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THE INTERNATIONAL<br />
JOURNAL<br />
<strong>of</strong><br />
SPORT<br />
& SOCIETY<br />
Volume 1, Number 1<br />
“Too Black”: Race in the “Dark Ages” <strong>of</strong> the National<br />
Basketball Association<br />
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson<br />
www.SportAndSociety.com
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY<br />
http://www.SportandSocietyJournal.com<br />
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“Too Black”: Race in the “Dark Ages” <strong>of</strong> the National<br />
Basketball Association<br />
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Minnesota</strong>, MN, USA<br />
Abstract: Contracting and possibly folding in the late 1970s, the global success <strong>of</strong> the NBA in the<br />
1980s and 1990s is <strong>of</strong>ten attributed to the charismatic personalities and talents <strong>of</strong> Magic Johnson,<br />
Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. The NBA’s resurgence was actually the result <strong>of</strong> successful managerial<br />
strategies that expunged the historical racial connotations that made white viewers uncomfortable<br />
with African Americans -- violence, drug abuse, and union activity (greed) - strategies that dovetailed<br />
with Reaganism’s policy <strong>of</strong> colorblindness. Although the NBA continues to employ a majority <strong>of</strong> black<br />
players, a focus on the ‘dark ages’ <strong>of</strong> 1976-1979, and the ensuing transformation, illuminates the<br />
continuing racial politics between black athletes and white fans.<br />
Keywords: Basketball, Race, 1970s, Reagan<br />
TO THE AMERICAN general public and casual fan, the history <strong>of</strong> the National<br />
Basketball Association begins in the mid-1980s, when Larry Bird, Magic Johnson<br />
and above all Michael Jordan brought the league to the fore <strong>of</strong> American sports<br />
through their incredible athleticism, regional rivalries, and personal charisma. The<br />
preceding period, the 1970s, has been mostly ignored by laypeople as well as scholars, who<br />
have generally agreed on a simple narrative that pr<strong>of</strong>essional basketball in America struggled<br />
at the time because it was “too black” and too “drug-infested” for a white audience. This<br />
paper contests this narrative <strong>of</strong> declension in the 1970s and explores the racialized strategies<br />
<strong>of</strong> corporate control that have succeeded for the last three decades. The role <strong>of</strong> basketball in<br />
shaping the meaning <strong>of</strong> race and blackness in the United States is greatly underappreciated,<br />
and a recognition and revision <strong>of</strong> the complicated history <strong>of</strong> the NBA has implications beyond<br />
a mere chronicle <strong>of</strong> a forgotten era in sports history.<br />
I <strong>of</strong>fer three related arguments to challenge the accepted mythology. First, the NBA’s<br />
demise in this period was related not only to the “image crisis” (Cady 1979) created by reports<br />
<strong>of</strong> drug use, but also to two similarly potent and racialized factors: the prevalence and escalating<br />
danger <strong>of</strong> on-court fisticuffs and the very public pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> the (majority black) NBA<br />
Players’ Union. Second, while the league may have been considered “too black” for the<br />
liking <strong>of</strong> many white Americans, we misunderstand this phrase in terms <strong>of</strong> the percentage<br />
<strong>of</strong> phenotypically black players. 1 Instead, we should see the league’s threatening “blackness”<br />
1 In fact, multiple studies show that most white fans have always displayed prejudice towards black players. For<br />
example, a study by Eleanor Brown, Richards Spiro and Diane Keenan found that black players with comparable<br />
statistics earn fourteen to sixteen per cent less than their white counterparts. They also find ascribe to fan discrimination<br />
the finding that “the racial composition <strong>of</strong> teams is related to the proportion <strong>of</strong> black residents among the<br />
populations <strong>of</strong> franchise cities” (333). I use “phenotype,” the observable characteristic or trait <strong>of</strong> an organism<br />
(person) here because the commonsense way that many imagine race to be objective is through genes, but not all<br />
genotypes produce organisms (people) with identical appearances.<br />
The International Journal <strong>of</strong> Sport and Society<br />
Volume 1, Number 1, 2010, http://www.SportandSocietyJournal.com, ISSN 2152-7857<br />
© Common Ground, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, All Rights Reserved, Permissions:<br />
cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com
THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY<br />
in terms <strong>of</strong> the historically articulated cultural associations that many white Americans held<br />
about African Americans and the threats they posed. Third, I historicize this discussion<br />
through the dimension <strong>of</strong> political economy: the NBA’s stagnation in the late seventies and<br />
its resurrection in the eighties should be seen in the context <strong>of</strong> America’s struggling economy,<br />
the backlash against the civil rights movement, Reaganism, and “colorblindness” as an un<strong>of</strong>ficial<br />
national policy.<br />
The 1970s have <strong>of</strong>ten been referred to as the league’s “dark ages” due to its flagging<br />
popularity, low public pr<strong>of</strong>ile and almost literal retrospective invisibility; because fewer<br />
