Damon Stoudamire, another of my favorite players, is heightist. I like Stoudamire, who is black, because he's short like me. When I'm playing at the YMCA, black players dominate on the court. They are usually faster and stronger than the white players, can jump higher, and can shoot better. It is primarily black approbation I find myself seeking when I perform on the court because in the basketball universe, blacks set the terms.
Blacks are the authority.
My own deference to black superiority on the court is not racist in the sense that I then expect blacks to be fundamentally inferior in some other area. But the limitation of blacks' privileged status to sports has obliquely racist effects because it leads to the fetishization of black athleticism. This fetishization, disseminated by the mainstream media, is then absorbed and accepted by both blacks and whites. Meanwhile, the probability that only one or two out of ten thousand black kids will go on to a successful professional sports career gets ignored. A black kid tries to become Willie Mays, and all the tools he picks up are useless to him if he doesn't become Willie Mays.