The WAcky wo Rid
of The
Ih e
NBA
is send
ing out and ^
T ,
getting a lot
of mixed signals
I these days. In the
month since the March
Madness of the NCAA Final Four,
a record number of college under
classmen and a few highly-touted
pubescent high school hoopsters,
who will skip college completely,
are poised to "Be like Dennis" and
jump out of college for the big time
of the NBA.
To be drafted into the NBA has
become the last hope for an exit out
of grinding y werty or the poverty
of spirit and motivation that affects
many a young black boy. Bounce!
Bounce! Bounce! goes the ball, a
24-seven-365 incessant reminder
that NBA fame and riches are just
one dream away. It also marks the
rhythm of a life clock that cannot
be turned back after it it's too late.
to develop non-physical gifts. The
alarm bell to go pro with the skills
is ringing quicker these days.
And further, why risk the flesh
and cash traps and the possibility of
a career-ending injury in some col
lege, where the millions go to the
coaches and student scholarship
funds? In college, an All-American
runs the chance of ruining the sure
shot flash, flesh and cash cows
available to pro basketball players.
After all, in the NBA, one is paid
even while injured or suspended for
the rules violations that are so
much a part of the game.
Unfortunately, most of the kids
aspiring to make the big-time game
do not appreciate the very low odds
of their making it. Jimmy (God rest
his soul) The Greek did not appre
ciate physical anthropology either.
Basketball is both an obsession for,
as well as an unholy collusion
between, all involved: wo, 'd-be
players, coaches, colleges, parents,
marketers and promoters, and those
of us who love the game, and who
idol
i z e ,
deify and
glorify those
who can play
it. We love it
even when we
know the NBA
game is stacked
against its would
be participants and
if some of its most
visible competitors
are otherwise flat-out
nuts!
Socially awafe
and politically correct
Spike Lee has done
for those who cannot
play basketball
what he did to
c o m m e r c i a 1 i z e
Malcolm X fo r
this generation
of non-reading
video devotees.
In NBA pro
motional ads,
Lee renders
his straight
faced version
of the corpo
rate chant "I
Love This
Game!" The
advertising
tie-ins to
basketball,
especially
the gym
s h o e
compa
n i e s ,
arc
in it,
too.
S o ni e
of the
most cre
ative commer
cials on television
accompany basket
hall games. Best
are those sweating
pavement pounders
asserting that "this is
in y planet!" even
when we know they
most-likely have not
studied much of any
thing about it Of
course. Hollywood
leads the parade of
misleading NBA
dreamers in this
1 a rge r-1 h an -1 i f e a
drama. Award
wi lining docu
mentary Hoop
Dreams and the
popular film.
Sunset Park,
are like cultur
al steroids,
pumping up
the false pos
sibilities of
c o u n 11 e s s
numbers ot
gullible
w o u 1 d - b e
NBA gladia
tors. The
N B A
dreams of
Stephon
Marhurv
Marcus Camby
and those gu\s
weren't bom yesterday.
Also, NBA-level bas
ketball seems to encourage
individualism at the negative
end of that which is peculiar!)
eccentric. No two tattoos the same
in this league, so to speak. In steps
Dennis Rodman wTTh liis o\\ n~~
three-ring circus. The quirksoine
superstar learned from his highh
publicized tryst with megastar
Material Girl Madonna. II you are
to be portrayed as bad, make sure
you are as bad as you w ant to be. or
at least as bad as the paying public
will accept. And here he is: .ill of
him, in our faces, butting heads
with us, as we wait, with bated
breath, for his next uncommon, but
predictably erratic antic.
Alternatively, we see him glower
and scowl like a psychopath, grin
like a fox or whimper and weep
with Oprah Winfrey. His tattoos,
warts, scars, studs, assorted hair
colors and sordid poses on the
cover of books, not to mention the
latest in cross-dressing fashions,
have literally taken popular
American culture with eye-opening
incredulity. Dennis Rodman *is a
natural extension of American cul
ture. A big. black, naked Howard
Stem-like cultural una-bomber!
RuPaul with a basketball! Raider ol
the corporate culture's vaunted
vaults, those where mainstream
values are maintained bv spoil. The
NBA' s own Frankenstein.
Somewhere between Meadow -
lark Lemon of Harlem Globetrotter
fame and Dennis Rodman, basket
ball as sport and as metaphot lor
beneficial social values and basket
ball as part of shock-value enter
tainment have melded into one. A
lot of other things that moved our
cul:ure dependably from one gener
ation to the next are going to hell in
a hand basket, too; and, as we do
w ith Dennis, we dare not sa\ "Time
Out!"
(Dr. William If. Turner writes a
regular column, Lift Every Voice,
if! the Winston-Salem Chronicle).