games were televised, especially nationally, only middle-aged, die-hard fans can actually<br />
recall the feats <strong>of</strong> Pete Maravich and Bill Russell (Fortunato 24-25). I argue that the phrases<br />
“dark ages” and the widely repeated “too black” should be seen in relation to each other,<br />
since pr<strong>of</strong>essional basketball has succeeded in America by embracing colorblindness and<br />
carefully managing its players’ images so as to distance the sport from stereotypes <strong>of</strong> black<br />
men. More than any other sport, pr<strong>of</strong>essional men’s basketball has <strong>of</strong>ten served as both the<br />
most public stage for successful black men in America and simultaneously as “evidence”<br />
for biological racial difference. Although the NBA’s domestic popularity has decreased from<br />
its peak in the 1990s, its global reach has never been wider (Carrington, Andrews, Jackson,<br />
and Mazur). Football and baseball are currently more popular domestically, but the former<br />
has almost no pr<strong>of</strong>ile internationally and the latter’s popularity is limited outside <strong>of</strong> a handful<br />
<strong>of</strong> nations (such as Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic). But basketball is truly global:<br />
there are, as <strong>of</strong> this writing, pr<strong>of</strong>essional men’s basketball leagues in at least 40 countries,<br />
and the 2010 NBA All-Star Game was broadcast in over 200 countries. Beyond the game<br />
itself, NBA culture—the products endorsed by its players, their hairstyles, their jerseys and<br />
baggy shorts—have an influence around the world that is beyond measurement (and the<br />
scope <strong>of</strong> this paper). The stakes <strong>of</strong> the critical interpretation <strong>of</strong> race in pr<strong>of</strong>essional basketball<br />
are high indeed.<br />
The Absence <strong>of</strong> Race in the NBA’s Mythology<br />
The NBA has been remarkably efficient in controlling its image and the construction <strong>of</strong> its<br />
history since its rise to popularity and visibility in the early 1980s, a factor which partially<br />
accounts for its success. Unfortunately, its relative obscurity presents an obstacle to detailed<br />
historical research before this period, since scholars must rely heavily on short accounts <strong>of</strong><br />
games in newspapers and the autobiographies <strong>of</strong> former players who have a host <strong>of</strong> reasons<br />
not to wade into the waters <strong>of</strong> controversial topics. In this void, as cultural critic Todd Boyd<br />
points out (1997), “basketball was able to create its cultural mythology without the glare <strong>of</strong><br />
mainstream media attention” (119). This is in stark contrast to pr<strong>of</strong>essional baseball, which<br />
has held center stage in American sports since the 1870s. Since relatively few people were<br />
concerned with basketball’s history until the 1980s, the NBA itself has had an unusual opportunity<br />
to craft a uniform mythology that serves to promote their primary interest, economic<br />
growth.<br />
This constructed history is extremely selective. With enough space, I might provide the<br />
short summary here, as any fan could, and as the NBA has in its three <strong>of</strong>ficial encyclopedias<br />
(Hollander; Hollander and Sachare; Hubbard), which focuses almost entirely on the exciting,<br />
family-friendly play <strong>of</strong> its gladiators: gradual increase in skill, athleticism, and popularity;<br />
the virtues <strong>of</strong> teamwork; individual brilliance; and heroic achievements. Sports historians<br />
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MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON<br />
have been attentive to the subtle locations in which myth-making occurs, such as commercials,<br />
billboards, <strong>of</strong>ficial record-keeping and even word <strong>of</strong> mouth. All <strong>of</strong> these are directly relevant<br />
to this discussion; however, the most influential site has typically been ignored: television<br />
broadcasts <strong>of</strong> individual games. As sociologist John Hoberman notes, “the live sportscaster<br />
is the more important representative <strong>of</strong> managerial power, because he has the power to frame<br />
issues and interpret behavior instantly to enormous audiences” (38). There are approximately<br />
1,300 NBA games played each season, which amounts to more than 2,600 broadcasts each<br />
year (one for each team). Although some local announcers see themselves as journalists or<br />
paraphrasers, most are aware <strong>of</strong> their responsibility to represent the game in the best possible<br />
light: Hubie Brown, former Coach and broadcaster, admits that his “job is to keep you from<br />
flicking your clicker and changing your dial, to convince you to stay” (Fortunato 122). Brian<br />
McIntyre, NBA Senior Vice President <strong>of</strong> Basketball Communications, has characterized “a<br />
game broadcast, whether it is local or national, as nothing more than a 2 ½ hour infomercial<br />
for the product” (Fortunato 149). Many authors have identified the role <strong>of</strong> television sports<br />
commentators in naturalizing racial and gender differences through linguistic patterns, which<br />
highlights the subtle power <strong>of</strong> announcers. As Toni Bruce put it,<br />
Although live televised sports are commodified spectacles that draw heavily upon entertainment<br />
values, they are grounded in new media ideologies <strong>of</strong> neutrality and objectivity,<br />
which add to their perceived credibility. Indeed, broadcasters are cut to the pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
