The High Court

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Citizen Jordan

November 10, 2005

 

Sports Illustrated’s Jack McCallum is one of my all-time favorite sportswriters.  McCallum was honored this year with the Curt Gowdy award, given each year to a member of the media, and received his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  And I can’t think of a more deserving writer.  I have read McCallum’s work for SI for the last twenty years, and not only is he an outstanding writer and reporter, but McCallum actually seems to love and enjoy the players he covers.  His work on the NBA beat is always fair and honest, and McCallum comes off as very knowledgeable without being arrogant.  And not a single time that I can think of had I found myself completely displeased with something he had written.  Until last week.  McCallum put on his columnist hat while filling in for SI’s Steve Rushin (their resident quirky humorist), and while doing so suggested that Michael Jordan should make his life about something more than his business empire and golf.  Well, Jack, I agree with you on that point.  But I cannot agree with calling the man out in public.  How Michael Jordan decides to spend his time or his money, and how he decides to wield his considerable influence is entirely up to him.  Not us.

 

McCallum brings up Muhammad Ali, the seeming gold standard for activist athletes, when noting that Jordan should be about more than Brand Jordan.  He references the 1996 North Carolina Senate race when MJ refused to endorse Harvey Gantt, an African-American, as he opposed Jesse Helms, the very personification of the segregated Old South.  That was when Jordan uttered the famous line, “Republicans by sneakers, too.”  McCallum seems offended by the fact that Jordan did not speak out against Helms, as he makes a point of referring to Helms as a “bigoted old dinosaur”.  Yet after that, and after the reference to Ali, McCallum seems to back off the idea that MJ should become a social activist, simply switching gears and saying he would like to see him back in the front office or owning a team.  It is almost as if he wants to hammer home the point that Jordan is off living the good life while ignoring the plight of others, but at the last minute can’t bring himself to do so.  And that was probably a pretty good idea. 

 

Because let’s look at the facts here…Jordan, like Ali and Jim Brown before him, is a man of his times.  If you think Ali, Brown, and Bill Russell could have become the same kind of engaged social activists in the 1980’s that they were in the 1960’s, you are sadly mistaken.  All of these men were products of the tumultuous social circumstances of the 1960’s.  And I am not saying we don’t have many social issues that need champions today, but let’s be honest…when Muhammad Ali was becoming a social icon, it was during a time of great social change, with the civil rights movement in full swing and with the country torn apart by the raging debate over the Vietnam War.  Because of the efforts of these men who came before him, Michael Jordan never had to eat apart from his white teammates and never had to sleep in different quarters.  He was never subject to the same type of racial hatred that Ali, Brown, and Russell were.  And he never had a war to conscientiously object to as Ali so famously did.  I have no desire to demean the life of Muhammad Ali in any way.  He has over time become one of the great humanitarians in this country.  His willingness to take unpopular stands on a great many issues led to significant social changes.  But sometimes I am certain that the legend of Ali as agent for social change has been stretched just a bit.  He is certainly worthy of our respect and admiration, but Ali didn’t exist in a vacuum.  There were many others, like Brown and Russell, who worked hard to make things different.

 

For all of those men, especially Ali, they were simply being themselves.  Ali seemed to thrive on the controversy and conflict.  He was bombastic and larger than life.  He did not hesitate to proclaim his views on any issue.  And he wasn’t trying to hold on to millions of dollars of endorsement contracts.  One can only wonder how he or any other athlete may have handled themselves if that were the case.  Please don’t think I am saying that Ali would have been a sellout…I’m just saying, different times entirely.

 

Look, I know what McCallum is saying.  MJ should be out there making things better.   And he should…if that is what he wants to do.  I am completely uncomfortable with the idea that simply because a person is rich or famous or both, that they should be out front telling us all how things should be.  Because let me be perfectly honest here…I don’t really care what Michael Jordan thinks about anything other than basketball.  I don’t.  Who is Michael Jordan to me?  The greatest basketball player and competitor I have ever seen.  That’s it.  I won’t be taking advice from him on how to vote or how to act.  Does he know something I don’t?  What are his qualifications to endorse political candidates?  Is he a policy expert?  Hmm?  No?  Well, until he becomes one, you will excuse me if I don’t care who he is voting for.  Do I need Michael Jordan to act as my social or moral conscience?  Nope.  But thanks.  I have it handled.

 

Now, that being said…if Michael Jordan has issues that he truly cares about and has educated himself about…then I want to hear about those.  I want him to address Congress on those issues.  I want to see him support candidates that he knows and believes in.  I want to see him take the point on disaster relief and key social problems.  If he wants.  And if he is qualified to do so.  You know, Tom Cruise has developed quite a little taste for speaking out on issues.  How’s that working out so far?  Can somebody put the cuckoo back in the clock, please?  And that is what I have been saying.  Cruise is just as transcendent a star as Jordan.  But do we really want the Prince of Scientology telling us how it is?  I mean, that will put a lot of psychiatrists out of work…

 

I recognize that we always need great leaders.  And Michael Jordan is truly a great leader.  But I think it is important to understand that he has never been completely comfortable exposing himself to the public.  It is easy to look at his carefully constructed public persona and say that he presents himself in a very generic way to increase his appeal as a corporate pitchman, but it is also entirely possible that MJ doesn’t reveal much about his true feelings because he isn’t comfortable doing so.  We all know that Michael’s good friend Charles Barkley wears his feelings on his sleeve, and always has his opinions on the tip of his tongue.  And so Charles may one day be the governor of Alabama.  But that is his thing.  He is happy to talk politics and take his man-of-the-people show out amongst, well, the people.  Not MJ.  He lives just behind that carefully constructed wall, both literally and figuratively.

 

The best thing Michael Jordan can do is use his money, resources, and influence to work behind the scenes to help those who need it.  That is where he seems most at ease.  I have no doubt that he has already done a remarkable amount of good over the years.  But he doesn’t have to show me the receipts.  That is his business, not mine.

 

I, like Jack McCallum, hope to see Michael Jordan return to the NBA in some capacity.   I, too, hope to see an evolving MJ take a greater public role in effecting positive change on the social fabric of our society.  But he has to do that in his own time, in his own way.  And the next time somebody wants to call Michael or anyone else out for what they are doing with their life, I suggest that they take a good long look in the mirror.

 

 

 

Contact The Chief Justice at chiefjustice@thehighcourtofsports.com.