TONY HENRY, JOAKIM NOAH, ROB PORTER AND THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS

Diafra Sakho got right out there and said it.

West Ham United F.C., a British Premier League club which signed him to a four-year contract on 14 August 2014, “don’t want black players.”

Not exactly the tune the Senegalese striker was singing after becoming their seventh signing prior to the opening of the 2014-’15 campaign.

“This is a proud day to have signed for West Ham, I really love English football and I’ve dreamed of coming to play for one of the big English clubs. Today, West Ham has given me that opportunity and I didn’t hesitate to grab it.”

Sakho scored four goals in his first four starts for the Hammers, breaking a 26-year-old club record held by Leroy Rosenior.

When Sakho scored West Ham’s second goal in a late-October 2014 2–1 home win against reigning champion Manchester City, he became the first player in the club’s rich history to score in six straight Premier League games, matching Michael (‘Micky’) Quinn’s PL record set in 1992.

For his most impressive efforts Sakho was named the Premier League Player-of-the-Month for October 2014; manager Sam Allardyce was awarded Manager-of-the- Month honors.

West Ham United’s head of transfers Tony Henry was given the gate last week over alleged remarks he made about African players.

According to claims by the Daily Mail Mr. Henry, responding to suggestions that he’d advised football agents against soliciting the club regarding the future recruitment and services of African players, said simply that African players “can have a bad attitude” and “cause mayhem” when not selected.

The Daily Mail reported that Henry sent an email to another senior West Ham official as well as to an agent stating that we (West Ham) “do not want any more Africans.”

When asked whether or not there was an official club policy in place with respect to signing African players, Henry said “no.”

Then he felt the need to continue talking.

Big mistake.

“Yeah, because we had three and we felt we didn’t particularly want any more African players.”

When asked why Henry replied, “…No reason. It’s nothing racist at all. It’s just sometimes they can have a bad attitude. We had problems with Sakho, with Diafra Sakho. We find that when they are not in the team they cause mayhem. It’s nothing against the African race at all…I mean, look, there are top African players. There’s not a problem with them. It’s just sometimes they cause a lot of problems when they are not playing, as we had with Diafra. He’s left, so great. It’s nothing personal at all.”

Regrettably he persisted.

“I could say we get offered Russian players. I just find with Russian players that they don’t settle in England. It’s like Italians. How many Italians come and settle in England? As a club we are not discriminatory at all.”

WHEW!!!

It’s 2018.

Bye-bye Tony.

Suspension?

Yes, but sorry that may not be all.

See ya. As in for good.

Joakim Noah and Jeff Hornacek don’t see eye-to-eye. Never mind that Noah stands 6’11” and coach Hornacek — on his tiptoes at age 54 — is still near his playing height of 6’4”; it has nothing to do with how tall they are.

The two apparently had a “heated verbal exchange” during practice in Denver on January 24th. which resulted in Noah leaving the team indefinitely for what was described as (the omnipresent ace-in-the-hole) “personal reasons.”

Noah has appeared in just seven games this season. He has played a grand total of 40 minutes and scored 12 points.

His last meaningful minutes came in New Orleans on December 30th., playing 13 of them at the end of the game when it mattered most and sparking the Knicks to a fourth-quarter comeback win with his defensive presence.

Noah, a 2-time All-Star and the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2014 with the Chicago Bulls, has two years after this season remaining on his four-year $72 million contract.

It would require a minor miracle to unload the remaining $37 million over the next two years considering Noah’s age — he’s 32 — lack of productivity and his off-court travails which also include a 20-game suspension without pay for violating the league’s anti-drug policy.

(The league cited Noah’s positive test for Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator LGD-4033 known as SARMs, a substance found in some over-the-counter supplements. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency says SARMs has “similar properties to anabolic agents, but…the lack of steroid-related side effects.”).

And not surprisingly, Noah is reported as having expressed no interest in leaving money on the table in a potential contractual buyout in spite of his desire to get out of town.

The price to part ways is prohibitive. Maybe too prohibitive.

The Knicks can thank the since-departed Phil Jackson for hanging the NBA’s worst contract around their necks leaving ligature marks that would make any medical examiner salivate.

Regardless that the Knicks have been valued at $3.6 billion — the highest of any league franchise — this contract is tantamount to a negotiating straitjacket.

No escape.

Former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter reportedly explained to the FBI and to others privately that his first spouse — and first ex — Colbie Holderness was left with a black eye as a result of an argument over a vase.