quick when racist discourse is identified because it undermines their pr<strong>of</strong>essional<br />
credentials <strong>of</strong> balance and impartiality. (863)<br />
A fair amount <strong>of</strong> each broadcast comprises “dead time” during which little on-court action<br />
occurs. During these moments announcers generally fill the silences by describing and analyzing<br />
the game at hand, but they also highlight their team’s history or recall and replay great<br />
moments from the sport’s past, all with the powerful illusion <strong>of</strong> neutrality and objectivity.<br />
Provided with information by the NBA and charged with selling a product, it is not surprising<br />
that announcers would support the NBA’s constructed history, especially in relation to a<br />
turbulent, embarrassing and mostly forgotten period, the 1970s. An example <strong>of</strong> the elision<br />
<strong>of</strong> the controversies <strong>of</strong> the 1970s is demonstrated in the entry on that decade on the NBA’s<br />
online <strong>of</strong>ficial “NBA Encyclopedia—Play<strong>of</strong>f Edition” on NBA.com, called “A Decade <strong>of</strong><br />
Parity,” which fails to mention drugs, race, and potential contraction.<br />
A great deal has been deliberately left out, and for good reason. The Los Angeles Times<br />
claimed in 1981 that as many as 75 percent <strong>of</strong> NBA players used cocaine (Cobbs). As David<br />
Halberstam put it (1999), “[The NBA] was seen as far too black, and the majority <strong>of</strong> its<br />
players, it was somehow believed, were on drugs…” (114). David Stern, named Commissioner<br />
in 1984, admitted that the NBA was “looked upon as a league that was too black”<br />
(Finley and Finley 75) at the time. There are, in fact, dozens <strong>of</strong> audience reception studies<br />
showing racial bias on the part <strong>of</strong> white audiences, although the implication that this prejudice<br />
was restricted to a bygone era is entirely false (Kanazawa and Funk; Brown, Spiro and<br />
Keenan). I want to question what kind <strong>of</strong> cultural work “too black” performs. “Black” in<br />
this phrase should not be understood as a player’s level <strong>of</strong> melanin but as part <strong>of</strong> a historically<br />
specific racial formation (Omi and Winant) that includes stereotypes <strong>of</strong> drug abuse, violence<br />
and the threat <strong>of</strong> black physical and political power. In addition, the acknowledgement that<br />
white fans and/or advertisers had racial biases during this period <strong>of</strong>ten carries the implicit<br />
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY<br />
claim that they no longer do. “Too black” drags another question in its wake: If the NBA<br />
was “too black” during its “dark ages,” what was it afterward? Just black enough? And if<br />
so, what changed?<br />
The Impact <strong>of</strong> the Civil Rights Movement<br />
The racial dynamic <strong>of</strong> the NBA in the 1970s was, in many ways, the result <strong>of</strong> various responses<br />
to the civil rights movement. Black NBA players in the fifties and sixties were selected<br />
by NBA team owners with an eye towards the racial (in)tolerance <strong>of</strong> white fans. The<br />
NBA had an un<strong>of</strong>ficial quota <strong>of</strong> three or four black players per team for fifteen years (Thomas,<br />
136), and while star-caliber players shone in African American leagues, only “role players”—as<br />
opposed to athletic, creative scorers—were chosen to cross over. Bill Russell,<br />
though perhaps the greatest player <strong>of</strong> the 1960s, fit the mold, renowned more for his rebounding,<br />
defense, intensity and stoicism than his scoring. Just as black civil rights organizers<br />
learned to frame their actions so as to elicit white support (Stabile 135), black players toed<br />
the line so as to maintain both their place in the league and the NBA’s financial security<br />
(Thomas 135). In the 1970s, there was a qualitative cultural shift in pro basketball that reflected<br />
American racial politics, although very few players publicly embraced the heightened<br />
political militarism <strong>of</strong> black activists. After the quota system disappeared as a result <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Boston Celtics’ success—which was and is perceived as the result <strong>of</strong> their willingness to<br />
play blacks—the new generation <strong>of</strong> players embraced emergent black styles, such as the<br />
Afro hairstyle. As Hall <strong>of</strong> Fame player and coach Phil Jackson put it, there was “a lot <strong>of</strong> fuss<br />
about players’ long hair and gold chains” (Jackson and Rosen 50). More lasting was the<br />
dunk shot. Among Bill Russell and his peers, dunking was considered egotistical and taboo,<br />
in stark contrast to the flamboyant dunkers <strong>of</strong> the ABA and later NBA players, who turned<br />
two points into a display <strong>of</strong> aerial creativity and black masculinity (Houck).<br />
As these aesthetic changes occurred on the court, political and cultural currents inevitably<br />
affected the league’s aficionados in the stands. The “backlash” against civil rights has received<br />
a great deal <strong>of</strong> attention from American historians in recent years, and rightly so. Even outside<br />
activist conservative movements, many whites reacted to assertions <strong>of</strong> black agency and<br />
power during the civil rights period—as well as the uprisings <strong>of</strong> 1968—by setting out to<br />
undo the liberal legislation <strong>of</strong> the Great Society, such as school desegregation, fair hiring<br />
and housing laws, and affirmative action. McGirr; Lipsitz). Although there is no <strong>of</strong>ficial<br />
