to go to Richard's
Article Index.
The Globalization of Basketball is not about Race
by Richard E. Lapchick
Special for the Sports Business Journal
With all of the media coverage of the NBA draft, virtually every newspaper I read had something about the huge number of international players not only in the 2003 draft but also already in the NBA. While not always mentioned, there is a below-the-surface subtext that the NBA is taking foreign players to lighten the complexion of the league. I could not disagree more strongly. And I am usually the one pointing out racial problems in sport as I have done since the early 1970s.
Among those articles, The Village Voice said what many only implied by publishing a provocative piece implying that the pursuit of international stars was about having more white players to appeal to white fans and corporate sponsors to make more money. The article quoted Robert "Scoop" Jackson, a contributing editor to the NBA's own Inside Stuff magazine and the editor at large for Slam.
Jackson said, "The brothers talk about this all the time. The black cultural perspective is different on this one. From our perspective, the NBA is getting whiter, and not too many of the brothers like it. It�s about comfort levels. The stockholders, the ticket buyers, the corporate sponsors are all white. You have to do something to appease the financial backers of the sport. It's deeper than blatantly getting the brothers out of the game. It�s about money."
I believe Robert Jackson could not be more wrong with his particular points. Fans pay to see winning teams and good basketball. If an international player makes your team better and win more consistently, it is good for the team and the game. The NBA has gone to great lengths to internationalize basketball. Children are playing hoops in Beijing, Delhi, Paris, Dakar, Berlin, Luanda and Johannesburg. Some of the respites from the tensions in the Middle East take place on basketball courts where children can still play with one another or where families can watch "professional" basketball being played in virtually any of the Middle Eastern countries as well as Israel.
Basketball is being played at significantly higher levels overseas now than even five years ago. In reality, is some of the best basketball players in the world are from overseas. In last year's world championships, the United States team finished a seemingly unimaginable sixth with nine NBA All-Stars on the team. The handwriting was on the wall when the US team finished third in the 2001 World University Games.
The American Express commercial with Coach Don Nelson picking up dictionaries in various languages so that he can speak in Arabic, German and "Canadian" to the players on the Dallas Mavericks, is a tongue in cheek representation of the internationalization of the NBA. How can you argue against the fact that players such as Peja Stojakovic, Vlade Divac (Kings), Paul Gasol (Grizzlies), Toni Kukoc (Bucks), Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks), Arvydas Sabonis (Trailblazers) and, of course, Yao Ming (Houston) have not added to the excitement of the National Basketball Association. If most of those players happened to be white it does not mean that individual teams are drafting them to reduce the percentage of African-American players to appeal to more white fans to bring in more revenue.
In fact, basketball is the only pro sport in this country in which the percentage of African-American players has not decreased in recent years. The percentage of African-American NBA players went from 77 to 78 percent in the 1998-99 season and has remained at that level ever since. During the same period, the percentage of white NBA players has declined from 23 to 20 percent. The NBA will be no more white after this draft than it was 15 years ago. In their last seasons, the percentage of African-American players dropped in the NFL, Major League Baseball, the NHL and Major League Soccer.
The NBA beat corporate America in realizing diversity is good for business. It started with players but now there is a large number of African-American head coaches, a significant number of general managers and now team presidents. The NBA has the first African-American owner in pro sport. The NBA far outpaces any of the other leagues in all these categories. It is no accident that the NBA was the first league to have mandatory diversity management training for all of the employees in New York and for many of it teams.
Diversity management training not only reflects the changing demographics but also helps to create a broader understanding within the organization to manage the differences among its staff and on the playing court. It is good business. As we saw with Yao Ming coming to the NBA this year, the Asian marketplace, particularly among Americans of Chinese decent, came out each time Yao Ming played in a new city.
Where sensitivity can justifiably arise is when Yao Ming, a gifted player who made a tremendous impact in his rookie season, was selected as the starter for the West All-Star Team over Shaquille O�Neil. Obviously Shaquille O�Neil is a better player by far at this point in Yao Ming�s career. However, fan balloting has consistently resulted in players being chosen who were not necessarily the best player at their position. I believe the Yao phenomenon and the international voting for the All-Star Game were the reasons for his choice as the Western Conference All-Star center and not because it was not an attempt to disrespect Shaquille, one of the greatest players in the history of the league.
The number of international players has continued to increase in all other pro sports leagues and at the college level. There are numerous international tennis players and golfers competing at the college level and on the professional tours in the United States. It is not about a black and white issue. In fact, at 14 percent, the NBA has the lowest percentage of international players.
Tony Parker, who starred for the Spurs championship team, caught many fans off guard with his French accent. He was hardly alone as a foreign player of color in the NBA as 26 of the 65 international players on NBA rosters last year were players of color.
The Major League Baseball international pool of players is 25 percent; in the NHL (excluding Canadians) it is 27 percent, 38 percent in Major League Soccer and 18 percent in the WNBA. None of those leagues are trying to get whiter, only better.
The same is true in the NBA. I, for one, will enjoy next year's crop of international stars in the NBA.
Richard Lapchick is the author of the Racial and Gender Report Card, Director Emeritus of Northeastern UNiversity's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, and is Director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and of the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at UCF.
Northeastern
University's
CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF SPORT IN SOCIETY
360 Huntington Avenue, Suite 161 CP
Boston, MA 02115-5000
Phone: (617) 373-4025
Fax: (617) 373-4566 / 2092
E-MAIL US at [email protected]