Chunk 19: NBA TBA.
In his political memoir, “Decision Points”, ex-president George W. Bush writes that the worst moment of his presidency was when Kanye West, in reaction to the Bush administration’s failures after Hurricane Katrina, said that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”.
No, I’m not joking - it’s on page 325. I hope no one in Iraq has a Kindle.
High-profile Americans have long been prepared to use their public profile to share their political opinions (Bob Dylan, Muhammad Ali, Robert Redford, etc.). The advent of social media has only heightened this practice. But what we have witnessed over the past fortnight was something really unusual. And, quite remarkable.
Consider this, for all their commitment to their causes, Bob Dylan never refused to release an album in protest of a social cause. Muhammad Ali never said he wouldn’t box because of some kind of political injustice. Robert Redford never stopped a movie premiere in support of some kind of action (although Marlon Brando did refuse to collect his 1973 Oscar for Best Actor, instead sending an Apache actress - Sacheen Littlefeather - to protest how Native Americans were portrayed on film).
Yes, the US boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in response to Soviet movements in Afghanistan, but that was an action of a government.
But imagine this: a group of individuals - professional athletes - having trained their entire adult lives, each potentially risked the defining moment of their career to bring the entire NBA (National Basketball Association) finals series to a standstill in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
The entire NBA, valued this year at $4.6 billion.
The move came after the police shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin of yet another black man, this one named Jacob Blake. The Milwaukee Bucks - Milwaukee being only 40 miles south of Kenosha - said they were too upset to be able to take to the court. And so, for three days, no team did - there was talk they might not return at all.
That included the LA Lakers and LeBron James, one of the best known faces on the planet, who tweeted at the time: F##K THIS MAN! WE DEMAND CHANGE. SICK OF IT.
And when they did return, there was change: basketball stadiums are now working with local election officials to convert facilities across the country into voting locations for 3 November. Through their inaction, they’ve helped make BLM a real voter issue. The words are even printed on the playing surface of every court.
Basketball is the third most popular sport in America, behind American football and baseball, and, naturally, viewership is never higher than come finals time.
So, as tragic as the events that have led to the BLM movement are, the support of the NBA - where 81.8% of players are black - is a massive deal. It’s what people in marketing call “earned media” - it gives the cause the sort of promotion that money can’t buy.
The next step will be to see if other sports are ready to follow, such as American football, where 70% of the players are also black. Football would be a particularly big breakthrough for the BLM cause. Because, unlike basketball, which is about two and a half times as popular among blacks as it is whites, Football is almost equally popular amongst both audiences.
Four years ago, Colin Kaepernick was singled out for taking a knee during the playing of the National Anthem in response to racial inequality. But even those views are now changing (much to Donald Trump’s chagrin).
One sport has demonstrated the courage of their convictions. The question is, will others now do likewise?
