A Progressive Guide to the NBA Finals

This year's NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, present something of a dilemma for progressive sports fans. This may surprise you; after all, isn't everyone north of the Panhandle just reflexively rooting for the Thunder (or, more accurately, against LeBron James)? And, of course, they are- but that doesn't make the Thunder the white knights in the situation.

In fact, given the way the Thunder's history, you may find it very hard to root for them (Especially if you live in the Pacific Northwest). It sure seems like The Commish retaliated by recruiting some Oklahoma City money men to buy the Seattle Supersonics and move them to Oklahoma City. Dave Zirin lays out the situation and articulates the moral ramifications of it here.

As for the Heat, yes, "The Decision" was distasteful. And yes, the Heat all seem to reflexively whine the moment they actually have to work for something. But as Zirin notes: "Strip away the drama and the Heat are called “evil” because their star players exercised free agency and—agree or disagree with their decision—took control of their own careers." I think there's an idealistic level on which we have to accept that.

Moreover, the Heat's likability program seems like the media setting up a "narrative" as much as anything. James' comments are relentlessly, ridiculously dissected, like Cold War Kremlinologists determining who's out of favor based on the Premiere's pauses in a speech. Inevitably, sports pundits find something to object to, but I gaurantee James hasn't thought about what he's saying as much as those pundits have.

Yet, for all of that, Zirin's "Let's Go Heat!" conclusion is too simplistic- and it omits some key facts. I get that this is about fans exercising some self-respect, about telling the NBA it can't get away with what it did to Seattle...but then, what, exactly, are Oklahoma City fans supposed to do here? They got an NBA team out of it, and by all accounts, they're a pretty amazing fan base now. Should they not get to enjoy this, should they not root on their team, because Seattle's loss was their gain? What about Cleveland fans? Those fans got their hearts ripped out just as assuredly as Seattle did. If they root for James now, I don't see how that's an exercise of self-respect, nor do I understand why I should stand in solidarity with one, and not the other.

Besides, how is the Heat's ownership any better? As Kate Perkins points out, it's easy to line up the players of one team and the owners of another and find a pretty clear moral divide, but that's a pretty stacked deck. Ownership against ownership, the situation is more complicated. Miami-Dade County pays for the Heat's use of AmericanAirlines Arena, and the Heat even seem to be cooking the books to minimize the amount they pay back. The biggest difference here seems to be that the Heat's owners were more successful extortionists than Oklahoma City's.

And yeah, James, Wade, Bosh- on one level, they were just exercising their rights as players, rights that they indisputably should have. But on another level, there are some clear anti-competitive impulses in their decisions. Look at what James said when he arrived in Miami, promising more than 7 championships. There's something monopolistic about what they were trying to do, and it's okay to find that distasteful.

So, we're left with two fuck-head ownership groups. One is a little more brazen about being fuck-heads, but the other is a little more successful at it. We've got one group of players who seems more likable than the other, but not as much as the media wants us to believe (and anyway, I'm sure one of you guys can convince me that Durant or Westbrook or somebody is a prick, too).

If you give a shit about social justice, there's really not enough difference to make a difference.

That's normal, of course; it's very rare for a player or team to so completely embody a progressive ideal that the in-game triumphs represent even symbolic victories, let alone tangible ones. And your rooting interest alone (outside of financial support, as I assume that if any of you have already bought a Durant jersey or hold Miami season tickets, you don't see the dilemma here in the first place) isn't a very effective way to encourage progressive change, anyway.

Still, I think it's fair to say that one team is less reactionary than the other...I'm just not sure which. I'll leave that up to you guys' personal judgment. And once you figure that out, you can root based on that- it's as good as any other reason to back a team. Just remember that if you want to make a more socially responsible NBA, attacking the issues- which really aren't team or player specific anyway, they're generally league-wide (or at least, league-tolerated) problems- is going to be more effective than which team you decide you hope has more points when you idly flip over to ABC.

The NBA on Trayvon Martin: It's Personal

Professional basketball has something to say on Trayvon Martin. Mike already pointed out how the Miami Heat- yes, the designated Heels of the NBA- have responded to the tragedy in a surprisingly moving way. You may have seen that other players have also spoken out, and that the entire NBAPA put out a statement.

I'm actually surprised to see professional basketball do so much. I know that Martin was a Heat fan, and was watching the All Star Game on that horrible day, but that doesn't really seem to implicate the sport. This is still the league living in the shadow of the man who chastised us that "Republicans buy sneakers, too." This is still the league that, as Mike reminded us, instituted a dress code. This is still the league that lives in fear of the "thug" brand.

So why is professional basketball actually being a little courageous here? Well, precisely because of the "thug" brand.

