I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It (11 page)

A Unique Fraternity

Being a professional athlete puts you in a unique fraternity. To me it’s the greatest fraternity in the world. When bad things happen to an athlete—it could be a baseball player or football player, doesn’t matter—particularly in championship-level competition, my heart just breaks. People forget what a great baseball player Bill Buckner was and what a great career he had. They focus on one ground ball error in the World Series. There’s nothing worse than when you’re on that island by yourself and millions and millions of people are watching and you screw up. It’s a horrible thing. Nobody’s going to hand you a blanket; there’s no cover to put over yourself. You’re standing in the middle of the field or court—which at that time feels like the middle of the whole world—and everybody’s watching and you’ve just got to gather yourself and get through it.

The person watching at home probably hasn’t been in that kind of situation. Until you’ve been in it you can’t know what it’s like. Sometimes the tension is running so high you can’t breathe out there. And it ain’t like the guy is out there trying to screw up, but you’re just out there as tight as a drum.

I’ve heard guys say in certain circumstances they literally had trouble breathing. I was a bad SOB in my day, and I always felt like pressure was fun. Some guys got uncomfortable when they knew everybody was watching some big national TV game. I always felt like, “Good, everybody’s gonna watch me kick these guys’ ass and there’s nothing they can do about it.” So I had never really felt pressure before in my life. But Game 1 in the NBA Finals against the Bulls, I looked around the locker room and everybody had
That Look
. And I said, “Oh, shit.” I had never seen that before. My team was so terrified in the Finals. I was thinking we could beat the Bulls in the 1993 NBA Finals, that we had home court, all we had to do was get these first couple of games. Of course, we lost the first two, and all three games we played at home.

•  •  •

One of the things I don’t understand, and one of the things that bothers me, is young athletes not paying homage to the people who came before them. The people who came along earlier created a situation or environment that the guys who came along later wanted to be a part of, right?

I’m going to pay homage to Bill Russell. And for a whole lot of reasons. First, he was a better player than me. Second, and this is a personal reason, the black players forty years ago were playing in such a difficult environment. Now, you know Michael Jordan is my best friend. But he shouldn’t have been voted the No. 1 athlete of the twentieth century in the ESPN
SportsCentury
poll because I don’t think any black athlete today has to deal with what black athletes endured twenty-five, fifty, a hundred years ago. If you had to deal with all that overt prejudice and bigotry and still managed to become a champion in your sport, how much does that say about you? I don’t think we can imagine how much garbage those guys put up with just to have a chance to compete in their sports. Imagine if they were just free to play ball and not deal with all the other shit that caused stress and sucked the energy and life out of them? We can’t even imagine having to fight just to find a hotel that would let you stay there, or a restaurant that would let you eat there. Michael never had to play with people screaming “Nigger!” as he shot a free throw.

Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson, Muhammad Ali, the early black players in the NFL . . . I feel Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player, but to say Michael’s greater than those guys is just bullshit. People are talking about Hank Aaron a little bit more these days, but for the most part I don’t think people know a fraction of the shit Hank Aaron went through, and we’re talking about the 1970s, not the 1940s. Hank Aaron got so much hate mail, so many death threats as he approached Babe Ruth’s home run record. I don’t know how he hit any damn home runs in those years. I don’t know how he kept it all together.

And I’m supposed to sit here now and believe that today’s athletes, black or white, have to perform under conditions as difficult as the ones Hank Aaron had to perform under? Hank’s a living legend to me. I was glad to see Kobe Bryant wearing Hank’s Atlanta Braves jersey during the NBA Finals last summer, just to put Hank into our consciousness again. Maybe it caused some kids who don’t really know anything about him to ask their parents or look him up on the Internet. Why is Hank Aaron treated as just another great ballplayer? If Babe Ruth is a god for what he accomplished—and Babe Ruth earned everything he got—then shouldn’t Aaron be approaching that status since he broke Ruth’s record? I always found it amazing that Joe DiMaggio wouldn’t go to any baseball event unless he was introduced as “The Greatest Living Ballplayer.” Can you imagine if a black ballplayer said, “I’m not appearing anywhere, I’m not going to any old-timers games, unless I’m referred to as ‘The Greatest Living Ballplayer’ “? He’d be tarred and feathered.