data about the racial composition <strong>of</strong> the league’s fans, evidence from various sources, such<br />
as crowd shots from grainy videos <strong>of</strong> nationally broadcast games and auto/biographies <strong>of</strong><br />
players suggest that white fans constituted the majority <strong>of</strong> the NBA’s paying fan base<br />
(Robertson; Kriegel). Although it is possible that conservative whites and white NBA fans<br />
were entirely mutually exclusive groups, it is not likely. Thus, perhaps we should not be<br />
surprised that the NBA, with three out <strong>of</strong> every four players African American and increasingly<br />
embracing styles that carried political connotations, should lose fan support just as<br />
black political projects (such as affirmative action) were losing their mainstream sympathy.<br />
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MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON<br />
Drugs, Violence and Wealth in the Contemporary American Racial<br />
Formation<br />
My use <strong>of</strong> “race” follows the model <strong>of</strong> Michael Omi and Howard Winant’s concept <strong>of</strong> the<br />
“racial formation,” which is “the sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created,<br />
inhabited, transformed, and destroyed” (55). A given racial formation establishes the<br />
meaning <strong>of</strong> race in a specific historical moment, waged in discursive fields such as popular<br />
culture as well as politics and economics. Racial formations are malleable, and although in<br />
the United States there has historically been a mutually exclusive binary between “black”<br />
and “white,” the modifier “too” in front <strong>of</strong> “black” shows that there are effectively different<br />
standards for “blackness”—physical, cultural and even political. In this light, the NBA’s<br />
success over the last three decades has been correlated to Commissioner David Stern’s<br />
ability to obscure its players’ cultural and sociohistorical blackness. The league struggled<br />
in the late seventies not because too many players had dark skin, but because they were seen<br />
as stereotypically “black” as a result <strong>of</strong> their alleged drug abuse, on-court fisticuffs, and<br />
public union struggles.<br />
The widespread use <strong>of</strong> drugs by NBA players is cited by league <strong>of</strong>ficials and most critics<br />
as the substantive source <strong>of</strong> the league’s public woes. However, there was little public<br />
knowledge <strong>of</strong> drug use during the “dark ages”—until August 19, 1980, when the Los Angeles<br />
Times ran a story entitled “NBA and Cocaine: Nothing to Snort At,” claiming that as many<br />
as 75 percent <strong>of</strong> NBA players were regular users (Cobbs). Newspapers and sporting magazines<br />
across the country immediately weighed in, inflating and distorting the accusation—for example,<br />
Sports Briefing raised the figure to “80-90 per cent” (September 1, 1980) and others<br />
added heroin and marijuana to the list, while the NBA denied accusations <strong>of</strong> “excessive”<br />
drug use (Sports Briefing, August 1, 1980). While the phrases “too black” and “drug-infested”<br />
are <strong>of</strong>ten seen as unrelated explanations, a number <strong>of</strong> critics (such as Boyd and Halberstam<br />
118) have made the connection. As David L. Andrews argues,<br />
[T]he popular media used the specter <strong>of</strong> drug abuse within the league as evidence <strong>of</strong><br />
the pathological depravity <strong>of</strong> the African American men who dominated, and were thus<br />
threatening the very existence <strong>of</strong>, the NBA, and, again by inference, that <strong>of</strong> the American<br />
nation as a whole. (16)<br />
Far from an isolated scandal, this event demands a national-historical lens, for white Americans<br />
have constructed blacks as more susceptible to drug abuse for a century, if not longer.<br />
This association reached a peak during the highly racialized “war on drugs” in the 1970s<br />
and 1980s. Just as the construction <strong>of</strong> the African American drug fiend led to (among other<br />
things) grossly unequal prosecution <strong>of</strong> drug laws (Lipsitz 10-12) it also played a role in the<br />
NBA’s “dark ages.” As Lawrence Grossberg has noted, drugs play a unique role as “affective<br />
magnets” in contemporary American culture: “it is not just that one suddenly sees drugs<br />
everywhere, as the new universal culprit. More importantly, as soon as drugs are found,<br />
nothing else seems to matter” (284).<br />
But narcotics were a scapegoat: far more than drug abuse, which was for the most part<br />
sub rosa until the Los Angeles Times bombshell, on-court violence plagued the NBA’s “dark<br />
ages.” As the two leagues evolved, the ABA succeeded in part by tweaking its rules to encourage<br />
free movement and athletic play, while NBA games revolved around stationary “big<br />
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY<br />
men” wrestling for position underneath the basket, a style which tends to lead to physical<br />
altercations. The 1977-1978 season was perhaps the nadir <strong>of</strong> the pugilistic NBA, with at<br />
least 41 fights. One stood out: on December 9 th , 1977, black power forward Kermit Washington,<br />
considered one <strong>of</strong> the strongest players in the league, punched white guard Rudy<br />
Tomjanovich in the face with such force that it nearly killed him and curtailed his career.<br />
Suspended for two months, Washington was at first less than contrite and placed the reaction<br />
<strong>of</strong> fans in a distinctly racial and political context, saying, “Who buys the ticket to the<br />
