Steve Blake and Ike Diogu

[November 5th, 2008]

We thought the all-time low for athletic idiocy in an election came with former Boston Celtic Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell. The now-retired Maxwell, who is African-American, was asked years ago how he could support the re-election in his North Carolina home of racist Sen. Jesse Helms. Maxwell’s tone-deaf answer: that he was voting for the tax-hating Helms because Maxwell made “a lot more scratch than most of the brothers.”

Stupid? Yes. Un-toppable? Nope.

Last week when Oregonian reporter Jason Quick asked Trail Blazers players whom they were supporting for president, guard Steve Blake and forward Ike Diogu said they weren’t planning to vote.

Diogu said it was for “personal reasons,” Quick wrote, and “Blake said he has never voted, yet will support whomever wins.”

(Brandon Roy also told Quick he wouldn’t vote, but later said that he changed his mind after talking to his family. Roy wouldn’t say who he voted for.)

Is it really that hard, guys? We don’t expect everybody to come out like Greg Oden and actually campaign, as Oden did for Barack Obama. But the choice was clear between Obama and John McCain. And voting couldn’t be easier. Hell, the secretary of state’s office reported at least 81 percent of those registered in Oregon mailed in their ballots.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Blazers confirmed Blake and Diogu still weren’t voting.

By deciding to sit out the election, Blake and Diogu did what would be unthinkable to them as NBA players: They passed up an easy shot.