Chapter 7
Ignoring Critics and Haters Matters
After the racist comments by NBA CEO Donald Sterling became public, many throughout the media world and on various social networks took the Clippers players to task for what they called an “inadequate gesture” and “meaningless response.” Vicious and uninformed attacks began to flood the Internet questioning the players’ character, heart, overall commitment, and connection to their community, their race, and their history. Disparaging views about the players began popping up like dandelions in an open field.
Once again, the entire illustrious roster of Black athletes was being painted with a broad brush of ridicule.
The players handled the entire situation very intelligently. They were strategic in their demands and patient in their responses. This was a game of chess—it wasn’t checkers. Unfortunately, many critics simply didn’t understand that. It’s always interesting when the Monday-morning quarterbacks discuss what they would do if they were in a certain situation.
What so many people were unaware of was that after Sterling’s comments became exposed to the public, the Players Association—in particular the organization’s president and Clippers player Chris Paul—decided to appoint Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson to speak on their behalf since they were still in the process of finding a new executive director.
According to Mayor Johnson, they decided to have him meet with Commissioner Adam Silver to not only voice their disgust but to make a very clear demand: that Sterling receive the maximum possible punishment allowed under the bylaws and that this matter be handled swiftly. Commissioner Silver assured them that he was just as disgusted and appalled but asked the players to give him a few days for what he called “due process.” It was wise for the Players Association to give the newly appointed commissioner a chance to make his decision while strategically preparing their next move—in the event that a proper punishment was not handed down.
Meanwhile, the Clippers had a game to play, and decided to wage a silent protest, refusing to publicly speak about the issue. They ran out of the tunnel wearing their usual warm-ups, then huddled together at midcourt and tossed the outer layer of their warm-ups to the ground, revealing that the team had turned their red practice jerseys inside out.
This was met with public ridicule, as if the players had done something wrong. Many people said that they should have instead boycotted, held a sit-in, marched, rallied, or set a life-size cardboard image of Sterling on fire and circled around it while it went up in flames. You heard every suggestion under the sun.
Then, three days after the racist recordings of Sterling were made public, Adam Silver handed down the harshest punishment allowed—exactly what the players had demanded. Players Association vice president Roger Mason Jr. told ESPN that he spoke to player representatives from each team and they had all been on board with a decision to boycott that Tuesday’s games if they weren’t satisfied with the commissioner’s decision.
Frederick Douglass once said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Many of the players were aware of this.
I played for a year in Atlanta with Jamal Crawford, who was a member of that Clippers team, and I developed a friendship with him. I wanted him to walk me through the process of everything that happened, including how hearing the criticism affected him and his family from a personal standpoint. I am so pleased that he agreed to go on record with this.
Etan: Take me back to 2014. The Donald Sterling incident happens and the entire Clippers team collectively decides to make a statement . . .
Jamal Crawford: We never really saw him but we always heard that he was kind of different . . . So when recorded tapes leaked out and we heard the things he was saying about Black people as a whole . . . a bunch of emotions started pouring in throughout the entire team. We couldn’t even sleep. We were in the middle of a playoff battle against Golden State at the time, and we had no manual on how to handle this situation. If you want to be a better shooter, you get up more shots. If you want to be a better ball handler, you go through cone drills. There was no guide or pamphlet to say, Hey, this is what you do in this type of a situation.
Then you get calls from everyone you know or have known, and everyone has opinions . . . And we had to make a collective decision. We are a team, we’re not an individual sport. Some guys wanted to do one thing and some guys wanted to handle it other ways. We had a lot of different opinions within our team of how to handle this situation. We met, everyone had the opportunity to voice their opinions . . . but whatever we were going to do, we emphasized that we were going to do it as a team. We didn’t want anyone going by themselves and taking heat or criticism or taking it all on their shoulders. We wanted to take our stance as a team.
One of the best handles in the league, Jamal Crawford didn't hesitate to speak about the ousting of Donald Sterling.
Etan: How were the coaches and management during this process?
Crawford: The way we saw it, we weren’t playing for Donald Sterling. It was about us, the brotherhood . . . Doc [Coach Doc Rivers] was very open and very supportive. He just kept emphasizing that whatever we do, we are going to do it as a unit . . . He told us that he was affected by this just as we were all affected by this . . . Not to sound cliché, but this entire thing brought us all even closer as a team because we were all in it together.
