Race and the NBA
October 4th 2006 11:46
Is looking like this evidence of racism in the NBA? (Image from wikipedia)
Any person who takes the first tentative steps into watching the NBA will notice the following things: the size, athleticism of the players, and finally the number of Black athletes on the court. The final point is inadvertent, but it is hard not to notice that the players most prominent in the NBA are of African-American origin. The NBA and the NFL (American Football) are really the only two institutions in the US where Black people wield immense power due to their presence. This isn’t really surprising when you consider that 80 percent of the players of the NBA are Black, while in the NFL the number of African-American players is at 65 percent.
The most visible spokespeople for the NBA are of course Black athletes, with Michael Jordan being the most famous face of the league, and who is one of the very few globally recognised athletes. Viewers and fans alike fantasise a world where players live in absolute opulence and luxury, being paid multi-million dollar contracts, while being widely adored by females and the public alike. What’s not to hate about this? Recently, former NFL player Anthony Prior wrote a book titled ‘The Slave Side of Sunday’ whose central thesis is that the NFL is not only racist, but likens the league to slavery. Can the twin themes of modern day slavery and racism be applicable to the NBA as well? The mere question is loaded, with many diverging connotations.
The arguments most often cited by critics of the NBA revolve around the perceived lack of fundamentals, and the “thuggish” manner that players in the league conduct themselves. The NBA is synonymous with hip-hop culture and has immense street credibility due to the fact that the majority of the players have had impoverished backgrounds. The embodiment of the ‘thug’ NBA player is Allen Iverson whose cornrows, tattoos, and run-ins with various authority figures in his past are seen as evidence of endemic poor behaviour of the players in the NBA.
Iverson was part of the 2004 Athens Olympic squad who came away with the bronze medal, which was the first time the US ‘Dream Team’ squad didn’t win the gold when professional players were allowed to play for the US. This development was shocking to say the least for hardened basketball watchers, but what was most surprising was that not only the US team consistently criticised and disliked during the tournament, but they seemed to receive little support from the US sporting public and their ‘loss’ was celebrated by a large number of US citizens. A number of articles were written in regards to this occurrence, with more than one journalist questioning the motives of this dislike of the US men’s team. Did the fact that every single member of the 2004 team was Black have anything to do with it? The players for the most part conducted themselves beautifully during the tournament, with the poster child of NBA bad behaviour Allen Iverson leading the way in carrying themselves with class and dignity.
The criticisms of the US team were similar in nature – undisciplined, too much individuality and showboating, poor fundamentals etc. Is it any surprise that the most constant critique of the NBA game focuses on so called poor fundamentals and the showboating nature of some of the players? The game of basketball at its highest level is a beautiful physical expression, and Black players have fundamentally changed the aesthetic beauty of the game with their immense talents. When critics point to the lack of fundamentals they often hark back to the days when White players were more evident, and basketball was more of a jump shooting game. Heaven forbid that players dunk after receiving a no look pass!
Anthony Prior brings up an interesting example in regards to the NFL about how the league is mimicking slavery via the draft and trading system: “We are bought and sold. Traded and drafted, like our ancestors, and the public views this as a sport, ironically the same attitude as people had in the slavery era” (Zirin, The Nation, 2006). The trading and drafting of players is also a major part of the NBA too, and it is easy to draw the same parallels with both the NFL and NBA.
Admittedly, the NBA is probably a little more advanced in their relationship with their Black employees because the league is the only major professional sporting league which actually has an African-American owning a franchise – Robert Johnson, with the Charlotte Bobcats. The flip-side is that the majority of the coaches in the NBA as well as the rest of the owners are White. There have been murmurings in the past that Black coaches are on a shorter leash to their White counterparts and that teams coached by African-Americans who have losing records are more readily dumped in comparison to their White counterparts.
For the 2005-2006 season the NBA instituted a dress code policy for all of the players because in part they were concerned about the look of some of the athletes and the image of the league. How else does one expect young, Black, males to dress? Jermaine O’Neal the star Indiana Pacer flatly accused the league of racism in issuing this edict because the players most affected would be Black.
The mandatory suit and collared shirt policy was seen as a symptom to the Indiana and Detroit game where a number of NBA players went into the crowd and started fighting with fans. We can assume that big, Black athletes wading into the crowd and taking swings at White spectators could have a detrimental affect on the image of the league.
The beauty of NBA basketball, and sports in general is the fact that there is a public space where people from diverse backgrounds come together for a common purpose and to share a mutual joy. Admittedly, some of these arguments put forward are simplistic and general in nature, and it is so easy to make allusions of racism in a visible entity such as the NBA, but isn’t the question worth exploring?
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by Stanley
the nba is perhaps the most visible of the american sports in striving for its players to be good citizens because it's usually the league that is under the most scrutiny for bad behaviour. the nfl by contrast gets too much of a free pass for the behaviour of their players.