Fans, don’t boo the players. After going MIA for months, the NBA appears to be back. Thanks to a work stoppage caused by owners locking out NBA players since the summer due to a labor dispute, fans haven’t seen anything fantastic from the league’s owners or its players. But don’t blame the players.
It’s easy to get caught up in the hype dished out regularly by media pundits that it’s the players’ fault the league had gone black in October and November. It’s easy to cast blame on the visible than on the invisible. It’s easy for fans to point fingers at a product that is largely represented by black American men than it is to cast blame at the white-majority league owners for the failure to start the season on time.
Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Some of the self-righteous media personalities have suggested that it was because of the players’ selfish egos and dim-witted thinking that forced this lockout upon the buying customer. They have suggested that thousands of concession workers who worked at NBA arenas have seen their livelihoods suffer due to the lack of sensitivity from the players to work out a deal with the owners. Don’t believe the hype.
The owners of these NBA teams could have very well kept the doors of their arenas opened during the summer and kept the NBA rolling along if they chose to. Instead they opted to close their doors and told everybody, including those very same concession workers to scat with their ultimatum use of power.
Were the owners going around passing out Thanksgiving dinners to these concession workers if everyone was so concerned about their livelihood? I would guess that would be a negative.
The vast majority of the media have failed to call out Commissioner David Stern and NBA owners in this whole mess. Instead of just casting negative critiquing of the players, the media have failed to do its job in calling out Stern and the owners regarding this situation. For the most part, the media has been just as bigoted in their thinking and their portrayal of the players in that Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dewayne Wade and the rest of their colleagues should be just grateful they can pick up a paycheck.
I beg to differ. The NBA players are represented by a union. Like any labor union in America, the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA does) what it does to protect the interests of its constituents. Sure, a lot of these players are millionaires. But these players also know their monetary worth as does the billionaire owners. The players know the value of their jersey sales, their commercial likeness and understand that this career can in a blink of an eye from an unforeseen injury.
Like any man or woman who is worth their salt, the players have the right like anybody else to fight for what they believe is in their best interest. They are trying to get their fair share of the NBA financial pie. Why shouldn’t they? It’s not the owners who are constantly cheered or jeered. It’s not the owners who are running up and down the floor, performing at the highest level of sports athletics while being called out of their names and verbally abused by knucklehead fans.
What other job, besides being president of the United States, allow you to be verbally abused and taunted by thousands of strangers on a daily basis and you’re told not to react? The fans don’t see how that kind of plantation mentality dynamic continues to be the rule and not the exception when it comes to an employee base that is majority black to a near-white ownership base. But like any union, the NBPA has had its share of vilification.
Some of it has had to with just being a union. Some of it has had to with negotiating posturing. Some of it has had to do with race. If fans don’t see race playing out in this scenario then they are missing the boat completely. Racism in sports is still alive and well. Sports mirror society. The NBA is part of that equation-good and bad.
Anybody who doesn’t think that race has played a part in the media’s coverage of the NBA lockout or in the back-and-forth- battle between the near all-white ownership group and its largely black employee base, should have their heads examined. I don’t see the players as a bunch of greedy millionaires. I see them as in the same ballpark of the average Joe, only along the lines that they want best for their future and for the future of those coming up behind them.
Unions are set up to keep employers from taking advantage of their workers and overstepping their leadership powers. The NBPA is no different. The union is in place to make sure the league’s basketball owners don’t abuse their powers in dealing with their employees. In this case it is the high-profile basketball players.
The players gave up an estimated $1.2 billion in basketball-related income to make this deal. The owners have given up practically nothing. Yet it is the players who are being served up in the media as greedy and ego-tripping. Somebody hand me a mirror. It’s time for the fans to get a real look at who’s been faking the funk and who has been keeping it real.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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