Etan: That’s what prompted me to write an article for Huffington Post in May 2014 called “The Clippers Players Were Far from Cowards in Handling the Donald Sterling Situation.” But isn’t it interesting that so many people were doing so much criticizing afterward? What type of criticisms did you hear?
Crawford: Oh, we heard it all: “You guys are all cowards,” like you said in your article, and thanks so much for writing that . . . But we heard, “You guys didn’t stand for anything, you should have done it like this; the athletes of the sixties would’ve done this or that; this is your moment,” etc. We heard it all. Sometimes you will be criticized either way. I am reminded of how tough everything was at that time because people thought they knew what was going on, but they really didn’t. We went through a whole team process and came up with the most effective strategy in order to get the results we all wanted, which was to have him removed, and we did just that.
Etan: How did this entire ordeal effect y’all on the court? You struggled a little bit against Golden State that next game after everything came out.
Crawford: Struggled a little? We got blown out the next game . . . Our minds were not there. That’s how heavily everything was weighing on us. We had made the decision to give Adam Silver his time to do his investigating and due diligence and go through the process . . . but we were fully prepared to take a different course if needed, and we expressed this to him . . . But kudos to Golden State. They told us, “If you don’t want to play, we won’t play, and we’ll sit out with you.” So that was really cool of them to have our backs like that and they talked about it publicly. I’m just glad our strategy worked out the way that it did, and he is no longer a part of the organization.
Etan: Isn’t it interesting that some of the same people who criticize current players and say they are nothing like the players from the sixties . . . they still criticize, even when the players take action?
Crawford: It’s definitely a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t situation, but you can’t go into it thinking that you can please everybody . . . You’ll always have people who criticize. Think about the job that President Barack Obama did for eight years in the White House, especially with what he walked into and the mess that was left by the president before him. And people never stopped criticizing him—even to this day, they are still criticizing him. So at the end of the day, we just had to do what was best for us in this situation to get the results that we wanted and not even think about trying to please everyone.
Interview with Dr. John Carlos
Right before I wrote the article for Huffington Post defending the Clippers players, I made a Facebook post that in effect read: “Attention all reporters: please refrain from inviting me onto your shows to bash my fellow players. It’s not going to happen, so please stop trying.”
In July 2015, I joined Dr. John Carlos and Adonal Foyle on a panel in Los Angeles for the Special Olympics. Once again, the discussion turned to the issue of athletes today, with Adonal and I defending them, while the moderator, Alan Kasujja, was hell-bent on casting a dark shadow over them.
Della Britton Baeza, president and CEO of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, echoed Kasujja’s sentiments, and instead of simply giving honor and respect to Jackie Robinson, she took the opportunity to bash ALL current athletes. She proclaimed that modern-day athletes were not only failing to carry the torch set forth by Robinson, but that in general they outright refused to be proactive in using their influence and reputations to bring about social justice.
I was so relieved that Dr. John Carlos didn’t share those sentiments, although they relentlessly attempted to get him to support what they were saying. He simply would not do it.
I sat down with Dr. Carlos to discuss social activism and athletes today. I wanted to speak with someone who I have admired and respected from the first time my mother taught me about him in middle school. Someone whose poster I’ve had on my wall in high school, college, and even now in my office at home.
With the great Dr. John Carlos. He is pointing to my T-shirt of Malcolm doing the Black Power salute. He really got a kick out of it.
Etan: When you look at Kaepernick and LeBron and Carmelo and the current athletes, do you feel that they are carrying on the tradition of you and Tommie Smith and Kareem and Bill Russell and all of the great athletes who used their positions as a platform to create change?
Dr. John Carlos: Yes, I definitely do, but let me say this: activism started a long time before the individuals that you just mentioned . . . We were not the originators, and I always want to make that point. We have to recognize athletes that I looked up to and that inspired me, like Jack Johnson, Paul Robeson, Jackie Robinson, Jesse Owens. They are the athletes who laid the foundation for Peter Norman, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos to be able to take the stand we took during the 1968 Olympics. We’re nowhere near the first. And those individuals, Kaepernick, LeBron, Carmelo, they are the fruit of our labor, but these bread crumbs were laid way before us. In our time we were able to take a stand on a tremendous stage for the world to see, and I love seeing young brothers like yourself who have always been aware and active and passionate . . . We are proud of the work you young brothers are doing and for us to be able to be involved in what you are doing.
