ESPN: Black Magic

For any basketball fan ESPN's Black Magic is very enlightening. The show aired last night, no commercials, courtesy of somebody. Black Magic detailed and highlighted the path of black coaches and basketball players rising in the early development of the game. Struggles of not being able to play, not being served in hotels, being black balled by owners, and being frozen out of a game by their own teammates. The coolest thing about this show was that it was black history but it aired in March, maybe black history month can be every month.

Brevity might be a problem here, so bear with me. There are so many guys that never got the chance to play professional ball because of their race and not their talent. The NCAA did not even allow black colleges to participate in THE tournament (this is tournament time, go LSU's cousin Memphis) and eventually when they did, the black teams had to play each other and then they would take the winner from that and allow that particular team to compete. Teams would have quotas where they could only have a certain number of black players. If a black player was too good, as in the case of Cleo Hill i believe, he was frozen out by his own teammates because they didn't want him scoring all the points. The players went to the owners and decided that Hill needed to play a lesser role because he was outshining the other folk, and when his coach tried to go to bat for him he was fired because he would not comply. Coach said he could not look at himself in the mirror if he did that to a guy that he cared for. I even learned that there was a black basketball team that put their foot on the throat of the NBA dream team that held the characters of Jerry West (who is the NBA logo) and Oscar Robertson. The players in the NBA were good players, but clearly there was some sort of collusion to keep good black players out. I think watching something like this should be essential to professional athletes. Also, seeing some of the former legends like a Bob Petit and hearing how he acted makes me not feel to positively about this guy. Im not insinuating that all pros are ungrateful but i do think that a program like this would help shape perspectives.

Follow me on this one, don't judge me. What if you were white and all your life you were told that you were better than somebody by everyone around you. If that is what you are fed as a child from birth doesn't that stick in your head. Now i do think everyone should have some sense and enlighten themselves and grow, therefore i most assuredly feel that the powers that existed were wrong for how they treated black people. However, i do think that if i was told the sky is green from the day i was born it might be harder to convince me otherwise. I think most black people only see it from a black perspective but i think taking some time to understand the mindset of other people helps you form your solution better. Like i said don't judge me,I love the plush red sofa.

Really this whole story ties in with black folks in general being appreciative and not taking things for granted like we occasionally do. They even showed the clips of my main man Martin Luther, non-violent, non-violent. It was cool to get some of the former baskeball players perspective on Martin and how they respected what he was doing but they felt they had to take a different approach, which resembled Malcolm's mentality. But hey, that's why i type these things to give all of us a healthy reminder. And here is a parting gift for you, just about all these people are still alive so that means this wasn't that long ago! And there are still reporters around from that time. So just for the record it ain't all good yet.

The story is wayyyyy more detail then i can supply in a blog entry. If you get a chance to check it out you should cause if you don't im coming to rip your cable out. Goodnight Canada (shout out to ESPN and Tony Kornheiser)