IMC Hawks Blog

Tag: NBA

  • White House Ballers

    With the re-election of President Barack Obama there is one sport that is overwhelmingly happy that he is staying another four years, and that sport is basketball. It is obvious to all that President Obama loves basketball and is more than happy to use his influence to help spread the game. It is well-known that he likes to fill out the NCAA March Madness brackets that everyone goes crazy for and is surprisingly good at it. Like most major sports, the NBA  championship team gets to visit the White House and meet the President for a photo-op. Obama,of course,  isn’t complaining since he is a huge NBA fan and has been to several games during his Presidency. Never before has a President been so involved with one sport that he can call upon the biggest name athletes in the NBA to come help him out at different charities and fundraiser events at any point in time and they will come running. For example, in this election year, Michael “Air” Jordan hosted a 3 million dollar fundraiser for President Obama in New York and had NBA players like Carmelo Anthony, Rajon Rondo, Kyrie Irving, Joe Johnson, and Paul Pierce in attendance to play some hoops. With so many NBA superstars on his side he gets a good amount of publicity and respect from basketball fans all over the country. Obama is so integrated into the basketball world that the video game “NBA 2k13” has him show up as a character in the game to greet you at the White House when you win the championship in the game.

    Obama in 2K

    This is great publicity for the Commander-in-Chief, as basketball fans everywhere will see the President’s face every time they win the championship.  He may be the first President with the ability to advertise in a video game just because he loves the game of basketball so much. On election day he even plays his now-traditional “Election Day” basketball game with several big name NBA stars and a variety of White House aides. We think it’s safe to say that many basketball fans and basketball console gamers will be seeing more of President Obama the next four years.

    Eugene Lee, Lauren Habig, Erin Kiffmeyer, Hannah Eure, Ally Walton

  • Integrating Social Capital, The Court and Beyond

    As Black History Month comes to an end, many of us would be remiss to think that only about sixty years ago, names like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, or Lebron James wouldn’t exist, or in essence they wouldn’t. Approximately 80% of players that make up the African-American National Basketball Association would not even be allowed on the court, if it weren’t for the efforts of 3 individuals who have truly changed the face of the game.

    A New York Times piece covered the 50 year commemoration of the first 3 African-American players to play in the NBA, which took place at a Knicks game in 2000. The article spoke about the men’s struggles with playing an integrated game in a segregated world. Earl Lloyd, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, and Chuck Cooper endured the ugly side of social capital on an everyday basis in the still separated America. Jeering fans often taunted the men when they played well, but ignored them if they played terribly. Lloyd said he “took special pains in those towns” to make sure he was called names.

    Though there were many negative aspects of social capital they experienced while in their early days as NBA players, there were also some positive aspects. NBA legend Bob Cousy was one of the white players who created positive social capital as a teammate to Chuck Cooper. Cooper’s widow stated that without Cousy’s continuous support, Cooper’s career wouldn’t have been near as long. She shared “once, they were down south, and the people at the restaurant put Chuck’s food out by a railroad track and Bob went out there and ate dinner with him.”

    These historic events happened without much fanfare at all. It happened after Jackie Robinson’s entrance into baseball and the NBA was nowhere near as popular as it is today. The impact of the positive and negative social capital experienced by these 3 players has truly affected the way we come together in sports. Many basketball fans couldn’t really imagine the game without flashy alley-oop passes from the Canadian star Steve Nash or a slamming Amare Stoudemire. Well just think, if the positive and negative social capital between Cousy and Cooper never brought them to a railroad track for dinner some time ago, what would the face of basketball look like today?

    Colby Lewis