I just get upset when guys who have made significant contributions to sports and society are forgotten. How can anybody drawing a paycheck in sports today not know about Curt Flood? He’s one of my heroes, and he gets lost in sports history, Curt Flood. He’s never gotten an appropriate amount of credit. How did his contributions get so overlooked? Athletes had no say in where they played until Curt Flood stood up and refused to be traded. How can he not be a bigger figure in the modern history of sports? Unless you make a conscious effort to find something on Curt Flood, you won’t hear his name, and that’s really sad.

We spend so much time concentrating on junk when there are admirable people involved in sports, really nice people who make significant contributions. Three of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life are Emmitt Smith, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux. Carl Lewis is great. You know who I’m really impressed with? Mike Krzyzewski. When he was on the Olympic coaching staff, I spent a lot of time picking his brain. I made a conscious decision to sit down and talk with him every day, and I’m just really impressed with him. And as I’ve said, the guys who were the most influential in my life were Julius Erving and Moses Malone. I can’t tell you how important it was to have them as mentors when I was young and just coming into the league.

One thing we all share—and some guys deal with this better than others—is that no matter how hard you work at your craft and no matter how successful you become, people just have to find something negative to hang on you. You can be the greatest ever at what you do, and people will still turn on you. Even with all the championships Michael Jordan has won, people say, “Well, he’s a great basketball player but he’s not socially conscious.” Now we’re hearing the same thing about Tiger. Phil Mickelson has to hear that he hasn’t won any majors, then when he wins a couple it’ll be that he should have won more. The bar is always being raised as you go. The rules are always being rewritten.

There’s aggravation that comes with that, but that’s part of what makes triumph so sweet.

Television and Hollywood

Rudy Martzke, the sports television critic for
USA Today,
tried to start something one night down on the set at Turner in Atlanta. He said, “Charles, you didn’t win an Emmy.” I told him I didn’t care about stuff like that, and I meant it. I couldn’t be happier that Ernie Johnson won an Emmy. And I’m really glad our show won an Emmy. I’m not stupid. If the show never won an Emmy before now, and they add me to the mix and we won an Emmy, I helped contribute to an Emmy-winning show. I had something to do with it, and that’s enough.

We do have great chemistry, and we have a good time while trying to give some insight as to what happened or what people should look for in a game, or around the league, or in the next couple of weeks. I think Kenny disagrees with me sometimes just to disagree, but I really, really like Kenny. And I love Ernie. The guy is a real professional and he and Kenny make it very comfortable for guests to sit on the set and participate in discussions on live TV, which can scare some guys. And in my case, I think it works because Turner allows me to have fun with it, and for us to have fun with each other.

People wonder why I went with Turner and not NBC. But I studied both shows, and I just didn’t think NBC was going to let me have fun the way I wanted to have fun. I know that a network like NBC has a certain way it wants to treat the product, and I understand that. But to me, the product is entertainment, and if you don’t entertain people it’s not going to work. The powers-that-be in sports made it a business, and that business is entertainment. Only one team wins the championship. Some teams have no chance to contend for the championship at all, but they better entertain people for an entire season, make ’em happy and keep ’em wanting to come to the games, or at least watch the games on TV, or they’re going out of business.

What I like is trying to find a way to be entertaining, but also tackle some tough issues. I hate when television doesn’t want to tackle tough issues, but just make all the money and avoid getting real out of fear. To me, that’s a disservice. I guess the secret is finding a way to entertain and make people comfortable enough so that they’ll stay tuned in when you do take a stand on real issues. I’m not saying it’s easy or that we should do it all the time, but damn, don’t you have a responsibility to try?

I could do my thing, make my money, go play golf and be happy, but is that all it’s supposed to be about? There aren’t that many black people in positions of power or influence. Especially on TV. And if you don’t use that position to speak up, it’s a wasted position.

I like doing TV, but in the second season I started to feel some negative vibes. In the first year I got all these plaudits for being honest and straightforward. But if you check the tapes I was talking mostly about basketball. I was doing pretty straight analysis. I didn’t stray too far that first season. I didn’t want to come in right away and start taking on certain social issues, even if they did relate to sports and specifically basketball. I figured I’d just take it easy and I got all this great feedback, I mean really great publicity. It was fun.

But this year I made a conscious decision to see where everybody was coming from. I talked one night about Michael Jordan and Tiger and what in the world it is people expect of them. And when I made that comment that Bobby Jones was probably rolling over in his grave after Tiger won his third Masters Green Jacket, people got a little uncomfortable. They were uncomfortable with me—but not with the fact that Bobby Jones was a bigot.