In the course of the disagreement, she was “somehow hit with a vase.”

In a weak attempt to reject this allegation of abuse, Porter offered that he himself had taken the picture of Holderness’ shiner though he chose not to further delve into its origin.

The incident and others were reported by both Holderness and Porter’s second ex-wife Jennie Willoughby in January 2017 and the FBI confronted the White House about its ongoing investigation last fall.

White House Counsel Donald McGahn II is rumored to have known about the laundry list of allegations against Porter for more than a year.

Chief of Staff John Kelly, who had called Porter a “man of true integrity” before reluctantly walking back his initial defense stating that he was “shocked by the new allegations,” has known about Porter’s history with women for months.

In detail Kelly’s first statement read this way:

“Rob Porter is a man of true integrity and honor and I can’t say enough good things about him. He is a friend, a confidante and a trusted professional. I am proud to serve alongside him.”

As the uproar of the alleged abuse spread like wildfire and Porter announced his resignation, Kelly released a second statement.

“There is no place for domestic violence in our society. I stand by my previous comments of the Rob Porter that I have come to know since becoming Chief of Staff, and believe every individual deserves the right to defend their reputation.”

Porter has responded (perhaps inimitably) that the allegations are false and part of a “coordinated smear campaign.”

Said Willoughby on a CNN broadcast airing February 8th., in an attempt to gravely warn Porter’s rumored girlfriend WH Communications Director Hope Hicks of what likely lies ahead, “if he hasn’t already been abusive [to her that] he will be.”

Rob Porter, the son of an aide to George H. W. Bush by the name of Roger B. Porter, graduated from Harvard University in 2002. Before enrolling he had interned in the U.S. Senate. After his freshman year in college he did a two-year stint as a Mormon missionary in London. During the summer of his junior year young Porter completed an internship at the White House and worked for the Domestic Party Council, the principal forum used by the president to consider and address domestic policy issues.

He graduated from Harvard Law School in 2008 where he was academic chair of the conservative Harvard Federalist Society and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.

A Rhodes Scholar, he studied Political Theory at Oxford. And he served for nearly three years as the chief of staff for Senator Orrin Hatch, beginning in March of 2014. In January of 2017 he left that position to become White House Staff Secretary for President Donald Trump.

A sterling resume by any measure, to be sure; a bee-line to “the top.”

The allegations against Porter — which of course he denies — are more than morally disturbing.

The issues of domestic violence and physical assault should represent the beginning, middle and end of any discussion relating to him.

They don’t.

The fact that the FBI found the accusations credible enough to open a full-scale investigation and grant only an “interim security clearance” for Porter while it was ongoing, begs other real questions which speak directly to the safety of the country’s most sensitive intelligence officers and most dangerous and classified operations.

As staff secretary, Porter’s position was one of the most important in the White House.

The staff secretary is typically responsible for managing all information flowing to the president, including top-secret material known only to a handful of people — in this context, President Trump and Chiefs of Staff Reince Priebus and Kelly, and National Security Advisers Michael Flynn and Lt. General H. R. McMaster.

Agents and sources in the field are willing to put their lives at risk if and only if they are assured that highly-classified information is disseminated exclusively to the administration’s most trustworthy people.

And stays there.

The staff secretary — alongside the president, the national security adviser and deputy(ies) and their chief of staff, the NSC’s staff secretary and the White House Chief of Staff and deputy — is among this very select few.

Either Porter was allowed access by Kelly to TS/SCI — TS/Sensitive Compartmented Information, also known as code-word information — without a clearance; Kelly waived the process entirely; or a system was created to navigate around Porter.

In other words, either an extraordinary security breach took place; TS/SCI restrictions were waived which would demand a complete understanding as to why Porter’s status was languishing in the “interim” classification, courtesy of a restraining order preventing him from contacting a former wife who had alleged physical abuse at his hand; or Porter was kept out of the loop.

Who knew what and when?

If nobody knew about Porter’s travails — near-impossible — then who in the White House is protecting our national secrets?

Tony Henry is a bigot and a racist.

Joakim Noah signed a once-in-a-lifetime NBA contract.

Rob Porter is a serial batterer and abuser.

They all understand business and the cost of doing business.

Of the three, only Noah has done nothing wrong.

But all three in today’s world represent the epitome of viral roadkill.

[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in February 2018.]