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POINT AFTER
The Real Lesson of Latrell Sprewell
This incident isn't about race but about athletes who are
allowed to play by different
rules
by
Jesse
Jackson
Posted: Tue December 16, 1997
There
are many issues involving race and sports worth getting
excited about. The lack of minority ownership of
professional sports franchises is one of them. The
snaillike advancement of persons of color into the
managerial and coaching ranks of these teams is
another. But for all the hype surrounding Latrell Sprewell,
the incident between him and his coach most assuredly does
not belong in this
group.
Not every confrontation between a black man and a white man
constitutes a civil rights issue. To suggest that the
Sprewell case does diminishes the real civil rights issues
that the U.S. has faced in the past and faces still. Not
every incident like
this
sheds light on the state of race relations in American
life. To suggest that this case does diverts us from the
challenges we must confront across the racial
divide.
Sometimes things are no bigger than they seem, sometimes
there is not more than meets the
eye, and sometimes even an event like this one provides us with
no insight into relations between white and black Americans
generally. Sometimes things get out of hand, self-control
is tossed out the window, and someone crosses the line of
acceptable
behavior and resorts to violence. And that's
it.
According to eyewitness accounts, at a practice on
Dec. 1 Sprewell placed his hands around the neck of his coach,
P.J. Carlesimo, began choking him and
shouting, "I'm going to kill you." You don't need
to be a rocket scientist or even an expert in jurisprudence
to know that there is something fundamentally wrong with
such behavior and that it demands
punishment.
Some in the media, including this magazine, have tried
their level best to spin the race angle on this story.
Black player. White coach. Violence. Celebrity. Ratings.
The punditocracy is in a lather. No less a personage than
Sam Donaldson stated on
ABC's
This
Week—without a shred of evidence—that "Jesse Jackson may
go so far as to begin picketing or boycotting the
NBA." Let me be very clear: I won't be leading any
pickets or rallies or marches in reaction to the Sprewell
case. I will pray for Latrell, however. I
will pray that he finds the inner peace that is missing
from his life, that he can rein in the anger and resentment
that seem to have gained the upper hand in his soul. And I
will pray that fans of the NBA will find it in their hearts
to forgive him, as
Jesus calls on us to forgive our brother
seventy times seven. I will pray that there will be forgiveness,
reconciliation and that some day Latrell will be able to
rejoin the NBA with a clear conscience and a full
heart.
Because of the length of time, a year, that the NBA has
required Sprewell to sit out, it has been suggested that
commissioner David Stern is trying to send a message or
draw a line. A message does need to be sent, and a line
does need to be drawn. But
the challenge for our society is to begin drawing that line a
long time before players reach the NBA. If the Sprewell
episode has a larger implication, it is found in a
sports-entertainment industry that tells athletes at a very
young age that they may
play by a different set of rules than their fellow students,
that coddles them and spoils them and that showers them
with rewards out of all proportion to their contributions
to
society.
All the fuss about Sprewell will have accomplished
something if, as a result, we begin asking questions about
the role of sports in our society. The road to an incident
like this begins the first time an F is turned into a C for
a star athlete, when
local prosecutors pass on a case that would have landed a
nonathlete in jail, when high school and college coaches
are not expected to have a broad role in the academic life
of the schools that hire them, when communities choose to
build spanking new
stadiums rather than rebuild crumbling elementary
schools.
It's easy to condemn Latrell Sprewell. It's easy to try to
inject race into the case. What is more difficult and more
worthy is for all of us, regardless of race, to ponder our
own culpability in the creation of a sports-entertainment
industry of big
stars and big money that may be teaching our children all the
wrong
lessons.
Issue date: December 22, 1997
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