Somebody asked me about Notre Dame hiring Tyrone Willingham and how it represented progress. And my response was, “You’re asking me if it’s a big deal for any school to be hiring a black coach in 2002? That’s disgraceful.” I can’t believe any school would try to act like it’s doing a proven black coach a favor just to hire him. Didn’t ESPN do an entire
Outside the Lines
on that issue? In 2002, this is still a big deal? You’ve got to be kidding me. I just started saying what I feel, especially when it comes to the big issues of the day in sports. I hope people aren’t expecting me to just talk about so-and-so scoring 20 points when there’s real issue stuff going on. If you’re not going to deal with any significant subjects, what’s the point?

I enjoy trying to find that balance between addressing issues and entertaining. Most days, I think the media has the easiest job in the world, because funny stuff happens every day. I was riding the stationary bike one morning in a health club in Atlanta the day of a Turner broadcast. I was watching some program which was showing clips of all the funny stuff comedians said about Robert Blake. Man, he took a beating. . . . He deserved to take a beating ’cause indications are he killed somebody. Come on, now. He ate at that restaurant two days a week for twenty-five years, and that was the first time he ever took his wife? First time in twenty-five years? Guy went there so much the restaurant named an entrée after him. If you can’t get off some funny lines about Robert Blake, man, you shouldn’t even have been on the air.

You know the thing I want never to get caught up in? Ratings. I have zero respect for the ratings because I don’t know anybody who has a Nielsen box in his house. I ask people all the time when the subject of TV comes up, “Do you know anybody who has a Nielsen box at home?” I know a million people. How come I don’t know anybody who knows anybody who has a damn Nielsen box? How is that possible?

Sometimes I’ll find the ratings in the newspaper for the previous week and it’ll say some show was No. 1 and I’ll sit there and think, “We ain’t watching that!” I know they’re not taking any polls in the ghetto.

The two shows I think are the best shows on television are
The Practice
and
Boston Public.
They’ve got diverse casts. They’ve got story lines that make you think. They’ve got a point of view. And they’re definitely entertaining. Now,
Friends
is a show I never watched. I like Jerry Seinfeld as a guy. I think he’s funny. But I never watched
Seinfeld
when it was on in prime time. I watch it a lot of days now in syndication because my daughter watches it. But I don’t believe the ratings, and one of the reasons is that black folks and Hispanics lead the way in watching TV. They must not be measuring in the ’hood. In fact, I’ve met a lot of people over the years, and I’ve never met anyone who has a Nielsen box.

I know the ratings for golf have skyrocketed since Tiger came on the scene. But I’m saying if they took ratings in the ’hood the golf ratings when Tiger plays would be even higher because ain’t a black person I know who doesn’t build his weekend around watching Tiger play.

When I was growing up, I watched
Good Times, Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons, Gunsmoke, What’s Happening!!
Every black person in America, as far as I could tell, watched
The Cosby Show.
I know it was No. 1 in the ratings, but I’d bet the show was watched by so many more people than the Nielsen ratings suggested because it isn’t surveying the ’hood. Okay, people will say, “Charles is being paranoid.” Hasn’t it been proven that blacks and Hispanics have been consistently undercounted in the U.S. census? Wasn’t that a major point of the 2000 census, to make sure poor people were counted properly? Damn, how hard is it to find black and Hispanic people? Most of ’em are living in the biggest cities in the damn country. The census takers just didn’t want to find their asses because important stuff was at stake, like determining school districts and funding.

So if the U.S. government admits it undercounts black folks, why wouldn’t I think the Nielsen people undercount black and Hispanic and, for that matter, poor white viewers? Come on, now. Let’s not be naive about this stuff. The ratings system is flawed in two ways: one, they don’t know who’s watching, and two, they don’t care. As greatly watched as Alex Haley’s
Roots
was in 1977, I bet you the audience was a lot greater than we know because of the number of black viewers not even represented. Because of the importance attached to the ratings, because the ratings determine what shows stay on, I think it’s in our best interest to challenge the ratings. Good shows that black and white people watch have been canceled, and the reason given was low ratings. But how do we know? We’d have to trust the current ratings system and I just don’t.

So, we’re not represented in the ratings and we sure aren’t represented on the air. How can CBS and NBC have no blacks in lead roles on their shows? I mean, there are almost no blacks on their shows. Thank God for the WB and UPN or we just wouldn’t be on television. Some of these shows with all-white casts, I’m wondering if they don’t have black friends or coworkers. Damn, real life is more integrated than most of these TV shows. You look at these shows, there’s no way of telling that black and Hispanic and Asian people make up more than 25 percent of America. Prime-time network TV in no way reflects the diversity of America, and really doesn’t reflect who is watching the most TV. Those are the most underrepresented groups.