It’s one thing for me to read about what Jack Johnson did and admire and be inspired by what I am reading, but it’s another thing for us to be able to interact with the current athletes and have you all pick our brains . . . We are now fighting this fight together and that’s what it’s all about. And these people who say that athletes only care about getting the big check and not worry about their community, that’s not what I see . . . I see current athletes engaged, interested, knowledgeable about the history of athletes that came before them, studying and being aware, and they are bothered by the injustices toward their race . . .
Etan: How do you respond when people ask why you are “different” from other athletes who don’t speak out?
Carlos: People like to talk a good game, but I don’t see them speaking out at their place of employment, and they want to criticize athletes for having the same reservation that they have. You can’t expect everyone in athletics to lead the same charge. Some people are wiser earlier and some people it takes a little longer for them. Some people it’s just not their thing, and that’s okay too . . . But the bottom line is, it builds courage when you see more individuals start to speak out and stand up, so then you see young superstars who were inspired by the courage that they saw and they come into the game with a totally different mind state.
Etan: It has to make you smile when you see a player from this generation like Kaepernick say your name.
Carlos: I’m always smiling to the point that my cheeks hurt when I see individuals have the courage to take on the world like Kaepernick did to take this stance . . . Of course that makes me smile. Makes me jump up and down and high-five my sons too, which is exactly what we did. That’s a tremendously hard load to carry and put on your shoulders . . . It makes me think about Hercules, because that’s the level of strength that you have to have. That makes me do nothing but smile.
Etan: You mention that it’s worth remembering that not everyone spoke out.
Carlos: I don’t remember what year it was but I was excited to meet Dr. King and I asked him a question. I said, “Why would you go back to Memphis if they threatened your life?” And he said, “John, I had to go back and stand for those that can’t stand for themselves.” So in essence what I’m saying is, there are now and were then athletes who may not have been saying anything for different reasons or doing anything for different reasons, but that doesn’t mean they don’t and didn’t want the same justice and equality that I did. So I have to speak for them. And when I speak . . . they are encouraged by what I did—so encouraged that one day they may step out and speak out against the atrocities that people have to endure every day. All we are doing is lighting a fire under them.
Etan: What would be your advice to young athletes who want to speak out?
Carlos: You have to realize we as a people have always been criticized . . . But the question is, will you be defeated by this criticism or stand up against it? Three hundred and fifty years ago we were in bondage in slavery—that’s the ultimate form of criticism. That says, “Don’t even look at us as human beings.” And just as we didn’t fall to the criticism then, we can’t fall to the criticism now . . . Was Trump concerned with criticism when he saying the things he was saying throughout the entire election process? . . . If he wasn’t concerned, why would you be concerned with criticism, and you know you are going the right way? It’s crucial for today’s individuals to weigh these things in their minds.
Etan: Talk to me a little bit about the support from your peers.
Carlos: I remember Harry Edwards attempted to educate O.J. as to why it was an imperative that we as Black athletes come together and make a statement or do a boycott . . . O.J. may have been relatively interested from a heritage standpoint, but the economic factor and the fact that he didn’t want to do anything that could in any way, shape, or form, even have the possibility of jeopardizing his economics, made him go the complete opposite way to where he made the proclamation, “I’m not Black, I’m O.J.”. . . It would’ve been tremendous, magnificent, stupendous—any other description I can think of—if O.J. would’ve stood with us, because everybody loved O.J., and by everybody, I mean white folks. You know how big it would’ve been if O.J. would’ve said, “I support the Olympic boycott,” and he articulated the reasons why? You understand what I’m saying? That’s the power that O.J. had and it was all just squandered away as a missed opportunity.
Etan: So now I look toward LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving and Derrick Rose, Kevin Garnett, and the entire Phoenix Suns, Kobe and the entire Lakers team, including the white players, and Jeremy Lin, and even entire college teams and the entire WNBA—white and Black players stood together.