game—white people or black people? The answer is white people. So they were going to<br />
come down on me, the big black guy who beat up the two white guys” (Feinstein 50). At a<br />
time when very few NBA games were broadcast nationally, “The Punch” became a national<br />
issue, the subject <strong>of</strong> a New York Times editorial and fodder for Saturday Night Light. “The<br />
Punch”—or rather the widely disseminated video footage <strong>of</strong> the event, repeatedly broadcast<br />
on television—”forever changed” (Smith 134) the public image <strong>of</strong> the NBA.<br />
The Punch’s immediate and lasting impact was due to its apparent confirmation <strong>of</strong> historically<br />
persistent white stereotypes about violent black masculinity that the mainstream<br />
(generally white) media had continually reinforced. While fear <strong>of</strong> black physicality can be<br />
traced at least back to slavery, it is constantly maintained by the media’s tendency to present<br />
new information through existing frames <strong>of</strong> reference and the tendency <strong>of</strong> audiences to rely<br />
on those same frames. As Stuart Hall put it, “We mainly tell stories like we’ve told them<br />
before, or we borrow from the whole inventory <strong>of</strong> telling stories, and <strong>of</strong> narratives” (1984).<br />
The potent effects <strong>of</strong> the reports <strong>of</strong> drug abuse and violence on the NBA’s public image (and<br />
popularity) reflect the connotative meanings that white Americans associated with “blackness”<br />
at the time. For example, studies have shown that sports broadcasts tend to emphasize the<br />
physical attributes, “God-given” talent, and negative <strong>of</strong>f-field characteristics and personal<br />
interests <strong>of</strong> blacks, while whites receive almost the opposite treatment (Rada and<br />
Wulfmeyer). Coverage in the press was <strong>of</strong>ten subtle. For example, the Washington Post on<br />
January 17 th reported that<br />
NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien fined Boston’s [white player] Dave Cowens $2,500<br />
and Atlanta’s [black player] Wayne (Tree) Rollins $1,500 yesterday for fighting during<br />
a game at the Boston Garden last Friday. Some sources around the league had expected<br />
Cowens to be suspended as well as fined since he threw the first punch. But the NBA<br />
report indicated that Cowens’ action came in response to an elbow by Rollins that went<br />
undetected by the <strong>of</strong>ficials. Therefore, the NBA said, Cowens’ punishment was limited<br />
to a fine. (D4)<br />
After noting that the league was “trying to crack down on violence” since The Punch, the<br />
article listed a number <strong>of</strong> “other incidents” during that seasons, all <strong>of</strong> which involved black<br />
players. This subtle bias is representative <strong>of</strong> most <strong>of</strong> the media’s coverage <strong>of</strong> the NBA during<br />
this period.<br />
The third socio-cultural factor leading to the NBA’s struggle during its “dark ages” was<br />
the strength and visibility <strong>of</strong> its union, the NBA Players Association (NBAPA). While “labor<br />
troubles” are <strong>of</strong>ten cited as part <strong>of</strong> basketball’s undoing in the 1970s, they have rarely been<br />
linked to race. In 1970, NBA and ABA team owners agreed to merge the two leagues, but<br />
the unrecognized NBAPA quickly filed a class action suit (named Oscar Robertson v. NBA<br />
after African American player Oscar Robertson, then NBAPA President) claiming that a<br />
228
merger would form a monopoly and restrict player mobility (George 186). In 1973, a judge<br />
ruled in favor <strong>of</strong> the union. Developments in the NBAPA suit received regular publicity<br />
from 1970 until 1977, when it was settled out <strong>of</strong> court, and was <strong>of</strong>ten characterized in terms<br />
<strong>of</strong> players thwarting the best interests <strong>of</strong> owners, leagues and fans. As with most union negotiations,<br />
working conditions were as critical as actual wages (George 187), although the<br />
media presented greed as the players’ real motivation (Fortunato 167).<br />
The declining power <strong>of</strong> organized labor in the 1970s may have contributed to an environment<br />
unsympathetic to the player’s union, but it is not the primary context in which to understand<br />
the perception <strong>of</strong> the NBAPA. Seen in the context <strong>of</strong> the accumulation <strong>of</strong> wealth<br />
by young black men, as opposed to the broader American labor movement, poor treatment<br />
<strong>of</strong> players and a lack <strong>of</strong> public sympathy to their concerns fit into a historical pattern <strong>of</strong> white<br />
reactions to black financial success. Young black men who had already earned more money<br />
than some whites would in their entire lives were organizing collectively to demand even<br />
more. From this perspective, the NBA players’ drug <strong>of</strong> choice—cocaine—can be seen as a<br />
marker <strong>of</strong> class. As Boyd (2003) puts it, “cocaine was a drug for the beautiful people, the<br />
wealthy, the stars, the glamorous ones for whom money and access were no object” (23).<br />
By using cocaine, NBA players implicitly signaled that their wealth and power allowed them<br />
to ignore racial boundaries. Historically, African Americans who amass economic or social<br />
capital and/or rise in status—individually or collectively, as personal fortune or political<br />
movement—threaten the status quo that has privileged white Americans. During a the 1970s,<br />
