Original Warrior weighs in

Edwards sees more strides to be made on the horizon

The Original Warrior had some questions. Dr. Harry Edwards had just seen Sports Illustrated's list of the 101 Most Influential Minorities in Sports, and a couple of names caught his eye. "Charles Barkley and Stuart Scott," he said, his voice still resonating with the fiery baritone that stirred the 1960s movement for dignity and equity for black athletes. "I know they're on TV, but why are they here?"

Thank goodness I was prepared. Having led the team that compiled the magazine's first-ever list of this kind, I reached out to the Original Warrior in anticipation of such challenges. Not just from him but from sports fans everywhere who certainly would wonder why their favorite -- say, Barry Bonds, Michelle Kwan or Muhammad Ali -- failed to make the list.

I explained to the Original Warrior that Barkley (No. 75), the former Round Mound of Rebound who is now the Raging Mouth of TNT's NBA broadcasts, was included because he is one of the first sports television announcers who speaks with honest authority and no fear. (To wit: "The only people who think the Timberwolves can beat the Lakers are their wives and girlfriends.") He makes us think. At times he makes us mad, too. But most important, he gives a huge television audience a perspective provided by no one else. Scott? Just think: Boo-ya! Love him or hate him, I said, the popular ESPN announcer brought an urban flavor to sports announcing and changed the way sports fans talked about the images that moved us. ("He's got a swing as cool as the other side of the pillow.") No one since Chris Berman had done that.

"OK," said the OW, after pondering my responses for a moment. "I buy that." Then The Original warrior was on a roll: "There are many spheres of influence, places and areas that were not part of the dialogue of the '60s when the battle was for access, dignity and respect. Back then there was not a single black head coach in the pros or at a Division I institution. Great athletes have been around since O.J. [Simpson], but there was not a single black GM. Jim Brown had trouble getting endorsements, but today LeBron James has never dribbled a basketball in anger and will receive tens of millions to sell all manner of products right out of high school. We didn't have a single black owner, but now we have a legitimate black owner [No. 1 Robert Johnson of the NBA's Charlotte expansion franchise] who wrote a check for $300 million and didn't just float half a million while a white owner put in $65 million.

"We must continue to keep our eyes on the prize, which is always on the horizon. But in the process we should not lose sight of the ground that has been gained and the advances made."

Indeed, such progress inspired us to create the list, but it did not blind us to the work that remains to be done. Just as our list was hitting newsstands and reaching subscribers, Dr. Richard Lapchick, head of the University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, released his annual report card on the state of minority participation in the front offices of the sports industry. The results were middling:

•A- for the WNBA
•B+ for the NBA
•B for the NCAA
•C's for Major League Baseball, the NHL, MLS and the NFL

Lapchick said his report showed "perhaps the worst overall two-year period of declines for women and, in some cases, for people of color, in the report's history."

SI's list does not contradict those finding, but puts some faces on those men and women of color who are moving the needle in the sports industry. Some have attained new positions of power in sports; others are driving the sports economy in some meaningful form. And others still were recognized because they are using sports as a platform to make a positive impact on the less privileged in our communities.

Our rankings were not based on athletic achievement. If so, certainly Bonds and Kwan would have made it. (Bonds also was hurt by timing: If the list had been published in 2001 when the country's eyes were tuned in to each of his at-bats as he tried to break the single-season home run mark, then he would have had that benefit.) The list also was not a historical look at who's had the greatest impact of all time. Hence, the absence of Ali, among many others upon whose shoulders stand today's minority athletes, sports executives and agents. "They are the beneficiaries of the struggles of the '60s," said Edwards. "Just as people in the '60s were beneficiaries of the people who struggled in the '40s and '50s. The continuity needs to be recognized."

The most vital trends revealed by the list are access and ownership. Unlike the warriors who stood before and alongside Edwards in the '60s (people like Arthur Ashe, Bob Gibson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jim Brown, to name only a few), today's warrior athletes have attained access but strive for ownership. "Michael Jordan isn't satisfied with just getting endorsements like O.J. did with Hertz and Pennzoil," Edwards said. "He wants to own the company that makes the shoes and hire the athletes to endorse them."

The industries most lacking in representation certainly are worth mentioning. With all the hours of sports programming that air each week, it is damning that no African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans or Native Americans were found in significant management positions in the sports divisions of NBC, CBS, ABC or Fox. And among the major sportswear and sneaker companies, only Nike had representatives. With companies like adidas, Reebok and And1 attributing much of their recent growth to the "urban" (read: black) market, what does it say that no minorities were found in key decision-making positions at those companies?

"It means that there are still areas where the struggle must be waged," said Edwards.

By the way, I wondered what Dr. Edwards was doing these days, years after his voice filled the airwaves with calls for action and justice in this arena. My impression was that the Original Warrior had tired of the struggle and retired to the sidelines, content to let the battles be waged -- or not, as it seems to be -- by others. My belief was affirmed when I learned that Edwards, a former professor at San Jose State, was the Director of Parks for the City of Oakland. Not exactly a battleground for change, I thought. The Original Warrior said I was quite wrong.

He remains a key advisor to the San Francisco 49ers, and he tours the nation talking to sports executives about everything from terrorism to, most recent, the potential impact of SARS on sports leagues. And the day job? "It all begins here," he said. "There's been a phenomenal decline in terms of black participation at the highest levels, and it's all due to Prop 48 and the fact that one-third of young blacks are under the control of the court systems. If we can clean up our cities and reinstate the kinds of open spaces that provided refuge for the young stars of days past, then we might be able to turn that around. If we don't, then not only will we lose our young men and women, but we lose our games to those who still provide sports facilities and services to their children so that they have at least a chance to win."

Roy S. Johnson is an assistant managing editor for Sports Illustrated. His "Pass the Word" column appears on SI.com every Friday. Catch Johnson on CNN Headline news every Thursday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

 

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