Dustin
Fisher
March 21,
2011
Unsportsmanlike
Conduct
It’s a Wednesday evening in a Students vs.
Students intramural basketball league at your law school. You’ve just been
called for a foul that you disagree with and as a result of arguing with the
official about it, you’ve been thrown out of the game. Do you A) slam the ball
down in a fit of frustration, B) disgustedly walk away, shaking your head in
defiance, or C) walk passed the scorer’s table within earshot of all three game
officials, two scorekeepers, a few players from each team and the commissioner
of the league and declare “You guys are all a bunch of faggots”?
Maybe it's because I'm old school and I had a
different set of heroes. I grew up watching Walter Payton, Tim Brown and Michael
Jordan in a day before MTV’s “And One Mix Tape Tour” when it seemed that being
a decent human being was a key part of being a pro athlete. Now this
humanitarian integrity has been replaced with exotic end zone celebrations,
fantasy stats and players who would sooner walk over a fallen opponent than
help them up. Showmanship is the new sportsmanship. And it trickles down to all
levels of competition, from the pro game to the college game to recreational
sports and all the way down to little league.
As a recreational professional, I have very
little tolerance for students intentionally threatening, berating and charging into
their fellow students. The presence of a ball in the setting of a basketball
court does not give anyone the right to treat their fellow man with any more
disrespect than they would in a classroom, on a bus or at a job.
From student official to
full-time staff member, I have worked in the field of collegiate recreational
sports for the last 17 years. I have seen my share of hideous behavior based
solely on heightened adrenaline levels and the unfortunate bounce of a ball.
There aren’t a lot of places in the world where slander defamation and felony
assault are punishable by two free throws.
In a recent SportingKids Magazine study of 3,300
parents, coaches, administrators and youth, 80 percent believe that
inappropriate behavior is destroying youth sports. In a similar study by the
Minnesota Amateur
Sports Commission, 45.3 percent of youngsters
surveyed said they had been called names, yelled at, or insulted while
participating in sports, 17.5 percent said they had been hit, kicked or slapped
while participating in sports and 8.2 percent said they had been pressured to
intentionally harm others while playing sports.1
In July 2005, a T-ball coach paid one of his players $25 to hurt
an 8-year-old teammate so the coach wouldn’t have to play him in a game. The
victim was struck in the groin and the head with a baseball and did not play in
that game. The 27-year-old coach was allegedly very competitive and didn’t want
to play the child because of his mental handicap.2 The National
Association of Sports Officials (NASO) receives more than 100 reports a year
involving violence in youth sports and claims the numbers are increasing.3
It doesn’t take a lot of reverse engineering to
eventually point the finger at the NBA and other professional sports for the
lack of sportsmanship in today’s recreational and youth sports leagues.
Professional athletes in the public eye are the role models of today’s youth.
They wear their jerseys, they watch their games and they imitate their actions.
As the image of the professional athlete changes, so changes our society.
Since the birth of ESPN
31 years ago, sports are now brought to the public in tightly packaged 2-minute
highlight clips. It’s all about getting on SportsCenter where 48 minutes of
textbook bounce passes and boxing out will go unnoticed by the greater public. Because
of the success of their marketing efforts, the NBA and by extension the
players, are getting a lot more money. It’s become more about getting paid as
an individual than winning a championship as a team and it is likely this “Me
first” attitude that has devolved sportsmanship to its current state. The
average NBA player salary for the 2010 season was $5.84 million, up over 17
times from the $330,000 average back in 1986. And most of it can be attributed
to the implementation of free agency.4
On July 8, 1988 at 12:01am, the Phoenix Suns signed
All-Star forward Tom Chambers as the league’s first ever unrestricted free
agent.5 Though an integral move for player rights, this would
eventually lead to today’s NBA. Holdouts, contract disputes and referring to
oneself in the third person has become commonplace. Loyalty to teams and cities
died off with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. A new collective bargaining
agreement back in 1988 changed the face of professional basketball. And when
you find something as profitable as the NBA, who cares if you leave small
things like sportsmanship and teamwork in your wake?
Allen Iverson, MVP of the 2000-2001 season, had what is
likely the world’s most famous press conference in sports history in 2002,
going on a rant about the insignificance of practice. He is today’s role model.
And there are many just like him.
The height of ugliness in professional sports came on
November 19, 2004 in a seemingly average NBA game between the Indiana Pacers
and the Detroit Pistons. With 45.9 seconds left, a Diet Coke was thrown onto
Pacer’s forward Ron Artest, who then charged off the court and into the stands
and proceeded to punch the man who he mistakenly thought had done this to him.
Players followed him up the stands, some to rescue him and some to fuel the
fire. Fans spilled out onto the court to escape the melee, including a father
nearly run over by Artest desperately trying to protect his son. The
outnumbered security desperately tried to regain order while two other Pacers
threw punches at fans out on the court. After the smoke cleared, the NBA
commissioner suspended players an unprecedented total of 146 games and over $11
million in salaries, including an 86 game suspension for Ron Artest, who would
be the face of NBA’s bad boys for years to come.6
On the other side of the coin, David Robinson challenged
fifth graders in Gates Elementary School of San Antonio back in 1991 to finish
high school and promised a $2,000 college scholarship to all that did. In 1998,
proving even better than his word, he gave all the graduates $8,000.7
But that doesn’t get nearly as much media coverage.
