As most of you know, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert wrote a scathing open letter (which I've linked to below) lambasting superstar LeBron James for deciding to play for the Miami Heat next season. On July 12, the Rev. Jesse Jackson criticized Gilbert for his comments. In addition to calling Gilbert's remarks "mean, arrogant, and presumptuous", Jackson also said the following:
"He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers," the reverend said in a release from his Chicago-based civil rights group, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. "His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship -- between business partners -- and LeBron honored his contract."
Jackson also called Gilbert's comments an attack on all NBA players and said the owner should face a "challenge" from the league and the players' association.
When I first heard Jesse's comments, I was like, "what the hell is he talking about?!" The "slave owner/runaway slave" analogy is not only an insult to those who suffered and died as a result of slavery, but it unnecessarily injected race into the discussion. As I've said on this blog and in everyday conversations, an issue involving people of different races does not make the issue racial.
Ask yourselves these questions:
1. Do you think Dan Gilbert would have made the same comments if LeBron James was white?
2. Do you believe Jesse Jackson would have used the "slave master/runaway slave" analogy if Dan Gilbert were black or if LeBron James was white?
My answers to those questions are yes and no, respectively.
Regardless of one's feelings about Jesse Jackson, I think it's hard to deny that he has done some positive things when it comes to race and politics. However, his comments on the LeBron/Dan Gilbert situation seem like a pathetic bid to stay relevant in a constantly evolving racial/social/political climate. He's definitely got people talking about him again. The question is, at what cost?
Dan Gilbert's open letter:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/08/dan-gilbert-letter-lebron_n_640318.html
12 comments:
My problem with LeBron was HOW he conducted himself throughout the process. No secret I do not like him and am NOT a fan. His ego and conduct has not been becoming to what I feel an NBA player should be. Certainly his lack of integrity kept him from "manning up" and contacting Gilbert and/or the Cavaliers organization once his decision was made. It was selfish, immature and really tells us who he is. The city of Cleveland is finally free of him being the face of their franchise. Would love to see them finally have someone represent the city who has ethics, character and integrity rather than the spoiled brat LeBron James continues to be. Cleveland should be thankful, quite frankly. Sure, they will lose revenue, lives will be affected...But, at the end of the day, LeBron has been telling us who he is for a long time. People just didn't want to believe it -- especially in Cleveland. Gilbert had every right to call him out and he did. Race was not part of it. LeBron has used the city of Cleveland to get where he is today far more than what Cleveland has gained. To disregard what he meant to the city, his fans, and his team the way he did was repugnant and certainly not the conduct of a "superstar."
I'd have to agree with both you, Malcolm, and Teresa on this one...Jesse Jackson is making this a race issue when I don't believe it is one. I may be somewhat ignorant of the ways of the world, but I would hope in this day and age that race shouldn't be an issue. (I'm not ignorant to believe that it's never an issue, though.) My personal opinion is that Mr. Jackson hasn't been in the news lately and he figured this would be a good way for him to get some face time. As far as Lebron leaving Cleveland...good riddance, they will be better off without him in the long run. He is a quitter when things get tough, as he showed in the playoffs. It's time for the Cav's to start looking to other floor leadership. I guess when someone is told they are God's gift to basketball and the NBA, since they've been around twelve, they will eventually start to believe it.
It's rather insulting, in my opinion.
Other than James being black and Gilbert being white, I see no other possible link. None.
"Owning"?
Hey, equality means black players become commodities just as you better believe white folks are in business and especially in the business of sports.
I'm not a James fan at all other than respecting his talent. But this is yet another case of folks making far too much of the situation in a negative way.
He's already the Michigan auto companies according to some sports writers and Gilbert. And now it's a slave/master situation.
It's business. If it wasn't a business, we'd have never heard of any of these guys.
For Jackson: I hope, for his sake, it is what I think it is in his being eager to catch some press. I would hope he really didn't feel that way.
I mean, if he does feel like white owners are still slave masters, then what does he consider to be "free"? lol
"As I've said on this blog and in everyday conversations, an issue involving people of different races does not make the issue racial." Exactly. Anyone familiar with the Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees long-standing animosity will very well remember almost the exact same thing happening when the fabulous Johnny Damon went to the Yankees. Red Sox Nation was (and still is!) furious! And Damon wasn't even FROM here. This is typical sports stuff, nothing to do with race at all. Making it about race is something you'd expect from the race-focused left--people like Jackson do it with EVERYTHING (well, unless the victim of an actual race-based hate crime is a black CONSERVATIVE, then it's A-OK).
