Sports - 50; Politics - 0

By Charlie Barber
Staff Writer

“Once I thought to write a history of the immigrant in America. Then I discovered that the immigrants were American history.” -Oscar Handlin

“Politicians always find a way to screw things up.” -Charles Barkley

With their declaration of war against bigotry on the eve of the Mexican-American holiday, Cinco de Mayo, and their 2nd semi final playoff game, Robert Sarver, owner of the Phoenix Suns, his team, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich, and his team delivered a stunning blow to cynical forces that would set Americans against one another for the sake of their cramped visions and greedy agendas.

Suns player, Canadian Steve Nash, added support from north of our border as he and his fellow players unanimously endorsed owner Sarver’s plan to sport “Los Suns,” on their playing jerseys on May 5.

In acknowledging that illegal immigration was a serious problem that needed thoughtful and thorough legislation in the U.S. Congress, Coach Popovich expressed the overwhelming opinion among players, fans, and ownership in professional Basketball, that the Arizona Legislature and Governor had made a bad situation worse.

The Spurs’ coach then demonstrated a remarkable sense of recent history, political acumen and civil courage by pointing out that the severe restrictions on civil liberties inherent in the Arizona Act bore a strong resemblance to the panicky reaction to 9/11 which resulted in the “Patriot Act.”

Were he not one of the finest and most successful coaches in the history of professional basketball, one might fear for Popovich’s job security.
What Robert Sarver, Greg Popovich, Charles Barkley and Steve Nash know in their heart of hearts is that most Americans do not like politics interfering with sports, except, of course, when the President of the United States is as hooked on sports as they are and doesn’t have to fake it, like so many before him.

Every serious sports fan in all 50 states, whether they agree with his political positions or not, knows that Barack Obama is one of them. His game is average, but his admiration for those who play it at the highest level is adulatory and unconditional.

That’s another “game change” wrought by President Obama of immense proportions, and it poses a terrible problem for the Republican Party, which has made a political living from setting races, classes, and genders against one another.

It’s the content of each player’s individual game and character that matters now, not the context of their citizenship, religion, or ethnic makeup. Nowhere is this change of heart more dramatically represented than in ads for World Cup Soccer 2010 in South Africa, one showing Nelson Mandela, first in prison, and then as leader of his country, and another showing Muslims at prayer.

Like soccer, professional basketball and hockey are dependent on world wide diversity. Professional football is somewhat less international, but equally dependent upon racial diversity. NASCAR is experiencing gender diversity. And professional baseball obviously would not be at its current high level without Latinos.

Republicans and Democrats can argue until they are as blue in the face as the characters in an “Avatar” DVD about migrant labor, drugs and gun-running, but it won’t matter to sports fans, if distorting these issues threatens the brothers and sisters of those they care about on the courts, rinks and playing fields.

The days of punishing Muhammad Ali for his religious and political beliefs are over, but they did not come to a screeching halt with the election of Barack Obama. His enthusiasm merely ratified a reality that other recent Presidents ignored at their peril.

Though little noticed by the news media, Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, and U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth forced the George W. Bush Administration in less than a week to reverse its decision to bar the Cubans, and Fidel Castro, from participating on U.S. soil in the World Baseball Classic, scheduled for March 3-20, 2006.[AP, 1/20/06]. Though Castro decided not to make the trip to Los Angeles which had been cleared, he and Commissioner Selig sat together during one of the games played in Puerto Rico. Commissioner Selig survives, though his Milwaukee Brewers continue to struggle as much as President Obama’s Chicago White Sox.

Complex problems of the U.S. and Mexico go back to the creation of Texas and when Abraham Lincoln decried the Mexican War and annexations of places like Arizona and California in his first speech as a U.S. Congressman from Illinois.

Modern dilemmas of the U.S.-Mexican border have existed for over 100 years, since Emiliano Zapata took on a corrupt Mexican government, Pancho Villa took on Woodrow Wilson and William F. Buckley Sr. and U.S. corporations reacted adversely to nationalization of the oil industry in Mexico in the 1930’s.

Republicans of the political world, who heretofore have been able to reduce such intractable historical problems to simplistic and manipulative slogans that served their monetary interests and moral lethargy, may now be forced by the sports world, among many others, to deal with them responsibly or be held accountable for their distortions.

It couldn’t happen to a nicer Party.

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