Unfortunately, the media is an extension of the greater
public. It is their responsibility to report the news that gets ratings or
website hits or whatever can be quantifiably measured. They have no moral
obligation to make the world a better place, which is a shame as they are some
of the very few people in the world who can. And David Robinson’s touching
story doesn’t get the 3.93 million youtube hits that Allen Iverson’s press
conference does.
Somewhere along the line, hip-hop has taken on basketball
as a subculture. A lot of weight has been put on being disrespected (or dissed)
in this culture, so if somebody fouls someone or crosses them up, they need to
save face as part of the culture. Likewise, it is one’s purpose to try to prove
their dominance over another to show worth. This leads to a lot of
grandstanding and chest-pounding. For some youth, basketball likely keeps them
off the streets, but that street mentality is often still prevalent in the way
they approach the game. It’s not the way the culture had intended to affect the
game of basketball in general, but once you put arsenic in the water supply,
it’s in everybody’s tap.
Because of free agency and the culture today, it is
unlikely that the system will change. It’s also a longshot and completely
unpredictable to rely on a white horse superstar to save America’s youth. It
isn’t their job. LeBron James looked to be a good candidate until in the most
blatant display of arrogance I’ve ever seen, he bought 75 minutes of primetime
television time on ESPN to host a show called “The Decision” entirely about
where he was going to decide to play this season. And if we can’t rely on that,
our only other hope is unfortunately the media, who I’ve already mentioned is
basically at the mercy of what society decides is worth the ratings.
Last summer, the Lakers beat the Celtics for the NBA
championship. The deciding game seven of that series was the most watched game
in the NBA since Michael Jordan’s last season as a Chicago Bull. After the
game, a jubilant Ron Artest had the privilege of talking to the media for
something positive. He thanked his family, his team and likely for the first
time in history, a sports icon thanked his therapist on live television,
addressing his issues with his temper. “I’m
not good at these moments. And I know that about myself. You know, so what do I
do to BE good at these moments? Figure it out. And I needed some type of way to
relax during these moments.”
This is an
image of a man who knows he has a problem and is trying to make himself better,
possibly the noblest pursuit a man can burden himself with. And the same media
who admonished him for his actions back in 2004, when handed the gift of an
obvious public reformation of oneself, chose to ridicule him. They mocked such
a public showing of one’s emotions, calling it weakness and reveling in the
opportunity to poke fun of a challenged man recognizing and dealing with his
faults. A teaching moment was lost in that post-game interview, buried behind
Kobe avenging his 2008 loss to the Celtics and the importance we all place on
winning.
And if making oneself a better person isn’t a clear
enough objective for today’s youth, how about the sportsmanship story of a
lifetime that went largely unnoticed? Armando Galarraga was one out away from
being the 17th player in history to pitch a perfect game. With one
more out left to secure his place in history, first base umpire Jim Joyce
called a runner safe at first, destroying Galarraga’s perfect game. When
replays later showed Joyce’s call was incorrect, he gave an emotional and
genuine public apology, claiming he stole the game away from “this kid who
worked his ass off all game.” With every reason to complain or curse the umpire
for stealing away his perfect game and thus his chance at an automatic bust in
Canton’s Baseball Hall of Fame, Galarraga simply smiled and said “Nobody’s
perfect.” This moment didn’t crack CBS News’ Top Ten Sports Moments of 2010,
losing out to Tiger Woods’ indiscretions and LeBron James’ “Decision.”8
And if even the media can’t recognize the literary genius in the simplicity of
this statement, sportsmanship doesn’t stand a chance.
Maybe we can’t rely on the NBA or the media to instill
values in the youth of today. But as a recreational sports professional, I will
no longer stand idly by and let two free throws be the maximum sanction for
these heinous acts. And so when a student stormed off the court, calling our
refs and scorekeepers “a bunch of faggots” last year, he was not sentenced to
those free throws. He was instead sentenced to a meeting with the Dean of
Students and has a permanent mark on his record that will follow him around and
potentially be a talking point in his eventual Bar Review. I’ve seen him since
and I honestly believe he gets it now. It’s just possible he never had any
repercussions for his actions before. Nobody ever taught him that you can’t say
or do things like that just because you’re playing a game. Maybe he just never
had to worry about anything more than two free throws.
References
1.
www.shatteredpeace.com; Violence in Youth Sports.
2.
www.latimes.com; T-Ball Coach Allegedly Paid Player to Assault Teammate; July 16,
2005.
3.
www.naso.com; Poor sporting behavior incidents reported to NASO.
4.
Graham, Ian; www.ehow.com; The Average Salaries of NBA Players; May 11, 2010
5.
Koek, Steven; www.NBA.com; Let the Negotiations Begin; June 30, 2004.
6.
www.espn.com; Suspensions Without Pay, Won’t Be Staggered; November 22, 2004.
7.
Boeck, Greg; www.NBA.com; David, the Goliath of Giving; October 22, 2001.
8.
Norman, Joshua; www.cbsnews.com; Top 10 Sports Stories of 2010; December
31, 2010.
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