said he wants out of Denver.

The Nuggets are 7-14 and have lost five games in a row. Issel’s record in Denver is 178-205.

The Nuggets should cut to the chase, spare themselves and Issel any more hassle and just tell him not to bother returning.

Will his penalty stop Issel from thinking of people in racial terms, or keep another coach from using epithets? Well, Calipari’s fine didn’t help Issel.

The saddest part is that this episode did not come as a complete surprise.

Just as Sept. 11 brought out some of America’s best qualities--heroism, patriotism, generosity--it also revealed the ugliest side of our country. It was evident in all of the reports of attacks and accusations against anyone who looked Arabic or wore a turban.

My taxi driver at the airport Wednesday was a Sikh. He had the turban, the beard ... all of the things Americans have come to associate with terrorists. On the divider between the front and back seat, along with the usual stickers about rates and regulations, he had a bumper sticker that read: “Sikh condemn terrorism. God Bless America.”

It’s as if he knew what passengers had to be thinking and wanted to put them at ease. Imagine having to defend your right to be here just because of the way you look. It’s happening now in 2001.

Just as sure as basketball coaches are hurling racial epithets at fans.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address: ja.adande@latimes.com