a decade <strong>of</strong> relative scarcity, young black men who crossed the interrelated boundaries <strong>of</strong><br />
color and class via their economic position posed a threat to the social order <strong>of</strong> white privilege.<br />
Black Style and White Prejudice<br />
MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON<br />
As the rival leagues competed, the ABA and NBA developed distinct styles that developed<br />
racial associations. The ABA operated without a television contract and on the edge <strong>of</strong> a<br />
pecuniary cliff for most <strong>of</strong> its existence (1967-1976), which forced the league to experiment<br />
in order to draw more fans. Rule changes, most notably the introduction <strong>of</strong> the three-point<br />
shot, were supplemented by the active recruitment <strong>of</strong> athletic players to create a guard-oriented<br />
style <strong>of</strong> play that emphasized movement, athleticism and showmanship. Players, coaches<br />
and owners were attentive to their fans’ desires: they developed a red-white-and-blue ball,<br />
inaugurated the Slam Dunk Contest, and promoted individual players as celebrities (Andrews<br />
14) in order to increase attendance. Fans, players and critics <strong>of</strong>ten refer to the ABA as a<br />
“black” league (Boyd 2003; George 181; Andrews 14). The ABA did indeed have a slightly<br />
higher percentage <strong>of</strong> black players than the NBA, but more importantly it was “dominated<br />
by a Black aesthetic” (George 181), which is usually described as some combination <strong>of</strong><br />
“improvisational,” “creative,” “athletic” and “intimidating” (George xvii). In the mid-1970s<br />
ABA attendance was actually increasing at a greater rate than the NBA, even without the<br />
exposure <strong>of</strong> national television (Kirchberg 146). Indeed, after the merger, many players and<br />
journalists questioned whether the NBA’s dwindling attendance had something to do with<br />
its slow-down, drag-out style <strong>of</strong> play. As Boyd noted about the relationship between white<br />
fans and black players, “they love your performance, but they hate you” (2003, 39). As we<br />
have seen, the league may indeed have been too culturally and politically “black” for whites<br />
at the time. The NBA thus faced a dilemma: how to harness the “black aesthetic” that whites<br />
found appealing while rendering “blackness” invisible?<br />
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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY<br />
The answer would come from David Stern, who joined the NBA as its General Counsel<br />
in 1978 and had a solution when he became Commissioner in 1984. As Stern put it, he “put<br />
out the fires” (Fortunato 99) one-by-one. First, drugs: a month after the first public cocaine<br />
allegation, the NBA created a Drug Education Prevention Committee; although it would be<br />
three years until a drug testing agreement was struck with the NBAPA, the media regularly<br />
reported on league meetings about the issue (Mitten). The league appeared to be fighting its<br />
own “war on drugs” that paralleled President Ronald Reagan’s heightened militarism against<br />
narcotics—reports <strong>of</strong> drug use and player suspensions increased significantly throughout<br />
the 1980s. Second, violence: the frequency <strong>of</strong> violent incidents barely decreased for over a<br />
decade, but increasingly severe fines and penalties for full-blown fights restricted its severity.<br />
In both cases the league positioned itself with the fans and against the players. Third, unionism:<br />
the players’ union took the league’s dire financial situation to heart and lowered their<br />
demands, agreeing in 1983 to a salary cap—at the time, the anti-union environment created<br />
by the Reagan administration (Collins) may also have led to decreased sympathy from and<br />
support by the general public.<br />
Cleaning Up the Past<br />
To paraphrase Marx, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan played and changed<br />
basketball, but they did not do it under conditions <strong>of</strong> their own making. The NBA’s renaissance<br />
can be equally credited to David Stern, who benefitted from an upturn in the economy<br />
and the racial politics <strong>of</strong> Reaganism. By the 1980s, the term “colorblindness,” which was<br />
embraced by conservatives and the Reagan administration, emerged as “the neoconservative<br />
racial doctrine” (Omi and Winant, p. viii), a Trojan horse codeword that promised to solve<br />
the “problem” <strong>of</strong> race by pretending not to see it. As Nicholas Laham put it (1998),<br />
In supporting colorblind law, Reagan could represent his efforts to reform affirmative<br />
action, not as an attempt to reinstate racial and gender discrimination against minorities<br />
and white women, but as a sincere and genuine effort to achieve a fair and just society<br />
in which all individuals are guaranteed equality under the law. (11)<br />
The legerdemain <strong>of</strong> colorblindness only “worked,” <strong>of</strong> course, because most white Americans<br />
denied that the existence <strong>of</strong> racial categories affected them, even as they consistently benefited<br />
from racial discrimination (Lipsitz). In their re-articulation <strong>of</strong> colorblindness, conservatives<br />
in the 1980s found a national electorate more than willing to believe racism and racial discrimination,<br />
if not “race” itself, could and would simply disappear, if it had not already The<br />
popularity <strong>of</strong> colorblindness as an ideology provided the NBA with a solution to its dilemma.<br />
Stern was able to “clean up” the NBA by promoting a colorblind philosophy through heavily<br />
