It suddenly struck me a year or so ago when watching an NBA game that the vast majority of the crowd packed into most of the arenas in the sport were white, middle-class Americans. Long gone are the basketball courts that were built for a team where the sport’s roots lie, in the downtown area of American cities. Basketball is associated as a street sport, and as part of black culture, a game of self expression and energy. Yet at the top tier of the game it is a sport marketed at a white audience, and thus an uneasy relationship exists.
Whilst most of the players at the top level of the American game are black, their energy and exertions on the court floor are seldom matched by enthusiastic support in the seats. The arenas have moved into America’s suburbs (indeed many of the NBA teams have moved cities completely), where team owners can reach the largest revenue potential amongst the wealthy, predominantly white, middle-classes.
The nature of the relationship means that there is a distinct clash of cultures between the players, who have worked their way up the rungs of the high school, College and into professional level and who now earn millions of dollars, and the white middle classes who come to watch them. The uneasy nature of this relationship is often demonstrated in the racist taunts that many players still receive. The infamous Pistons-Pacers brawl in the NBA in 2004 was made far worse by the taunts and items thrown from the crowd that rained down on the sparring players. You do not have to look long in NBA fan forums to read phrases such as ‘what do you expect from niggas?’ and general undertones of ignorance and prejudice. This is mirrored in the awkward attitudes that the commentators exhibit on reporting games.
Charles Barkley, author of Who’s afraid of a Large Black Man and former NBA great indicated that ‘black athletes and black celebrities are not black people’, that their success in a public arena is a shield against racism. It is possible to often hear sportscasters in the States describe a black athlete’s ‘great natural ability’, the hidden insinuation that he or she was somehow born with the ability to be great at a sport, and that they did not have to work as hard at their game to reach the top level as a result. In Jon Fasman’s article in the Observer Sport in July 2005 he aludes to this, and reports that Bob Herbert of the New York Times once summed it up by saying that the phrase ‘natural athlete’ has developed into ‘a genteel way to say ’nigger”.
It is certainly true that the NBA appears to be aware of its main market. It has crudely manicured itself to be more appealing to a middle class support base, evidenced by the controversial dress code, introduced last year, which forced players to attend press conferences in team tracksuits rather than in their own clothing. Many sports analysts saw this as a deliberate attempt to eradicate the ‘bling’ culture that surrounds basketball players.
What is interesting is that the problems so evident in basketball appear to be less prevelent in American football, the nation’s most popular sport. You see far more black faces in the crowd, standing shoulder to shoulder with the white fans. Part of this is undeniably as a result of the larger sphere of influence that the large stadiums in both the NFL and the College game can attract as opposed to the small basketball arenas. Another factor is that the crowd in football can develop a real relationshp with the players on the field representing their team. One key difference is that the crowd can have a real impact on the way a football game turns out, is more vocal in its support, and experiences a roller coaster of emotions due to the nature of the sport in comparison with the relatively steady nature of basketball. By the end of a close encounter, a crowd can feel an emotional attachment developing with the team and specific individuals on the side.
There are also differing roles for players of the sport. With football there is far more room for individual recognition and individual skill and ability and it is also a very physically demanding sport for all the players. Sports writers discover the person behind the player in football, and as a result fans feel they know the players as a person rather than just as an athletic robot.
Racial issues aside, there is a crying need for the NBA to attract a more lively fanbase to the games. Compared to the lively following and indeed national popularity at least once a year that College basketball has, the NBA’s fanbase is decidely more muted at the games. Lowering the ticket prices should be one measure introduced, to allow a wider variety of people to be able to afford to see the games live. Sadly the main problem is that the arenas that had existed in central locations have been exchanged in favour of the air conditioned palaces in white suburbia.
Ben Parker
copyright 2006
