The Black-White Sports Gap

Watching both the 2010 NBA basketball finals and the World Cup soccer begs observations about certain sports outcomes, as they may be influenced by ethnicity. I cannot help but note that the NBA is +95% African-American, with a smattering of Whites, mostly from Europe. Soccer, as Europe’s and the world’s number one sport, is pulling increasing numbers of Africans into its professional ranks. Is this a good thing? I think so.

As quiet as it is kept, European-team dominated soccer is under the challenge of keeping to the traditional (read White) ‘restricted patterns’ of play, against the more improvised, power-oriented, and exciting play of the Africans. After all, soccer is dependent on the same speed, jumping, and agility, as basketball. You only need to contrast a World Cup game featuring Ivory Coast or Cameroon versus that of European national teams, to see the difference. Today I watched #2 ranked Spain snooze their way to a first-round loss against #24 Switzerland, a team powered, in part, by two nationalized Africans.

Furthermore, is #1 Brazil the odds-on-favorite because they combine teamwork, power, and creativity over their competition? Perhaps. Soccer play in South America seems popular to the point of retaining better players year-round, along with developing an optimized style of play to a more diverse (read exciting) skill set in those players. In Brazil, it is not a matter of African ancestry conforming to muted Euro-style of play, but the other way around, teamwork redefining itself with athleticism. Plausible?

Red Auerbach, famed leader of the bean town Boston Celtics, was able to win the ‘last hold-out’ award, as long as he had a super-star like Larry Bird, but anything less meant a trouncing by the likes of teams chocked with three-point shooting, slam-dunking, sub seven-footers, of African ancestry. In stark contrast, the Michael Jordan of soccer, Pele (pictured), foretold the current era of speed and agility, even while those around him wore cement shoes.

All this is to say that I am loving the World Cup, and the NBA Finals too, twisted arm-chair analysis and all. I like the White/Euro guys, the same way I liked watching Bird drain three-pointers against LA from my Jamaica Plain television room. But I especially like seeing West African brotherhood, in its many shades, place its indelible re-definition on the world’s number one sport, now and into the future. From now on when someone says football, I will hesitate, and wonder – which one?

James C. Collier

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