Should Bubba get all the attention?

I feel like Bubba is a good story, but the outside media is looking for the politically correct hero. I read about a possible movie, Buuba on espn this week, GQ, special interview with Bryant Gumble. Last time I checked he has never won a title in the premier class. A better movie maybe RC( two perfect seasons and 8 straight outdoor titles), Doug Henry coming back after a broken back, Jeff Ward winning Supermoto after Indy car, and of course MC. Bubba is fast, reckless and loves the limelight but should he be the center of everything?

one word=YES! Why? cuz he just entered the 250 league and proved to whip ass in supercross. in motocross? he's in the top riders.

He shouldn't.

But he's black comming into a sport dominated by whites. RC deserves all the attention right now, but a 5'3" red headed white boy isn't marketable like "Bubba".

It's all about the Bling Bling, bitches.

mxwhiteside wrote:

I feel like Bubba is a good story, but the outside media is looking for the politically correct hero. I read about a possible movie, Buuba on espn this week, GQ, special interview with Bryant Gumble. Last time I checked he has never won a title in the premier class. A better movie maybe RC( two perfect seasons and 8 straight outdoor titles), Doug Henry coming back after a broken back, Jeff Ward winning Supermoto after Indy car, and of course MC. Bubba is fast, reckless and loves the limelight but should he be the center of everything?

While it is impressive and I give him a large amount of credit for being black and doing so well in a sport dominated by whites, I agree 100% with you. There are tons of other examples which I feel deserve more media (or deservED more media) than Bubba's feats.

Bubba also get's a lot of attention becuz he is so fun to watch race! im sure he will give RC great battles and take races away from him.

I think alot of people are forgetting that Stewart is still only 19. Carmicheal is 24 and has alot more racing under his belt and Stewart is running his pace if not beating him. This is stewarts first year with the big boys on a 250 and i believe he is doing alot better of a job then anyone else ever did. He deserves all the fame he is getting.

I think rc had a lot better first year on 250's than bubba is having and he was around 19 or 20 at that time as well. I don't think people give rc nearly as much credit as he deserves for the time and dedication he shows to the sport and the respect he has for the other riders.

all the hype will go down.. since he just went from 125 to 250 hes everywhere.. RC and CR will put him in his place

i believe stewart deserves alot of hype, for the reasons mentioned about. is 'the man' in the sport though, no. RC is still the best rider. outdoors so far RC has proven that he is still the fastest rider out there. while i wouldnt be surprised to see Stewart win a few motos, RC wil win the title and deserves to be credited as the sports best rider right now.

Dispite what you might hear from the whiners and the media, I don't see any real prejudice in general. Young cool black men are loved by most everyone especially when they accomplish great things. There is no doubt that RC has done more and deserves to be known as the greatest by far.

Up until now our sport has NEVER been in the real limelight. Our sport has NEVER had any real recognition from the general public. It used to be that you could only watch one motocross race per year on ABC's Wide World of Sports and sometimes it would be rescheduled because of the Ping Pong Championships.

If Bubba can bring the kind of media coverage to our sport that Tiger did to friggin GOLF! (polyester people walking) then I say "I'll take it any way I can"!!!

Hopefully, we will all soon be watching highlights and comentary of who won Southwick on the evening news instead of hoping to catch a glimpse on 2 Wheel Tuesday between all that leather apparel and saddle bag crap.

I personally dont want to see Motocross get any more media coverage or popularity.

I Skateboarded through most of my youth and latter teens, when I started Skating (1988 or so) we could skate anywere (downtown) at any time and no one would say anything.

By 1996 Skating became so popular that people got sick of seeing skaters running though their parking lots or downtowns and started to work against skaters.

Now Skating is banned in most every downtown in America and even some Citys banned it throughout the whole city. Skaters are stuck only skating in skateparks where they have to pay to ride wooden made stuff (behold the comeback of the half pipe!)

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH MOTOCROSS!

