Inside the Sixers: 76ers and NBA make King holiday truly special
When he was growing up in Memphis, the city where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 45 years ago, 76ers forward Thaddeus Young was assigned a job by his parents.
When he was growing up in Memphis, the city where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 45 years ago, 76ers forward Thaddeus Young was assigned a job by his parents.
Whenever friends and family visited, Young assumed the role of unofficial tour guide for trips to the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the former Lorraine Motel, where an assassin's bullet snuffed out King's life in 1968.
"I've been there about 30 times," Young said. "We went there on school trips right through high school. I knew it so well. Every time I went back I learned something that I didn't know before."
Often stereotyped as a group of selfish millionaires who do little more than play basketball and video games, many NBA players view their league as being head and shoulders above the other professional sports leagues in terms of racial equality and in honoring King's legacy.
"The NBA is a special opportunity, and it provides us with opportunities that our ancestors would have never imagined," 76ers guard Damien Wilkins said. "Trust me - NBA players know and appreciate the struggle that Dr. King went through. Without him, we are not here doing the thing we love."
At nine NBA games on Monday, the home teams will pay homage to King before and during the games, most of which will be played during the afternoon.
Of the four major North American sports leagues, the NBA has the highest percentage of minority players (83), which should surprise no one. And with commissioner David Stern as the driving force, the NBA is without peer in its initiatives to place women and more people of color in front-office positions.
When the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida released its annual report card on the hiring practices of the NBA's front office last year, it found that for the first time in the history of professional sports there were more head coaches of color (53 percent) than white head coaches in the league.
Richard Lapchick conducts the annual study of the four major sports leagues.
The number of African Americans playing baseball continues a troublesome decline (this past season just 8.05 percent of players were African American, according to research conducted by USA Today Sports), but Major League Baseball has demonstrated a greater willingness in recent years to hire minority managers.
Much of this improvement, according Lapchick, is due to pressure by other leagues to follow the NBA's progressive approach to hiring.
"I think the NBA started with David Stern to apply internal pressure to make the league office and teams look more like America," Lapchick told ESPN. "Because he's been so respected for so long by pretty much everybody involved in the NBA and in other leagues, it has heightened his status even further. They know what his priorities are and try to implement them."
Stern will step down as commissioner next year after 30 years.
Sixers forward Evan Turner said people who assume that NBA players are not cognizant of the impact King's life and death had on them and the world in general are making a huge mistake.
"He changed the world," Turner said. "He changed it for everyone, no matter what your color or creed. It's a great thing, Dr. King giving his life for people. How many people would be willing to do that for someone you don't know?
Turner pointed out that King's legacy is so important that tying it only to the NBA is perhaps doing him a disservice.
"I think that all you have to really do is understand that the league honors him with early games on his holiday, and on Monday we're playing games on the same day that Barack Obama is getting inaugurated again," Turner said. "I think that says it all."