I have Freedom of Speech too

To start off, in case some of you don't know what happened, Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard stated this about his country and national anthem at Allen Iverson's charity flag-football event:

"'The Star-Spangled Banner' is going on. I don't celebrate this [expletive]. I'm black …"

I think that is self-explanatory. But when it comes to this, it's rather stupid. I see people on both sides saying, "He's unpatriotic" and "He's a fool for denouncing his country"; and those on the other side that say "Leave him alone" and try to pull the free speech argument.

Sure, he does have a right to free speech. He has a right to say it, but free speech isn't always intelligent speech. Howard should be thanking our founding fathers for protecting his "stupidity".

I recently read an article on Slam Online titled "Leave Josh Howard alone" by Dave Zirin.

Zirin wants everybody to leave Howard alone because he has a right to say what he wants, yet he condemns J.A. Adande of ESPN for slamming Howard, claiming Howard is lucky:

“What makes America the best country on the planet is that you are free to stand or sit for the national anthem, to sing along or to yell in anger at the government as much as you want without getting tossed in jail for your political beliefs.”

Hypocrisy at it's finest. We have people defending Josh Howard for his freedom speech, yet they condemn others who also have that same right to form opinions based on what he says and treat him accordingly.

Josh Howard has a right to say what he wants, but I also have a right to think he's stupid for saying it. I have a right to form an opinion of him too.

There are so many people quick to defend Howard's antics, but yet they don't want to hear the other side. They want to censor other people's opinions about Howard.

I won't be surprised to see Mavs owner Mark Cuban, other NBA players, or Howard for that matter, defend himself, but when Howard hears boos in the crowd, sees ticket sales drop, his paycheck cut, or nobody wants to sign him, then he can only thank a little something called "free speech".