In terms of the Red Sox/Yankees, an even more famous and more bitter situation would be Babe Ruth.
Babe was H-A-T-E-D unrelentingly for years. Hell, it even became a curse.
This is one of the instances where it just happens out one's black and one's white. Jackson should be beyond seeing things in that light if his person matches his projected persona.
If not, he's certainly lending credibility to everyone who's ever tagged him as a race-baiting blowhard.
Teresa: Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this topic.
Anonymous: I think that Jesse saw the LeBron story as the perfect opportunity to get some headlines. If he had simply commented on the situation, some would have viewed him as an opportunist. By needlessly bringing race into it, he comes off as a race baiting opportunist.
Josh: Considering that players are making 7-figure salaries and can attain free agent status, Jesse's slave master/runaway slave comparision is way off target. I'd love it if someone interviewed Jesse and asked him to elaborate on his comments. Although we still might think the slavery imagery was wrong, at the very least Jesse might get us to understand his line of thinking.
Fuzzy: I've always liked Johnny Damon and like him even more since he began wearing the English "D". :-)
Having said that, I should have known you'd turn this into a "left/right" issue. Are you saying that the right hasn't been guilty of race baiting? Off the top of my head I can name three people on the right (Congressman Steve King, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck) who were guilty of race baiting within the last month!
By the way, did you have an answer to the question I posed to you in the comments section of the recent post I wrote about Glenn Beck's race baiting tactics?
http://diversityink.blogspot.com/2010/06/glenn-beck-plays-race-card-from-bottom.html
Just so there's no misunderstanding, the question is in the final paragraph of my last response to you in that post's comments section.
Don't make me grow old waiting. :-)
I don't believe it is a racial issue. I do feel that the young man has a right to play where he wants and the owner of the Cavaliers displayed a definite lack of character lambasting James as he did. Obviously no team wants to lose one of the best in the NBA, but this is not the first or last time something like this has happened. Players move on all the time. It is time for Cleveland to get over it and rebuild, plain and simple. Shame on the Gilbert for saying things like, "Lebron is not going to heaven", how childish was that?
Hey Malcolm, I did answer your question (you just didn't like the answer).
Fuzzy: When you said you had no comment on what Beck did because you didn't watch the video, is that what you mean by answering my question? That's my guess because I didn't see where you answered with a simple "yes" or "no".
Pjazzy: Yeah, that "Lebron is not going to heaven" line struck me as childish and odd. In the end, Dan Gilbert has to shoulder some of the blame. After all, he covered for and enabled LeBron during his time as a Cavalier.
Malcolm,
What is weird to me is that everyone is expecting way too much from a 25 year old man, who as you so eloquently put it, was enabled by the Cleveland organization for 7 years. The organization created the monster that everyone "claims" Lebron has become. It is the equivalent of giving a child a lighter and becoming angry when they set the house afire. You should have saw it coming :-) If the Cavs front office didn't know how this was going to play out, they just should have. Lebron might be a quitter, loser, etc., but he is a hot commodity that everyone was clamoring to obtain. But you know what? It's not even that serious. I love basketball, but it is just a game, nothing more.
@ Malcolm: good questions, but it's difficult for me to come up with answers for these questions. To me, what Gilbert said about a free agent leaving the team was so massively degrading and venomous that I think the magnitude of it was almost unprecedented. I believe there is maybe something there between the two that we may not know about. Gilbert's response to LeBron leaving was kind of like burning your house down to kill a fly. For the first question you'd love to look into Gilbert's heart to know that. The second question is similar because there are so few majority black owners. Maybe Michael Jordan is one now, I think. It's hard to answer because of the overkill magnitude of what Gilbert said.
Anyway, that's my rant to add to the simmer stew here.
@ Teresa: LeBron was a free agent and he technically owed Dan Gilbert nothing. These two men had a mutually beneficial relationship that was under contract and the contract was up. He owed Dan Gilbert not a thing. Personally, I might have called him and told him, but that's just me. What do we know about LeBron's relationship with Dan Gilbert that might have played a role in him handling business this way. Gilbert is a hypocrite. Would he have said these things about LeBron if he had stayed in Cleveland. HECK NO! If he thought LeBron quit on the team then why did he wait until after the commitment to the Heat to make his voice heard?
@pjazzypar: I agree, this has nothing to do with race. Dan Gilbert's true colors showed in his letter and I think validated LeBron's decision to leave. In light of that letter, there can be no question in my mind that LeBron made the right move when he left.
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