Carlos: That is the perfect example of what athletes can do when they stick together. Back in ’68, if Tommie Smith had made the statement by himself, they would’ve run over Tommie Smith and said that this man is crazy . . . But the fact that we had an arc of unity, and not just the two of us there, and that strength caused Peter Norman to say, “I support what you guys are doing.” You’re stronger with numbers. And that’s why they couldn’t immediately squash this demonstration with the I Can’t Breathe display of the NBA players, because it was too many of them collectively doing it. And like you said, white individuals step up and support the Black athletes . . . The nucleus of the NBA stepped up—and even if it wasn’t everybody, they proclaimed to the world, “This is not right and it’s time for a change.”
Etan: When Trayvon Martin was murdered and all of the players on the Miami Heat posed in the iconic picture in hoodies, what went through your mind when you first saw that?
Carlos: It reminded me of the movie Spartacus. When the guy stood up and said, “Who’s Spartacus?” and the one guy stood forward and said, “I’m Spartacus,” and the real Spartacus stood up and before he could say, “I’m Spartacus,” another guy said, “I’m Spartacus,” then another . . . In essence, the Miami Heat players did the same thing in saying, “Oh, you murdered this young teenage Black man and took him off the face of this earth because he had a hoodie on?” So they made the statement to society, “No, I’m the thug, I got the hoodie . . . we all are wearing hoodies. The whole team. Black, white, or whoever. We all wear hoodies and we are all standing here telling you that you are wrong and we are standing against it.” It was a powerful and important statement. And there is power in that just as we sent a message to the world back in the ’68 Olympics.
Etan: When you hear critics say that current athletes have no connection to their own legacy and are not following in the footsteps of John Carlos or Muhammad Ali or Jackie Robinson, what is your reaction?
Carlos: I would tell them that they need to go back and study more and do their research more . . . The players I would even say now are more collective. We didn’t have all the Black boxers come out and support Jack Johnson back in the day and say, “Yeah, he has a white wife and has the right to take this woman across the railroad tracks whether she is white or not.” Now, of course, the circumstances were different back then, but still. Jesse Owens—the same thing when he was dealing with Hitler and the Germans in the Olympics and . . . disproved his myth that the Black athlete was inferior. For him to do that there and come home and be ridiculed—what athletes stood alongside with him? These were individuals.
But now from a collective standpoint, I actually see growth. I didn’t just see LeBron standing there. I didn’t see Kaepernick by himself taking a knee. I saw players across the NFL taking a knee, holding the Black Power salute; even the ones who didn’t take a knee with him were publicly saying that they support him . . . They didn’t just leave it at “We support Kaepernick”—they went into detail and listed what was wrong in society . . . So those individuals who want to sit back and point fingers, those are like the armchair quarterbacks. You ain’t never been in the game or even came close to the game, but you wanna talk like you’re the MVP quarterback. Let somebody tackle you a few times then you come back and tell me about what he or she did wrong.
Hate usually comes with the territory when you are an athlete. Those “brave” fans say some of the meanest, vilest, most repugnant things on Twitter and in online comments sections, which sometimes serve no purpose other than allowing certain people a platform to spew their hate.
I wasn’t really surprised when former NBA forward Juwan Howard told me of the truckloads of hate mail he and his teammates received while at the University of Michigan during the Fab Five era—a period in which Michigan’s basketball team dominated collegiate basketball thanks to five incredibly talented freshmen. It was enlightening to talk with Juwan about his experiences at Michigan.
Etan: Can you take me back to the controversy you were involved with at Michigan?
Juwan Howard: Being a young kid, coming from the inner city of Chicago, to be able to get a scholarship at a prestigious university like Michigan, I was completely elated. I was young, like my other Fab Five brothers. We were all teenagers and just enjoying the ride. Then we started to realize that here are these big-time shoe companies, and the one who was the sponsor of our school was Nike. They would send us a ton of shoes and apparel for us to wear on the court in order to give them the type of visibility they wished to achieve . . . They wanted their brand to specifically be associated with the University of Michigan. So, as we were becoming more mature and aware, we began to realize that this was a huge financial gain for the university and for the Nike company, but we weren’t really benefiting from it. Myself, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Ray Jackson, and Jimmy King all barely had any money in our pockets to do anything . . .
