The NBA, Activism, Race, and Where We Go From Here:

The NBA, activism, race, and where we go from here:

Professional sports leagues are, by their nature, conservative institutions. Even those which support progressive causes like the NBA ultimately are limited in that progressivism.

This is, in part, by design. Any global corporate institution doing billions of dollars in business must be limited in activism that could be perceived as too political or controversial. We saw this in 2019 when the NBA caved to pressure from China to censor Daryl Morey’s public support for Hong Kong protestors. Money talks.

The NBA does do plenty of philanthropic and charity work, and isn’t as often mired in controversy like some of its peers. Consider the gross violations of human rights from FIFA, or the groveling wannabe authoritarian blowhards who run the NFL. Of course there are shadier aspects of the NBA as an institution. That isn’t what this article is about (though if you want a great listen on the NBA’s gentrification problem check out this dope podcast).

Instead, I want to focus on the way NBA players use their platform. While the league may be a little toothless with its advocacy, it usually empowers its players to participate in the world beyond basketball. This is critically important, in part, because the NBA is the blackest of any major pro-sport. The greatest players in NBA history (with some exceptions such as Larry Bird and Dirk Nowitzki) are black. In a 2018 league survey, 80 percent of the NBA’s players identified as black. The NBA has the most black owners and coaches of any major men’s sport. The NBA also has the highest share of Black viewers in the country, at 45 percent.

At this critical inflection point in our country, NBA players and community members have stepped into the light. All across the Association, players, coaches, and front office members have offered their voices and thoughts online and in-person to protest police violence against Black Americans and systemic racism in the US.

Celtics Guard Marcus Smart attending last night's protest in Boston/CBS Boston (May 31, 2020)

While we celebrate & consume black culture in so many different ways, from music to art to basketball, the heroic figures we support in these fields still have to live in a country that regularly destroys black bodies in public. We as fans need to do a better job of recognizing that we cannot simply consume black culture for our own entertainment. We need to heed these words and get better at celebrating and protecting the people who create and live in that culture for everything they do, both on and off the court so to speak.

Americans from all walks of life should heed these words from Jalen Rose. “I wish America loved black people just as much as they loved black culture.”

Unfortunately, the above is just one of many, many social concerns facing the country. Throughout the NBA’s long history, the league’s best players have been right there on the frontlines of change.

From Steph Curry and LeBron, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan, from Micheal Jordan and Magic Johnson, all the way back to Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, The NBA’s brightest, and biggest stars have brought visibility and pride to Black America. Visibility matters, and in many cases seeing black NBA champions can be a deeply emotional and resonant experience, even if fleeting and manufactured to some extent.

In such distressing times, I thought it would be worthwhile to write a piece celebrating the enormous accomplishments of some of the NBA’s forces for change. Below are some (not all) of the great activists in NBA history, who laid the groundwork for their successors and in many cases still continue to push for justice today.

Bill Russell:

The NBA’s greatest winner set the bar as high as it could be with an unrelenting commitment to racial justice. Despite leading the Celtics to an unprecedented 11 championships, Russell was relentlessly harassed and mistreated by white fans both at home and away. It didn’t matter. Bill kept on winning, on and off the court.

Russell became an active and visible member of the NAACP, attended Muhammad Ali’s Cleveland summit to protest the war in Vietnam, joined the March on Washington in 1963, and became the NBA’s first black head coach in 1966, leading the Celtics to two more titles as a player-coach hybrid.

Even today, Russell uses Twitter and other platforms to elevate his voice and share his leadership and perspective.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor):

Russell is regularly cited as the league's foremost activist, and with good reason. But his successor as the league's best player, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, should be celebrated with equal aplomb.

Born Lew Alcindor, Abdul-Jabbar’s activism started early as a young man in Harlem during the 1964 riots protesting the murder of James Powell by a white police officer. Alcindor would later state that this served as a radicalizing moment for him. “I was going to be black rage personified, Black Power in the flesh.”

Kareem would go on to become the most dominant Basketball player in the country despite the NCAA’s racist ban on dunking. As an activist, Abdul-Jabbar boycotted the 1968 olympics, and also attended the Ali summit with Russell in Cleveland. When he changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he immediately became America’s most prominent Muslim cultural figure, and continues his activist work to this day as a speaker and educator focused on Black history.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf:

Before Colin Kaepernick took a knee, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, the Denver Nuggets sharpshooter, refused to stand. A devout Muslim, Abdul-Rauf decided not to stand for the national anthem during the 1996 NBA season.

Despite being basically unguardable (I mean look at this!) as an offensive player and squarely in the middle of his prime, Rauf was effectively run out of the league for his beliefs. Despite paying such a steep price, Rauf has “no regrets” for standing up for what he believes in to this day.

Craig Hodges:

Although the NBA today is quite supportive of its players’ activism, there have been moments of repression beyond Abdul-Rauf. Another story of a player punished by the league for speaking up, Craig Hodges, the sharpshooting guard for the 1992 Bulls, famously wore a dashiki to the white house during the Bulls championship tour. He also handed a letter to President George HW Bush asking for assistance to right some of the past injustices that Black communities have faced.

For this, Hodges believes these acts along with his vocal support of Black political causes turned league executives away from him in free agency, despite his record-breaking three point shooting.

Carmelo Anthony:

In addition to being a dominant (yes, dominant, look up the stats from his Nuggets run) NBA player, Melo has also been at the forefront of celebrities involved with the Black Lives Matter movement.

Anthony has marched with protestors in Baltimore speaking out about the murder of Freddie Gray, spoken with inmates at Riker’s Island to shine a light on abuses they have suffered in prison, built basketball courts and hosted charity games to support the rebuilding of Puerto Rico, and hosted town halls to foster community discussions on police violence. Melo’s impact on the game is massive, but his impact on people’s lives deserves recognition as well.

LeBron James:

Perhaps the single most powerful figure in American sports today, LeBron James has been a public and vocal advocate for black lives. In 2014 after the murder of Eric Garner at the hands of New York police, LeBron famously donned an “I can’t breath” t-shirt for warmups before a game against the Nets in December of 2014. Derrick Rose may have started the trend, but LeBron’s inclusion in the moment dramatically increased its visibility.

LeBron has made his voice crystal clear on matters of police brutality and racism, speaking up on one of the most viewed social media platforms in the world regularly. But it’s not just talk with LeBron, he has also raised millions for the Boys & Girls club, including with televised events like The Decision. The King has also created organizations like the LeBron James family foundation, a group dedicated to raising money and support for public schools in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. The latter organization has also been essential for LeBron’s latest project, the creation of the “I Promise” public school in Akron, dedicated to supporting the education and health of Akron's poorest students.

Conclusion:

If this piece comes off as hero worship, that’s not my intention. All of the players listed above have done great things to empower and help others, particularly in black communities. They are a just a sampling of the many, many NBA players past and present who have been visible advocates for change.

But there is something fundamentally wrong with athletes being expected to bear the brunt of fighting institutional white supremacy in the United States.

It will take far more, from people like myself who benefit from white privilege, from politicians in desperate need of a spine, from police stepping up and speaking out against the seemingly endless wave of police violence against black and brown communities; far more from the wealthy and powerful, obsessed with profits at the expense of people.

Hopefully these players along with many others across all sports, races, genders, & sexualities can speak to us as examples of things we can do to combat these deep, systemic issues. Ultimately it is still up to all of us to make a world where Stephen Jackson doesn’t have to publicly mourn the cold-blooded murder of his friend George Floyd, taken too soon like so many others before him.