Note carefully when players and teams started speaking out. It wasn't immediately after the tragedy, and it wasn't two weeks ago, when the nation really noticed and really became outraged. It was about a week after that, when the Professional Haters chimed in and tried to convince us that it was no big deal that some defenseless black kid was shot because he probably had it coming anyway. Because he was wearing a hoodie.

I suppose I don't have to explain why the players spoke up at that moment too much. Like Martin, they'd already been condemned for how they dress. Like Martin, they'd already been labelled for what a few idiots among their demographic cohorts had done. And if they, too, had been walking in the wrong neighborhood at 17, before the fame and fortune kicked in, I'm sure they worry that they'd have one more similarity to Martin.

The Heat Weigh in On Trayvon Martin

Yesterday LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and the Miami Heat took action to protest the incompetent response of local officials to the murder of Trayvon Martin.  In some ways, this action was minor, more symbolic than direct, and even within the context of the manner in which they protested I can see at least one way they could have done more.  But everyone involved deserves praise for doing something, anything, when our culture not only makes it easy to sit back, stay out of it, and rake in the millions, but actively discourages athletes and other entertainers from weighing in on social or political matters.

Dwyane Wade posted a picture of himself wearing a hoodie to Twitter.  LeBron followed with a picture of the entire Heat team wearing hoodies to Twitter.  Both of them hash-tagged the photos in reference to Trayvon Martin and hoodies.

It seems minor, but is important within the context of professional ass hat Geraldo Rivera blowing the lid off the underlying racism of a lot of observers to this issue with his blame the victim comments about Trayvon Martin having a hand in his own death because he had the unmitigated gall to wear a hooded sweatshirt.  Never mind that this is the guy that went on internationally broadcast cable news to detail troop movements, endangering lives and resulting in his own expulsion from the country, an action that should permanently disqualify him from ever lecturing someone on else on responsibility.  Go back and look at his comments and realize he's only saying that hoodies are a bad option for black and latino people.  He explicitly excludes white and asian people.

(side note:  Fox News, the network that employs Geraldo Rivera and published his comments, sells hoodies.  I'm not sure if you have to enter your EEOC information to purchase one.)

Geraldo's comments are terrible, but you can be sure that he's not alone in America in thinking like this.  He's giving cover to Trayvon's murderer, he's feeding into racist fears, and he's all but calling for a national dress code for black and latino people.  In response we've seen hoodie rallies across the nation, and the Heat have stepped in to show that a choice in style isn't a representation of who you are as a person.  Someone wearing a hoodie can be a responsible, successful member of society.  We don't need to stop black and latino people from wearing hoodies, we need to combat the perception in our society that a particular skin color and clothing combination = criminal.  Do some people wear hoodies while committing crimes?  Yes.  I also seem to remember the biggest criminals in our nation's history, Bernie Madoff and the executives of Enron, were white guys in suits.  (Actually, can I Stand My Ground and shoot any white guy I see coming towards me in a suit out of fear he'll devalue my stocks?)

The Heat took action to combat that perception.  They stood up to say a hoodie is them, not a criminal.  That we don't need a national dress code for black and latino people.

I find this move particularly interesting, then, considering that the league for which they play DOES have a dress code.  The league adopted the dress code following the Malice in the Palace, a PR move characterized as attempting to reassure white viewers that the league isn't a bunch of thugs (and all the racial connotations that word carries).  The NBA was the first sports league to adopt a dress code, one that is very conservative and restrictive, and is also the league with the highest percentage of African American players.  If you think that's a coincidence, Geraldo and I have a joint venture that would like to sell you some ocean front property in Arizona.

It's also why I would have liked to see the Heat show up to their game last night in hoodie solidarity in direct violation of the NBA dress code.  I won't criticize them for not doing it, and I'm glad they took the action they did, I'm just saying that I think it would have been an even more powerful move.  And I think that all these things are related.  We live in a society where we nod our heads in approval to the NBA telling black men they have to wear a suit and tie to the gym where they are about to play an athletic event in shorts and jerseys, then turn around in shock that a black kid who wasn't wearing slacks and a polo got shot by a man with a history of racially motivated calls to 911 and have to listen to commentary that says the black kid would still be alive if he had been wearing a suit and tie.

It all goes back to the idea that black athletes have to play harder and play better than their white counterparts, and black people have to work harder than their white counterparts.  Tim Tebow didn't complete half of his passes last year, and he's a media darling.  Donovan McNabb has a career QB rating of 85.5, has been to 6 Pro-Bowls and one Super Bowl, and Rush Limbaugh calls him an affirmative action hire.  A white meth dealer wearing a hoodie gets a pass.  A black man can be an honor student or a millionaire, but he has to wear what we tell him.