More riders equal more things that can go wrong. More noise levels, more people wanting bikes, more local tracks being closed from noise, higher prices for bikes and gear (demand and supply), more bikes getting stolen, more local backwoods riding areas being closed down (gotta enjoy the roots of dirtbiking), more more more, is not better.

TV coverage is good enough right now. Cover every race on ESPN or OLN and thats all I want and ask. Anymore is just looking for trouble.

Keep our sport simple and we (the real lovers of the sport) will have more fun with less problems.

Christopher In Tampa wrote:

I personally dont want to see Motocross get any more media coverage or popularity.

I Skateboarded through most of my youth and latter teens, when I started Skating (1988 or so) .....

..... started to work against skaters.
.....Skaters are stuck only skating in skateparks where they have to pay to ride wooden made stuff (behold the comeback of the half pipe!)

More riders equal more things that can go wrong.....

TV coverage is good enough right now. Cover every race on ESPN or OLN and thats all I want and ask. Anymore is just looking for trouble.

Keep our sport simple and we (the real lovers of the sport) will have more fun with less problems.

All good points. I know what you are saying. I think I would do just fine if that is all it ever stayed.

Here's my perspective. I started riding and skating in the 70s when there were more skate parks than now. Popularity is what is bringing skating back from the dark ages. I live in California and a new free city property cement skate park is now a block from my house on the beach with street section, snake run and bowl. I never thought I'd see the day.

Most of the good riding places were illegal to ride on in the first place and have houses on them now and the environmentalists have shut down some of my favorite places to ride because of some pollywog at the river crossings. Insurance took it's toll on the tracks.

I think that popularity with all it's bad might be the only way to reverse that trend.

Noise seems to be the big hurdle. With all the technology the sport might do well if the manufacturers found a way to make bikes quiet without losing power and gaining weight. Now that I think about it, THAT is the only thing most ordinary people complain about when it comes to motorcycles.

I think the major media should stay the hell out of our sport. They don't care about Bubba as a rider or a person they only care about his race. They make such a big deal about his being black in a sport 'dominated' by whites when that really is of no importance at all. Unfortunately I think he'll be remembered as the first great 'black' rider rather than just a great rider. I hope I'm wrong though.

On a side note RC seems to get shorter and shorter every time someone mentions his height. First he was 5'6" then he was 5'5" and now, according to DC323 he's 5'3".

AS LONG AS RC CONTINUES HIS INCREDIBLE CAREER YOU GUYS CAN LIST HIM AT 6'3" WHO CARES!!!

FOR AS FAR BACK AS I CAN REMEMBER I HAVE NEVER EVER LABELED A PERSON OR ANY ATHLETE IN ANY SPORT BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN AND NEITHER DID MOTOCROSS UNTIL THE MEDIA STARTED TO COVER THE " JAMES BUBBA STEWART STORY " (THAT BEGAN WITH JIM BROWN I BELIEVE) AND EVERYTHING SNOWBALLED AFTER THAT!!! DOES ANYBODY IN THE SX / MX WORLD REALLY CARE ??? HE'S JUST A MAN WHO LOVES RIDING DIRT BIKES AND WANTS TO BE THE BEST HE CAN BE WHILE DOING IT! SO YA HE DESERVES THE RESPECT AND ATTENTION THAT "ALL" HARD WORKING SX / MX RIDERS GET BECAUSE OF WHAT HE PUTS INTO IT!!! LET THE MEDIA WHO CAN REALLY GET INTO THEIR SHPEIL PUT LABELS ON PEOPLE AND STEREOTYPE US AS WELL = CAUSE THATS ALL THEY KNOW HOW TO DO, IT'S A JOB ,IT CREATES ATTENTION AND TURNS REVENUES FOR THEIR COMPANYS.......

Gattsu1 wrote:

On a side note RC seems to get shorter and shorter every time someone mentions his height. First he was 5'6" then he was 5'5" and now, according to DC323 he's 5'3".

That's what happens when you get farther and farther away from the second place guy!