We Are The Champions

I’ve always been interested in the way that cultures deal with intrusion. There’s an interesting article in the WaPo by sportswriter Mike Wise that touches a little bit on the way that a group claims ownership of a certain area, and how they react to intrusion. It’s a column on the way that international players are starting to play a larger role in the NBA. Three of the best players on the San Antonio Spurs (our new NBA champs, for those who don’t follow sports) were born outside of the US. Duncan is from the Virgin Islands. Ginobili is Argentinean, and Tony Parker is French. The fact that our NBA champions are a little less than ‘American’ seems to be troublesome to some. Even more interesting is the reaction to many of the foreign players who aren’t black.

The article is fairly light – there are no really cutting analyses, but I’m still really impressed that an American sportswriter wrote this piece. Unless you are writing about the miraculous way that sports breaks down color barriers, which is more debatable than most would like to admit, it’s very rare and difficult to write about race in sports.

A couple of interesting snippets:

At least three players not playing in the Finals spoken to this week on condition their names not be used -- black players whose NBA jobs are being outsourced -- desperately wanted the Pistons to beat the Spurs. For no other reason than, as one of them candidly said, "We gotta put some of these guys back in their place."

Interesting that Wise uses the word ‘outsourced.’ That’s becoming a rallying call against globalization and yet he seems to be arguing in favor of, or at the very least describing without animosity the globalization of basketball. I would also wonder how much of the ‘those guys’ refers to the Spurs in general, or, as Wise seems to imply, foreigners and/or non-blacks.

Another interesting part – a quote from Sean Elliott, the Spurs’ color commentator:

"When you have a Dirk Nowitzki or Larry Bird-type players, big guys who play their positions well, there's not a lot of backlash," Elliott said. "But when you have a 6-6 white guy beating the black player at his own game, then it's a little different. Every series he's been in, guys have been slow to give him respect. It's an amazing phenomenon.

I may be reading too much into it here, but Wise seems to be implying that players and analysts see basketball as a ‘black’ game. I’m not sure I would disagree with that as the gel consensus. At least that seems to be how it is presented to kids today. I worry that basketball and basketball scholarships are the only way that some kids see that they can get out of poverty and go to school. Not only that, but you only go to school so that you can go to the NBA, the education thing is secondary at best. Then you win the lottery. You’re rich, famous and you pull all of your friends up with you.

Tangential side note:

Why do we call our league champions ‘world champions?’ I think tennis players could say that. Soccer teams could, but baseball? Basketball?