We were noticing our jerseys being sold in every single sporting goods store in Detroit. Not just on Michigan’s campus, but everywhere in the state people were buying jerseys with our numbers on them. And we would see the same thing when we traveled outside of the state of Michigan. We had become this global phenomenon, but we weren’t seeing any money from it. And it’s hard for people to understand how that feels unless you have been in that situation . . . So we wanted to take a stand and send the message that we weren’t going to wear this product and allow ourselves to market your brand for you, to exploit us the way you were so comfortable in doing . . . And we had incredible backlash from that. We weren’t even prepared for the level of backlash that we received, but we didn’t care . . . We wanted to not only stand up for ourselves, but we were thinking of the many athletes that were to come after us.
Etan: Talk a bit more about the backlash you received.
Howard: We received so much backlash and it was really unexpected. And we didn’t have social media back then. We didn’t have outlets to voice our own opinion and speak to the public, unfiltered. If we had social media at that time? Man (laughing), it would have been crazy. Actually, maybe in some ways it was good that we didn’t have Twitter accounts back then (laughing), but all we had were newspapers and media . . . to paint the picture of us the way they personally viewed us. That’s all the public was able to get. And they were so against us and everything we were about even before we took our stance . . . They didn’t like the fact that we were confident, which they considered cocky, and I still don’t know how we got branded with that word.
We were a group of athletes who had confidence in ourselves and our skill set and we were confident enough to feel that every time we touched the floor that there was no team that could beat us. The media didn’t like our appearance. They thought the bald heads were representative of a gang, or they looked at us as glorifying a gang image, which I also didn’t understand. Then they would talk about the scowls on our faces. We would dunk on someone and scowl and they didn’t like that . . . Then you talk about the black socks, they didn’t like that either . . . But we wanted to do something different and we wanted to do things our way . . . We were told we were being like a group of militants like Black Panthers on the court, as if that was a bad thing, but there were all types of letters that were delivered to the university and to Coach Fisher.
A lot of them had a very racist and hateful tone to them. Many were latent with the N-word . . . It was like we were back in the sixties and trying to integrate an all-white school. But we were not going to allow anyone or anything to steal our joy. And we were determined to send a message with every game, every win, that it was okay that you hated us, but we were going to keep winning, and winning our way.
Etan: You represented so much more than just the Fab Five, you represented Black youth across the country.
Howard: Well, at that time, I can honestly say that I didn’t know that we were representing the Black community and Black youth until after my freshman year and I went back home . . . I invited Jalen, and as we were walking around Grant Park and I was showing him my hometown [of Chicago], there were tons of people walking up to us, asking for our autographs and asking to take pictures. We could not walk anywhere. And it wasn’t just the regular We are taking pictures with a celebrity, it was like we were getting hugs from young Black youth and they were saying things like, “Thanks for representing us,” or, “Thanks for representing the hood and standing up for our community.” Now remember, we are eighteen-year-old kids at this point. And looking back at it now, that entire experience was really so special.
Craig Hodges played in the NBA for ten seasons and led the league in three-point shooting three times. He won the NBA championship with the Chicago Bulls, and along with Larry Bird is one of only two players to win three consecutive three-point shooting contests at the NBA All-Star Weekend. When he visited the White House in 1992 for the ceremonial championship team visit, he wore a dashiki and delivered a handwritten letter to then-president George H.W. Bush critcizing the administration’s policies regarding the poor and minorities. Craig also took a lot of heat for his public criticism of Bulls teammate Michael Jordan for not using his platform to shine a spotlight on injustice. In early 2017, he published a book titled, Long Shot: The Triumphs and Struggles of an NBA Freedom Fighter. There were so many subjects I wanted to talk to him about.
Etan: What are the main two questions that people ask you about your NBA career? I would imagine they revolve around the visit to the White House and the public critique of Michael Jordan.
Craig Hodges: There’s a third one that people always ask me and that’s what’s it like to play with Michael. And that’s the fun side, but then for me of course the conversation is many times much more serious . . . What they don’t understand is this is a lifelong commitment for me . . . I am committed to our community and what we desire our communities to look like. People come up to me and say, “Hey, you went off on Michael and told him to do this and that.” It wasn’t about me telling Michael Jordan what he should or shouldn’t do with his money at all, it was more about . . . to whom much is given, much is required . . . We have to love ourselves and support each other and uplift each other, and when we do that, the entire community benefits.
