Reporters from places like China, Mexico, Belgium, Germany, Poland, France, Japan, the U.K. and Israel scrambled with the rest of us to catch the highlights, interview superstars and record trash-talking sound bites. This is NBA show time at its finest. Celebs like Michael Keaton, Tyra Banks, Johnnie Cochran, Evander Holyfield, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and countless others sat courtside. During the nearly 300 years that America participated in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, men of African descent were this nation's number one import. I love the way they talk, their hair, the tattoos.
Black men are very best basketball players in the world.
Like any cultural export, brothers on the hardwood have given birth to a pantheon of cultural expressions and idioms, adopted overseas, and of course, stateside as well. And yes, I was amazed by it all just like my Japanese colleague, but found myself, somehow, just a little rancorous. When I stopped to consider all of the billions of worldwide dollars that my brothers on the hardwood generate and the disproportionate numbers of Black men who are in many ways just like them in prison or at-risk, a tingle of resentment surged somewhere in my gut. However, I quickly threw it off. After all, this was the All-Star Game, the pinnacle of Black athletic representation worldwide.