J.A. Adande does not know what the word cancer means

I've been wanting to write about the Charlie Villaneuva Kevin Garnett feud that occurred last week but there is so much stupidity involved in this story it has been difficult. To summarize the story, Charlie Villaneuva posted on Twitter that Garnett said he looked like a cancer patient. Garnett responded and said that he told Villaneuva he was a cancer to his team and the NBA, not a cancer patient. My brief opinion on this is Charlie Villaneuva is a big overpaid baby who should have never taken Garnett's “cancer” comments so seriously. Besides, Villaneuva is a cancer and looks like he has cancer so there is no story here or any disrespect to cancer patients because who'd honestly do that?

The topic of this article is related to this event and looks at a short article titled "Time to rid the sports lexicon of 'cancer.'" (It can be found here here.) In it, just as the title suggests, author J.A. Adande argues that this Villaneuva Garnett incident should be a sign that we need to take the word cancer out of anything that's not regarding the the actual disease or the zodiac sign. Why you might ask? Because the other common use of the word cancer that has nothing to do with disease and is offensive to those with the disease. Let Adande explain.

We use cancer in the most casual ways. Locker room cancer, clubhouse cancer, on and on, as if anything an athlete does to disrupt team harmony is the equivalent of mutating cells that attack bodies from within and take the lives of our loved ones.

No, we use cancer in the “most casual ways” because it has multiple definitions. One of those definitions happens to be, “something evil or malignant that spreads destructively.”(Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary) You are taking the medical term and saying another use of it is offensive to those with the disease? How? It gets worse.

I typed "Terrell Owens cancer" into Google's search engine and received 165,000 hits. I didn't have the time to go through all of them, but I'm pretty sure none referenced a diagnosis of the disease or a visit to a children's hospital. Shouldn't Owens take offense? As bad a teammate as he's been at times, he's never killed anyone. More importantly, we should be offended by constant misuse of such a serious word.

This is probably because they were using the definition of the word that is not associated with the medical term. We know he's never killed anyone, but he's a dick and thus cancer to his team. This is a correct definition that nobody should take offense to. You appear to be the only one who has a problem with it.

So let's drop "cancer" from the sports lexicon -- unless the topic is the zodiac sign. Can you just imagine Garnett yelling, "You embody the worst aspects of a Cancer; you let your emotions override rational judgment"?

So let me get this straight, you only recognize a couple definitions of the word cancer? You find one definition to be offensive to people who have the disease even though it has nothing to do it besides having the same name. What is wrong with you? Did you go to school?

Also, no, I cannot imagine Garnett yelling that, because it would be a retarded thing to yell. I don't even have anything else to say. J.A. Adande, this has to be the stupidest thing I've ever read and has nothing to do with sports. You can continue to think that the type of cancer that is associated with Terrell Owens as a teammate is the same as a life ending disease, but it's not, and you're the only one who thinks it is.