disciplining players whose actions evoked negative associations <strong>of</strong> “blackness” to whites<br />
(such as Michael Ray Richardson, who failed repeated drug tests and was eventually banned<br />
from the league); and showcasing the more marketable black players (such as Jordan). The<br />
control <strong>of</strong> African American players by white managers was euphemized by the colorneutral<br />
language <strong>of</strong> management (Hughes). On the other hand, by promoting the image <strong>of</strong><br />
clean-cut African Americans and circulating information about team “community service,”<br />
the NBA “rebranded itself as both an institution <strong>of</strong> racial uplift and an entrepreneur <strong>of</strong> racial<br />
flair” (Hughes 74), while banishing not only the negative traits that whites associated with<br />
230
“blackness” but any mention <strong>of</strong> “race” itself, which is notably absent during broadcasts,<br />
communications from the league, and most press. 2 In addition to reflecting the racial formation<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 1980s, the NBA reified it in the public imagination.<br />
If my account <strong>of</strong> race in the construction and reality <strong>of</strong> the NBA’s struggles in the “dark<br />
ages” and the transformation that occurred in the 1980s seems to place an undue explanatory<br />
emphasis on structural factors at the expense <strong>of</strong> the players themselves (and their agency),<br />
it is only because the NBA’s deliberate management and incorporation <strong>of</strong> “blackness” parallels<br />
the tenacity <strong>of</strong> the contemporary racial formation in the United States. The NBA in<br />
the twenty-first century closely resembles the NBA <strong>of</strong> the late 1970s in a number <strong>of</strong> ways,<br />
such as style <strong>of</strong> play, its relative domestic unpopularity, and the league <strong>of</strong>fice’s active role<br />
in controlling the racial connotations <strong>of</strong> its African American players. David Stern’s concern<br />
over players’ clothing (the NBA imposed a player dress code in 2005), fighting (such as the<br />
brawl between Indiana and Detroit in 2004), and even gangs (Paul Pierce’s fine for what<br />
NBA <strong>of</strong>ficials mistakenly alleged was a gang symbol on April 26, 2008) should be seen in<br />
the context <strong>of</strong> the NBA’s need to “put out the fires” <strong>of</strong> stereotypical socio-cultural “blackness”<br />
in order to de-racialize and revitalize the league in the mid-1980s. A historical perspective<br />
on conceptions <strong>of</strong> race and forms <strong>of</strong> racism is critical. While this paper is intended primarily<br />
as a historical revision <strong>of</strong> a misunderstood epoch, it also attempts to situate the twenty-first<br />
century racial formation through one <strong>of</strong> the primary public representations <strong>of</strong> blacks in<br />
American culture. By juxtaposing the “dark ages” <strong>of</strong> the late 1970s with the contemporary<br />
tangle <strong>of</strong> race and basketball, we can see how techniques <strong>of</strong> control and manipulation reflect<br />
a dominant conception <strong>of</strong> race that has been remarkably stable, in many ways, for four decades.<br />
Basketball, a “black game” in a white nation, has served as a barometer <strong>of</strong> race in<br />
America for half a century. Now more than ever, with a black president who organizes regular<br />
pickup games and invited his favorite team (the Chicago Bulls) to the White House<br />
three times in his first two years in <strong>of</strong>fice, the future <strong>of</strong> the tightly interwoven relationship<br />
between race and basketball deserves close and continued examination.<br />
References<br />
MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON<br />
“A Decade <strong>of</strong> Parity,” NBA Encyclopedia Play<strong>of</strong>f Edition, http://www.nba.com/encyclopedia/decade_<strong>of</strong>_parity.html,<br />
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Andrews, David L. (2001), The Fact(s) <strong>of</strong> Michael Jordan’s Blackness: Excavating a Floating Racial<br />
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America, edited by David L. Andrews.<br />
Boyd, Todd (1997), Am I Black Enough for You?: Popular Culture from the ‘Hood and Beyond,<br />
Bloomington, IN: Indiana <strong>University</strong> Press.<br />
Boyd, Todd (2008), Young, Black, Rich & Famous: The Rise <strong>of</strong> the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion, and<br />
the Transformation <strong>of</strong> American Culture, Lincoln and London: <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Nebraska Press.<br />
Brown, Eleanor, Richard Spiro and Diane Keenan (1991), “Wage and Nonwage Discrimination in<br />
Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Basketball: Do Fans Affect it?”, Journal <strong>of</strong> Economics and Sociology, Vol. 50,<br />
No.3, July 1991, p. 333-345.<br />
2 It is, <strong>of</strong> course, nearly impossible to definitively identify an absence <strong>of</strong> racial discourse when the data set is so<br />
large. To do so would require an analysis <strong>of</strong> every television and radio broadcast, league press release, and mainstream<br />
article. As evidence <strong>of</strong> the striking absence <strong>of</strong> race in NBA discourse, I rely on five informal interviews with fans<br />
who have followed the league closely—regularly watching local and national games and reading articles in local<br />
and national press—since at least the 1990s.<br />
