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Ball Don't Lie

Mon Jun 20 06:41pm EDT

Why DeShawn Stevenson has Lincoln tattooed on his neck

By Kelly Dwyer

Why DeShawn Stevenson has Lincoln tattooed on his neck

Well, of course DeShawn Stevenson(notes) got an Abraham Lincoln tattoo on his neck because the 16th president of the United States issued the Emancipation Proclamation, even during a time when the states weren't technically united. We knew that, but it's nice for DeShawn to clarify it.

There has been some quibble as to why Stevenson put the tattoo of Lincoln, surrounded by two number 5s (Lincoln, for our international readers, is featured on the American five-dollar bill) on his neck two years ago. But DeShawn, in an interview with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas (as presented to us by Sports Radio Interviews), has finally clarified the thing that was pretty obvious from the outset:

"I was going to get Martin Luther King and I told Gilbert Arenas(notes). You should never tell nobody your idea. That summer, he came back and got it. So I didn't know who to get. I got Abraham Lincoln because he freed the slaves. I just had Abraham Lincoln and, from a distance, everybody kept saying, 'Who is that?' So I put the five-dollar bill so everybody would stop asking me."

Obviously Abraham Lincoln isn't just another in a series of 44 presidents, having to deal with a task tougher than no other American president (we hope) will have to work through. And to African-Americans, Lincoln's work for his country has an added significance. It was a cool and unique gesture for Stevenson to make.

But just so we're sure, there's nothing really left to ask DeShawn Stevenson about, right?

(Photo at the top originally via Truth About It, as sussed out by J.E. Skeets. HT: Dime.)

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