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THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND SOCIETY
in terms of the historically articulated cultural associations that many white Americans held
about African Americans and the threats they posed. Third, I historicize this discussion
through the dimension of political economy: the NBA’s stagnation in the late seventies and
its resurrection in the eighties should be seen in the context of America’s struggling economy,
the backlash against the civil rights movement, Reaganism, and “colorblindness” as an unofficial
national policy.
The 1970s have often been referred to as the league’s “dark ages” due to its flagging
popularity, low public profile and almost literal retrospective invisibility; because fewer
games were televised, especially nationally, only middle-aged, die-hard fans can actually
recall the feats of Pete Maravich and Bill Russell (Fortunato 24-25). I argue that the phrases
“dark ages” and the widely repeated “too black” should be seen in relation to each other,
since professional basketball has succeeded in America by embracing colorblindness and
carefully managing its players’ images so as to distance the sport from stereotypes of black
men. More than any other sport, professional men’s basketball has often served as both the
most public stage for successful black men in America and simultaneously as “evidence”
for biological racial difference. Although the NBA’s domestic popularity has decreased from
its peak in the 1990s, its global reach has never been wider (Carrington, Andrews, Jackson,
and Mazur). Football and baseball are currently more popular domestically, but the former
has almost no profile internationally and the latter’s popularity is limited outside of a handful
of nations (such as Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic). But basketball is truly global:
there are, as of this writing, professional men’s basketball leagues in at least 40 countries,
and the 2010 NBA All-Star Game was broadcast in over 200 countries. Beyond the game
itself, NBA culture—the products endorsed by its players, their hairstyles, their jerseys and
baggy shorts—have an influence around the world that is beyond measurement (and the
scope of this paper). The stakes of the critical interpretation of race in professional basketball
are high indeed.
The Absence of Race in the NBA’s Mythology
The NBA has been remarkably efficient in controlling its image and the construction of its
history since its rise to popularity and visibility in the early 1980s, a factor which partially
accounts for its success. Unfortunately, its relative obscurity presents an obstacle to detailed
historical research before this period, since scholars must rely heavily on short accounts of
games in newspapers and the autobiographies of former players who have a host of reasons
not to wade into the waters of controversial topics. In this void, as cultural critic Todd Boyd
points out (1997), “basketball was able to create its cultural mythology without the glare of
mainstream media attention” (119). This is in stark contrast to professional baseball, which
has held center stage in American sports since the 1870s. Since relatively few people were
concerned with basketball’s history until the 1980s, the NBA itself has had an unusual opportunity
to craft a uniform mythology that serves to promote their primary interest, economic
growth.
This constructed history is extremely selective. With enough space, I might provide the
short summary here, as any fan could, and as the NBA has in its three official encyclopedias
(Hollander; Hollander and Sachare; Hubbard), which focuses almost entirely on the exciting,
family-friendly play of its gladiators: gradual increase in skill, athleticism, and popularity;
the virtues of teamwork; individual brilliance; and heroic achievements. Sports historians
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