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Bruce, Toni (2004), “Marking the Boundaries <strong>of</strong> the ‘Normal’ in Televised Sports: the Play-by-play<br />
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Carrington, Ben and David L. Andrews, Steven J. Jackson, and Zbigniew Mazur (2001), “The Global<br />
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America, edited by David L. Andrews.<br />
Cobbs, Chris, “NBA and Cocaine: Nothing to Snort At”, Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1980.<br />
Collins, Robert M. (2007), Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years,<br />
New York: Columbia <strong>University</strong> Press.<br />
Feinstein, John (2003), The Punch: One Night, Two Lives, and the Fight that Changed Basketball<br />
Forever, New York: Little, Brown and Company.<br />
Finley, Peter and Laura L. Finley (2006), The Sports Industry’s War on Athletes, Westport, CT:<br />
Greenwood Publishing Group.<br />
Fortunato, John A. (2001), The Ultimate Assist: The Relationship and Broadcast Strategies <strong>of</strong> the NBA<br />
and Television Networks, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.<br />
George, Nelson (1992), Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball, New York: HarperCollins.<br />
Grossberg, Lawrence (1992), We Gotta Get Out <strong>of</strong> This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern<br />
Culture, New York and London: Routledge.<br />
Halberstam, David (1999), Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made, New York:<br />
Random House.<br />
Hall, Stuart (1984), “The Narrative Construction <strong>of</strong> Reality: An Interview with Stuart Hall,” Southern<br />
Review, 17, March.<br />
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Scarborough, Ontario: New American Library.<br />
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York: Villard Books.<br />
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America Above the Rim, edited by Todd Boyd and Kenneth L. Shropshire. New York and<br />
London: New York <strong>University</strong> Press.<br />
Hubbard, Jan (ed.) (2000), The Official NBA Encyclopedia, New York: Doubleday.<br />
Hughes, Glyn (2004), “Managing Black Guys: Representation, Corporate Culture, and the NBA”,<br />
Sociology <strong>of</strong> Sport Journal, 2004, 21, p. 163-184.<br />
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608.<br />
Kriegel, Mark (2007), Pistol: The Life <strong>of</strong> Pete Maravich, New York: Free Press.<br />
Laham, Nicholas (2000), Ronald Reagan and the Politics <strong>of</strong> Immigration Reform, Wesport, CT:<br />
Praeger.<br />
Lipsitz, George (2006), The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Pr<strong>of</strong>it from<br />
Identity Politics, Philadelphia: Temple <strong>University</strong> Press.<br />
McGirr, Lisa (2001), Suburban Warriors: The Origins <strong>of</strong> the New American Right, Princeton and<br />
Oxford: Princeton <strong>University</strong> Press.<br />
Mitten, Matthew J. (2006), “Drug Testing <strong>of</strong> Athletes—An Internal, Not External, Matter,” New<br />
England Law Review, Spring 2006, Vol. 40, pp. 297-299.<br />
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the 1990s, New York and London: Routledge.<br />
Rada, James A. and K. Tim Wulfmeyer, “Color Coded: Racial Descriptors in Television Coverage <strong>of</strong><br />
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Issue 1, pp. 65-85.<br />
232
Robertson, Oscar (2003), The Big O: My Life, My Times, My Game, New York: St. Martin’s Press.<br />
Samuels, Allison (1998), “Race, Respect, and the NBA”, Newsweek, 12/21/1998, Vol. 132, Issue 25,<br />
p. 55.<br />
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About the Author<br />
MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON<br />
Matthew Schneider-Mayerson<br />
My interests are fairly diverse. I have articles under consideration on alternate history novels<br />
(a genre <strong>of</strong> popular fiction) and the connection between peak oil movement (a secular apocalyptic<br />
movement <strong>of</strong> the new millennium) and the American ideology <strong>of</strong> unlimited economic<br />
growth. My dissertation focuses on this subject and a growing awareness <strong>of</strong> the limits <strong>of</strong><br />
natural resources and America’s global power. However, this is something <strong>of</strong> an outlier: my<br />
primary interest is in postwar American popular culture and political power, from film to<br />
music to popular fiction. In addition, I am an avid lifelong basketball fan, and find myself<br />
returning to sports, which I view within the context <strong>of</strong> race, class, and culture.<br />
233
EDITORS<br />
Keith Gilbert, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> East London, UK.<br />
Bill Cope, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA.<br />
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD<br />
Mojca Doupona, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.<br />
Mark Hargreaves, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Melbourne, Melbourne, USA.<br />
Jack Jedwab, Association for Canadian Studies, Montreal, Canada.<br />
Sid Katz, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.<br />
Richard Lichen, Beijing Sports <strong>University</strong>, Beijing, China.<br />
Abdul Hafidz bin Haji Omar, <strong>University</strong> Technology Malaysia, Malaysia.<br />
Otto J. Schantz, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Koblenz, Landau, Germany.<br />
Karin Volkwein-Caplan, West Chester <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> Pennsylvania, West Chester, USA.<br />
Rhodri Williams, <strong>University</strong> <strong>of</strong> British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.<br />
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