The NBA is chock full of African Americans and the league has taken a stance to help bring racial equality and awareness to the masses. With legendary figures from the early days of the league such as Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul Jabaar, who have always been fighting for the cause, to the current generation with the likes of Lebron James, the NBA has been spotlighted because of their shining athletes over the decades.
The iconic stars of the 1960’s have received their flowers for their contribution to the civil rights movement.
Bill Russell speaks on his days working on trying to bring racial equality to the United States of America.
The athletes of the early 1990’s benefited from the groundwork of their predecessors and brought a new message at the time such as this commercial by NBA great Charles Barkley.
One of the most vocal stars in NBA history has been Charles Barkley who originally coined the phrase “I’m Not A Role Model”.
When the commercial originally aired above in the early 1990’s there were some that praised it and some that were against it. The drastic change from the 1960’s and early 1970’s for radical change to the system from black athletes didn’t have the same bark or tone or even attitude.
Charles Barkley has become one of the most vocal sportscasters in sports. He is now speaking about the current NBA landscape and its approach to the age old problem of racism in America. He spoke with news outlet MSNBC and stated the following thoughts.
“What’s happening now is we’re turning into a circus,” Barkley said. “Instead of talking about racial equality, racial justice and economic justice, we spend all our time worrying about who’s kneeling and not kneeling, what things are being said on buses, what’s being said on jerseys. I think we’re missing the point. We need police reform, prison reform. Those are No. 1 and No. 2 things to focus on. We need the cops, good cops out there policing bad cops …. When we spend time focusing on what’s on the jersey, that’s gonna defeat purpose. My concern is this is turning into a circus instead of trying to do some good stuff.”
Numerous players will be wearing social justice messages on their jerseys when the season restarts in July. Needless to say, Barkley won’t exactly be the biggest fan of it all.