Now, back to M.J. specifically, he has done things to help the community and has spoken out on issues that greatly affect the community, like police brutality in particular . . . I think a lot of people took it out of perspective when I gave the interview back in the day. I wasn’t going off on M.J.—this was bigger than M.J. This was actually a lot larger than all of us . . . We as a nation have to come to grips with the questions and answers that show how the exploitation of our people and all people of color, whether Black, red, brown, or yellow, has occurred in this country and is still happening today.
Etan: How important do you think it is to have these public discussions even if some people take them the wrong way and end up missing the entire point?
Hodges: Oh, I think it’s very important . . . I felt like we as an organization could really get things done and help the people in the city of Chicago a great deal, and I think a lot of guys—not just Michael but the entire Bulls organization as a whole—didn’t see the impact that we could have. And me being from here, I had more of an affinity for it and more of a connection to the community . . . We could’ve been heavily promoting nonviolence and education and employment, etc.
Etan: In 1992, William Rhoden wrote an article for the New York Times entitled, “Hodges Criticizes Jordan for His Silence on Issues.” What was the overall reaction when this article came out?
Hodges: I really think people were just focused on the fact that we had won the championship, even to the point that the powers-that-be didn’t want that to be the focal point at that point in time. They didn’t want to look at the hurt of our people or the violence that was going on in the city . . . the fact that we were making all of this money for a franchise that could have been doing so much more to actually help the community. If you look at where the United Center is actually located, and the impact of the community around it once it was built, there were a lot of things we could do not only as individuals, not only as a team, but as a franchise.
We could’ve been an example for other teams of what they should do in their respective communities to actually have an impact . . . We, as current and former players, have made enough money for our teams and for the NBA as a whole that we have earned the right to speak and say, “Listen, if we are making this amount of money, then a certain amount should be targeted toward urban centers to create jobs and employment for the next generation of young people.”
Etan: But saying that publicly helps push it along. There is a big difference between having a private locker room conversation and making a public declaration.
Hodges: Absolutely, and that’s the part that was always frustrating to me. I have heard these guys discuss these issues in the locker room . . . I know they see it. And in this generation, especially with social media, everybody is up to date and fully aware of what is going on . . . I look at it from a different standpoint. I look at it like we should create a base so wide that there is nothing they can do but to give in to our demands . . . We have to tap into our power.
Etan: How did you have the courage to take a public stand? Especially in that era of lower salaries?
Hodges: I never made a million dollars in a year. That’s why I respect you as well, because we weren’t the highest-paid guys on the team. We weren’t the ones getting all the endorsements and the ones making all the money on the team. So we were more expendable, when it came down to it, than the superstars. But that only made us have more power . . .
My granddad was a great sportsman so we watched all the sports and discussed the impact of a Jim Brown, of a Muhammad Ali, of a Curt Flood and George Foreman. And I was always directed to look at those athletes, the ones who stood for something . . . Black people are my first love, and then basketball. And basketball gave me opportunities and opened doors for me my entire life, but I wasn’t going to have one without the other. That wasn’t even a question. I had to study and be intelligent about life and maintain my connection to the Black community as a whole. And that was more important than any sport.
Etan: So how did you deal with people who criticized you for speaking publicly about these things?
Hodges: That’s the part that is gratifying for me, the way things have come full circle, because back in the nineties, nobody wanted to publicly talk about what was goin’ down . . . And a myriad of people—my friends, my family—said I was stupid for doing it. They said, “Why are you so committed to putting your neck on the line for Black people when most of them don’t even care?” And I’m laughing because the goal is still attainable . . . I see it happening. We both have seen people in the locker room who shared our beliefs and felt exactly how we felt. But sometimes they simply were not educated and mentored on the importance of being able to speak truth to power, but also the amount of heart that is required to be able to do that . . . It takes heart to go to the White House and stand by yourself in a dashiki and your culture. There was no hesitation in me because I know who has my back. The elders who have gone and who have come before got my back.
Etan: Did it surprise you that so many of your peers and teammates didn’t stand with you?
