There has been a lot
said about the recent events in the NBA around the Los Angeles Clippers’ owner
Donald Sterling’s racism. As someone who is passionately and actively against
racism, and who passionately loves the game of basketball, I wanted to express
for myself some thoughts, maybe just to clear my own head.
I write from a place
of who I am. An English white male, with no experience of being a victim of
racism and of limited knowledge of the NBA’s structure behind the game itself
that I love watching… I’d never heard of Donald Sterling prior to this, or the
things he’s done before this incident. Because of my perspective and life
experiences, I write in the belief that I (and every white person) should not take
a view on how African American players and coaches (past and present) in the
NBA have chosen to act, write, speak, or play ball. I have read humbled, and
learning at the many views expressed by African Americans, some who love
basketball, some who don’t, and others who have little interest at a time when
perspectives could, and should, be focused on the terrible kidnap of teenage
girls in Nigeria. Also I respect those who have commented on the issue as part
of the wider context of American/Western society’s treatment of those of
African descent, rather than in isolation as an NBA incident. I can only learn
from reading those angles, and in this piece I have simply put together what
this meant from my personal relationship with basketball.
My expression is
simply from my perspective, and not as a response to those who know from their
experiences.
As a teenager at a
Berkshire school, one PE lesson was to split us into teams and play basketball for
the first time. I remember getting the ball in the corner baseline and taking a
shot. Even though I had slap the ball dribbling skills, the shot I put up
arched off my fingers, and I remember this incredible feeling of knowing that
as soon as the ball left my fingers, I could tell the ball was going through
the net. It was a euphoric moment before the ball even swished… telepathy
knowing the shot was instantly good (to this day my favourite shot is from the
baseline!)
I had fallen in love
with basketball, and although not particularly good at it (until I started
playing with my head as well as my body in my 30’s), I was hooked. When I left
school I joined a local club and kept working at it. NBA names meant nothing to
me, other than some old Sports Illustrated magazines, where I fell in love with
Doctor J and the Sixers, even though I never saw them actually play on TV for
several years later. Soon my bedroom was adorned with posters of NBA stars,
including the good Doctor, Magic and Moses Malone. My sister was by this time
working in Kansas City, and would send me back Sports Illustrated, NBA season
previews (as well as cassette recordings of funk and early hip hop radio
stations).
As I grew, my naïve
liberal views on race (we should all just get along, don’t see colour, type
stuff) grew (and still grows) into understanding what actively fighting racism
means for a white male. Learning that racism isn’t my perspective. That
multi-culturism means embracing and loving difference, not assimilation. That
equality cannot be had on an unlevel playing field. On the basketball court,
within that rectangle, equality was a level playing field. As Magic Johnson
recently said, sport is a great leveller. There’s a lot of truth in that, and I
believe this is true for hoop more than other sports. That might simply be my
perspective, but within that rectangle, on the hard wood, I was a minority.
There’s probably a lot of naivety in that statement. But that’s how I grew
around the sport. Basketball meant so much to me as a sport for the game I
loved playing, and for the oneness on the court. Of course as I grew I learned
that life experiences off the court varied dependent on how society viewed
those I was playing with, and that is something that fuelled my fight against
racism further.
So this last week, my
game… my passion for a sport that
I had entwined with equality, came under attack from everything the sport
doesn’t stand for. I was hurt for those directly under attack. I was hurt for
what this game means to me. Damn, I even just started playing basketball again
and have been watching some of the most enthralling first round playoffs that
the NBA has ever seen. Not my game. I said at the time… this is basketball’s
chance to show the rest of the world how you deal with racism in sport. After
football’s (soccer) inadequacy at dealing with racism, this was an opportunity
for my sport to show that the ideals I believe in, count for something.
A lot was said about
how the LA Clippers players and coaches should have acted. Some of that opinion
came from white reporters close to the game. That was a complete no no for me.
How anyone white could possibly decide what NBA players (I believe of whom 80% are
African American) should do….nope. Address your white perspectives please to
what the largely white ownership and white crowds should do to stand up for
their African American players, colleagues and friends.
The things I didn’t
know… that on the previous NBA Commissioner’s watch, Sterling got away with
many despicable acts, and there’s definitely a gap here… how the NBA dress code
could ever have been more important than that etc. No question, some fault
lines within the wider structure of the NBA and how white privilege in society
has played out in white ownership and the thousands of white faces I see in the
stands of games, watching an African American majority sport. Chris Rock’s
sketch about rich v wealthy, plays out here.
Many comments I’ve
read have alluded to uncomfortability with these and other issues. I would like
to see the NBA address these, and if David Stern’s (the former Commissioner)
biggest regret was moving the Seattle team out of the city, I hope he might
want to revisit that thought. He perhaps left the Sterling time bomb unattended.
Now, on recently
appointed Commissioner Silver’s watch, the current issue needed dealing with.
And this is where I have to give him support. The fine, the banning of Sterling
from anything NBA for life, and the speed and determination with which he took
action. He gave Sterling everything he could in the current constitution. The
battle is still to come in untangling his team ownership. But the message was
simple. It was more than the tag
line of “Kick Racism out of sport,” more like….”There’s no F*cking place for
Racism in this sport.” That’s what
I wanted to hear for those I love, and for the game I love. This is why it was
big to me. As I tweeted. Football, take a long hard look at the NBA… and learn.
