Michael Powell, who pens the Sports of the Times column in the NY Times starts off his commentary on August 5,2018, “Donald Trump and the Black Athlete” by saying, “So we have more evidence that a master of the dog whistle occupies the White House and black athletes are a favorite target.
I like sports. I always have. My early days go back to marvelous Boston Celtics teams of the 1960’s. The Celtics were the first in the NBA to have five black starters along with player-coach Bill Russell. These were tense times for minority athletes especially in Boston. A hero one night might lead to racial taunts or exclusionary practices on a night basketball wasn’t being played in the Boston Garden. My beloved Red Sox were the last American League team to have a black player on their roster (Pumpsie Green, 1962), and controversy now broils as to the name Yawkee LN. (Tom Yawkee was the former owner of the Sox, generous to charities but a racist.), as to the renaming of the street abutting Fenway park.
Lebron James has done pretty well. He’s reinvented the game for the big man. He was a one man wrecking crew for the modestly talented Cavaliers and previous to the latest championship he brought NBA championships to Miami. Like my hero from the 60’s Bill Russell, Lebron is a man with a conscience, unable to simply behave and play basketball.
Trumps’ belittling racist tweets at the same time of the opening in Akron of James’s I Promise School for children at risk is beyond un-presidential and inappropriate. Trump is dividing this nation and spitting out the parts with jagged edges and cracks that will cause generational disruption on our status and leadership among peers.
The president has gone too far. Pull back, stop the tweets and get to work.