By Mike Kahn
CBS SportsLine Executive Editor
Dec. 14, 1998
Maybe out of my naiveté, the prospect seemed unlikely. Even when a co-worker raised the question last week about the NBA labor strife, my posture never changed.
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One week later, thanks to a Newsweek investigative piece, it's all over. The race card has been played.
BUT IT STILL ISN'T THE PROBLEM, no matter what the contentions. It doesn't play a role in the problems, regardless of the fact that the entire NBA negotiating committee and all the owners are white. Even though the union leadership is all black and only two players on the negotiating committee are white, it still isn't the point.
It's no more the point than it was when it came to the O.J. Simpson trial. Just because Mark Fuhrman was a bigot didn't mean he planted evidence. He never had a motive, whereas Simpson has a history of an explosive temper.
Where's the relevance?
The money is the problem, not the color of the skin. Over the weekend, millions of sports fans threw up their hands in disgust over the recent signing of free agent pitcher Kevin Brown and the demands laid out by Roger Clemens, who is forcing a trade even though he isn't a free agent. It was the same when Mike Piazza was signed.
What do they all have in common, besides being wealthy and pampered major league baseball players? They're all white. You see, what's happened over the past 15 years, thanks ironically to the NBA, is a general acceptance of athletes without color. The Magic Johnson-Larry Bird relationship helped, then came the Dream Team and Michael Jordan's emergence as a transcendent player and personality sealed it.
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Baseball fans dislike Albert Belle for the manner in which he treats others, not because of his skin color.
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Fans love the exceptional skills and fun personalities to go along with it. People don't like Albert Belle because he treats too many other people like garbage. It has nothing to do with his skin color. People may like him less because he's black, but that's not the source of disgust. You can't tell me the people of Baltimore aren't hoping things will be different and Belle will be a jovial sort who just happens to hit .320, with 50 home runs and 140 RBI. That's the preference. The problem isn't that he's black. He needs to change his personality.
THAT'S ANOTHER REASON WHY IT ISN'T surprising the one NBA player widely quoted over this being a race issue is Alonzo Mourning, who has traditionally been one of the rudest All-Stars with the media over the past six years. He isn't any more obnoxious than one of his peers from the rookie class of 1992, Christian Laettner, who happens to be white. It's just that Mourning has decided he would be a spokesman during these negotiations, calling the owners "greedy" despite his own $105 million contract.
To exacerbate the problem, he now has gone on record calling this stalemate in NBA negotiations during this lockout an issue of race.
"I think there is a perception from the owners to even some fans that we're blacks who should be happy with what we've got, fair or not," Mourning said. "There's a lack of respect given us in large part because we're athletes. I'm not saying it's all about race because it's not. But it plays a factor."
Mourning brings up good points. If he had chosen to leave out the issue of color, he would have been even more accurate. There is a perception out there from owners, fans and, to be honest, media, that they should be happy they are making so much money. And there is a lack of respect partially because they are athletes.
Alonzo Mourning makes an obscene amount of money playing a children's game. If you want to get specific, since playing 77 of the 82 regular season games for the Charlotte Hornets in the 1994-95 season, his three years with the Miami Heat have produced 70, 66 and 58 games. There Zo, that's another reason why so many people think you guys are overpaid. That's not to say you're a malinger, because you're not. You have been hurt. Still, you made approximately $11.25 million last season and you missed almost 30 percent of the games.
It's unconscionable that you would make such commentary about owners when Miami Heat owner Micky Arison completely overpaid for you. One can only imagine how the hierarchy of the players association cringes every time you open your mouth.
THE ENTIRE NEGOTIATION BREAKDOWN among the NBA owners and the NBPA has the appearance of a stalemate over a hard cap and the Larry Bird exception that allows for signing unrestricted free agents and then signing your own free agents in order. It's the same problem they had when the lockout began more than five months ago. The owners want to put a lid on salaries because they can't control themselves from overpaying.
This is all about money and power and, somewhere in there, restraint (or lack of it) by billionaires to retain control of millionaires. Despite signs to the contrary, it's still nearly impossible to believe an entire season would be canceled because of the incredible loss of money through sponsorships that will have ramifications well into the next millennium.
That the majority of the players in the NBA are black -- not to mention a near prohibitive percentage when it comes to All-Stars -- is incidental in this case. If you make the case it is about athletes being controlled by owners -- and most of the athletes are black and the owners are white -- and conclude it's a race issue, then go ahead.
But it's way out of proportion. After a weekend of white guys Kevin Brown and Roger Clemens, and their desire for corporate jet access, suites on every road trip, and, oh yeah, $15 million a year, don't tell me this is an issue of race.
Pure and simple, it's about a bunch of ballplayers who make too much money.
Mike Kahn is CBS SportsLine's executive editor.
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