For Jordan, a chance to speak up (for once)
When Adam Silver informed Michael Jordan that he was pulling the 2017 NBA All-Star Game from Charlotte, was Jordan tempted to reprise the most memorable sociopolitical statement of his storied playing career?
As the owner of the Hornets in his native North Carolina, did Jordan wish to remind Silver that supporters of a state law said to be discriminatory against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people buy tickets, too?
A quarter-century ago, Jordan played it straight down the corporate middle when Harvey Gantt, a Democrat and the first black mayor of Charlotte, sought his support in a Senate race against an archconservative, Jesse Helms.
Wary of alienating consumers from the products he endorsed, Jordan demurred. In “Second Coming,” a 1995 book by Sam Smith, someone described as an anonymous friend of Jordan’s quoted him as saying, “Republicans buy shoes, too.”
It sounded like something the acerbic Jordan might have said, he never denied it, and he did steer clear of Gantt and other divisive issues despite calls for him to embrace the leverage he possessed as the nation’s most iconic athlete across the 1990s.
Even so, he is still a barrier crasher, a role model, a change agent. Jordan’s extraordinary journey has taken him from a modest upbringing to an ownership fraternity that includes the prodigiously wealthy Steve Ballmer, Mark Cuban and Mikhail Prokhorov.
And Jordan is significant in another way, too. Starting with him, the stakes and opportunities became very different for contemporary athletes than they were for Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and others so admired for being outspokenly audacious in turbulent times.
African Americans now buy NBA franchises, too. The very best players, the true revenue-generators and league standardbearers, can now aspire to more than drawing up X’s and O’s or shouting praise for the next generation from a broadcast seat.
Don’t think fronting an ownership group at some future date hasn’t occurred to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul, all in the news recently for following Carmelo Anthony’s lead in calling for athletes to speak out against gun violence after the latest police shootings of black men and the retaliatory targeting of police in Dallas.
Unlike Anthony and his buddies, Jordan has an establishment voice, although he uses it hesitatingly.
In late April, a month after the so-called “bathroom law” was signed into effect by North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, Jordan issued a statement on the matter after being pursued by the Charlotte Observer.
It read: “As my organization has stated previously, the Charlotte Hornets and Hornets Sports & Entertainment are opposed to discrimination in any form, and we have always sought to provide an inclusive environment. As has been the case since the building opened, we will continue to ensure that all fans, players and employees feel welcome while at work or attending NBA games and events at Time Warner Cable Arena.”
Nowhere was Jordan’s personal opinion, or objection. Outsports.com, a self-described “voice for LGBT athletes,” called the statement “weak,” but added, “at least it’s something.”
Five years ago, his team, mired in years of dubious management and desultory play, averaged 14,767 fans per game, 25th best in the league. This past season, the improved Hornets pulled in 17,485 fans per game, ranking 18th.
The growth isn’t earthshattering, but it is substantial. The Hornets have been operationally ascendant, and the NBA’s decision to take the 2017 All-Star Game elsewhere can’t possibly be helpful.
In these maddeningly polarized times, the stand taken by Silver and the league is bold and righteous, but it is also not without risk.
The NBA has long been a social trendsetter in U.S. team sports. Even its women’s annex, the WNBA, captured a recent news cycle or two when some of its players wore warm-up shirts decrying the gun violence (see Digest, Page B12).
But the NBA, like Jordan, has agreements to fulfill on how it appears in public. What if Anthony, James, Paul and Wade had gone to the ESPYs and taken an edgier stand? What if they had condemned only the shootings by police?
These questions rise to Silver’s pay grade because franchise owners typically worry about their own problems. If they all were injected with truth serum, who knows what the consensus would be on the North Carolina law or how much they would be willing to risk in opposing it?
Silver guided them through a predicament they didn’t create, the league having awarded the game to Charlotte before the law was passed. He came to his decision Thursday with patience and intelligence.
In moving the game, he also left the door open to a possible rescheduling in 2019, pending a resolution of the issue, a passing of the storm. But in the interim, maybe it’s Jordan’s turn. Let him lead the lobbying effort with the obdurate politicians.
He’s the native son. It’s his team. And who, after all, is a better pitchman than he?