Hodges: It didn’t surprise me at all . . . I have learned those lessons of history where many people stood by themselves. Muhammad Ali stood by himself. Jim Brown stood by himself for the most part . . . It’s funny, because that’s how bad it’s become. They have so miseducated us that you can have a teammate who will run through a wall for you, take a charge from a big 250-pound mammoth of a human being, they will bust up their whole mouth and knees diving on the floor for a loose ball for you, and not think twice about it, but won’t stand up for Black people. They’re willing to take that pain, but won’t withstand this little bit of blowback from standing up for Black people.
Etan: Is there anything you would change if you could go back in time?
Hodges: Not in my decisions, but I would’ve liked to have had social media back then. Bring that technology to me . . . I could’ve said whatever I wanted to say to millions of people whenever I wanted to just by pushing send? And we had just won the championship and I was winning back-to-back-to-back three-point contests . . . so all of Chicago would’ve been following me on social media. If I had that power that these young guys have now? Man! I wish. Wouldn’t have had to worry about going through the media just so they could put their spin on what I want to say . . .
And that’s why I wanted to do my book: so that I could publicly tell my own story. I was tired of seeing publications messing up my story. Many times, they didn’t even have the facts correct, they were just creating a narrative that they thought was going to make them some money. Well, now I have my book, and I have my own soapbox to stand on and can speak to these issues that affect my people.
Etan: Talk about the need to be a public voice against commentators, particularly Black commentators, who condemn, ridicule, mock, or otherwise publicly chastise athletes when they make political statements.
Hodges: Well, they get guys to say these things because they know the people love them. It’s an intentional tactic. See, I was birthed from a freedom fighter. So you can’t buy me. I received this knowledge of self from birth. It is all about the public discourse. I see Charles [Barkley] doing what he does and the buffoonery aspect of it. You always have the ones who can be bought. I’m not even going to say they are selling out, I’m going to say they are selling themselves short. They don’t understand that they are becoming the mouthpiece for a system that has no interest in us as a people . . . If they are going to continue to garner these high-priced salaries and yet turn a blind eye to racism . . . you may as well stay in your tap shoes. Look, we can’t hoop anymore, we don’t know how to transit the game on a level where it still maintains our dignity as Black men . . . We’re taught, “Okay, you get this opportunity to brand yourself, now you exploit your people the same way that everybody else exploits your people.”
Etan: And this is my issue—because they don’t have to do that. They don’t have to tap dance.
Hodges: Of course they don’t have to. It’s a choice. That’s fear. You know that the only reason why you stop at a red light at four a.m. when nobody is around is because you have been conditioned to fear the consequences if you don’t adhere to the rules. The assassination of our leadership bred fear into our generation. This current generation, the fear is pretty much bred out of them. You got the hip-hop, the style, the defiance, and I love it. But my generation, we had been taught that the powers-that-be will kill you over this matter, so keep your mouth shut. And I don’t even mean kill you in the literal sense, although that is a fear too, but I mean kill you in terms of cutting off your economic lifeline that we control. So you’re going to say what we want you to say, if you want this financial stream to continue.
Etan: There needs to be more people who call them out. For instance, why does Barkley get a pass? Or when Jim Brown went to meet with Donald Trump and came out saying he “fell in love” with him.
Hodges: You are absolutely right. I wanna know myself. Jim, what made you say that? You are my elder. You are one of my heroes. Talk to me. And I love you the same. You have the right to say whatever you wanna say, but tell me . . .
Going back to your original question with Michael Jordan, it wasn’t about berating or calling out Michael Jordan . . . It was: we have all this going on in Chicago, you are the king of not only the city but the NBA, your words could immediately have an impact. If you say it, it will be done . . . The lessons of the past tell us everything we need to know. What is freedom and what is not freedom. What is justice and what is not justice. What is exploitation and what is not exploitation. You can’t give me something, then think because you gave it to me, I have to think how you think. I gotta believe what you believe? . . . I can’t be bought with my silence or my acquiesence through somebody paying. I think it was Karl Malone who said if you kiss enough you-know-what, you can have a job in the league for life, and unfortunately, too many brothers are kissing and tap-dancing their way to the top. So I say, keep calling them out.