I have played basketball all my life — never for my school, but at a high enough level that I was able to compete against college-level players. I’m not a particularly gifted athlete, but I was able to get by on my passing and ball handling.
Of current NBA players, 80.7 per cent are racialized, and the game is ingrained in Black culture in a way few other sports are. So, for me, as a short, white, basketball player, I often ask myself: what does being white on a basketball court mean?
As a white basketball player, you are playing a culturally Black game. There is a beautiful opportunity for equality in sports because your abilities should matter more than anything else. You could be the weirdest looking person on the floor, but if you’re good, your peers should respect you.
The NBA and basketball at large are becoming more and more direct in their attempts to create change for racialized people in the US. It’s important to recognize that the court doesn’t exist in a vacuum at any level of play, and being white in a Black space carries historical and political baggage. We should all speak out in favour of the continued pursuit of racial equality, but as an ally, your responsibilities are more nuanced than just passive support.
In other words, as a white basketball player, benefitting from a game played and perfected by Black people, you can’t just be passive when supporting social movements — you have to be an active representative of the change you wish to see.
You must hold yourself to a standard of decency, humility, and sportsmanship in these moments by playing it the right way, unselfishly, diligently, and well.
You leave the court giving and receiving respect from the people you just played with. And off the court — in the change rooms, on tournament buses, on the bench — you listen to your teammates when conversations turn to issues of race. Teammates are like siblings; recognize that bond, empathize with them, and uplift them.
Within basketball, there will be differences in experience based on your race, but there is a golden opportunity when you’re on the floor to be judged by your game, not the colour of your skin, and I think that’s what we’re trying to recreate in the rest of the world. I believe it’s a variation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream for Black people to be judged on the “content of their character.”