And I don’t know what’s worse, TV or Hollywood.

On the Turner broadcast before the Oscars I had predicted Halle Berry and Denzel Washington would win best actress and best actor. And I was happy not only for the both of them, but for all the black actors and actresses who came before them and had brilliant performances in movies for the past fifty years and never got a sniff of a nomination.

As deserving as Denzel is of that Oscar, I don’t know if he deserved it for
Training Day.
My movie fascination began later in life, when I had time to go to the theater. But I see a whole lot of movies now, and I thought he deserved the Oscar for Best Actor for
The Hurricane
and for
Malcolm X.
It was silly that the problems with the historical accuracy of
The Hurricane
wound up penalizing Denzel. How stupid and how unfair is it to hold
The Hurricane
to this lofty standard when every picture made in Hollywood is dramatized to some extent. All these movies that are “based” on real life or a script or something historic in nature . . . in every one of those damn movies the producer or the screenwriter has taken liberties with the original work. So please don’t tell me
The Hurricane
should be treated differently, or that Denzel’s portrayal of Hurricane Carter didn’t count or needed to be diminished because of it. And Denzel’s performance as Malcolm X was one of the great, great performances to me, not just that year but over many years.

As happy as I was that night for Denzel and Halle, I guess the thing that disappointed me the most is that this was, what, the seventy-fifth year of the Academy Awards? After all this time it’s a big deal that a black woman and black man win Best Actor and Best Actress? I’ll tell you what it is: it’s sad. It’s sad to be even having this discussion. It’s like I said about people making a big deal about Tyrone Willingham being hired as head coach of Notre Dame. If this is a big deal in 2002, we’re in trouble. Same goes for black actors winning an Oscar in 2002.

If you don’t think prejudice is alive and well, that Oscar night is a damn good reminder. I know there are great white actors and actresses who’ve never won an Oscar. Bob Hope never won an Oscar. But none of the great black actresses had ever won one, and Sidney Poitier was the only black actor to win one. Then again, it’s probably difficult to be considered for the Oscar when all you get to portray is a junkie, a drug dealer, a pimp or a hoodlum. What kind of choices are those? I think Brad Pitt has a few more choices than that, doesn’t he? But where are the choices for Morgan Freeman? How come Morgan Freeman gets nominated one year for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor, then you don’t even see his ass for the next two or three years in a meaningful role? How is it that Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson can be accepted by the moviegoing public one year, then have no choices of reasonable roles the very next year?

Seriously, it’s disturbing. The people who go to the movies don’t seem to care. They’re like sports fans in a way. If word is out that there’s a good movie, people are going to want to see it, no matter what color the actor is. Yeah, there are some racists out there who don’t want to see blacks or Hispanics or Asians in any mainstream role and don’t want their kids to go see those movies. But for the most part, you put good material out there and people are going to go see it. People who go to movies know Morgan Freeman is a great actor. It’s the people in Hollywood who don’t allow him to have any choice of roles. Man, Hollywood is worse off than sports when it comes to inclusion and diversity. There are no choices, no range of characters for black and Hispanic people.

And just think, Morgan Freeman and Denzel and Halle Berry have it better than just about everybody else. The rest of the brothers better be content to play a drug dealer, a gangsta or a playboy ’cause that’s all he’s getting to portray. Who is doing the casting for these movies and who holds them accountable? Who’s writing the scripts? At least in sports, people know the owner and the general manager and who is doing the hiring, and people can jump on ’em and insist that a league or a sport do better. In sports you tend to know who ought to be accountable. But how many of us know the studio head or an executive producer, and where do you go to make a damn complaint? I’m just so disturbed about this. I had a woman say to me one day last summer, “Charles, you’re doing well. . . . I know a lot of black people making money and doing well.” And I told her, “Yeah, I do, too. In the NBA.” People see a few black celebrities doing well, getting a chance to pursue their ambitions, and they think it’s that way across the board. Well, it isn’t. If it was, Halle Berry and Denzel winning those Oscars last March wouldn’t have been such a huge deal. And neither would Tyrone Willingham being named coach at Notre Dame. But what’s going on with the television industry and the movie industry is troubling, especially considering how much the people forgotten by those industries patronize them.

•  •  •

My daughter can watch a little bit of television on school nights. But at 9:30, it’s going off. When I was growing up, we could watch a couple of hours of TV per night. But my grandmother said the TV was going off at ten, and that was that. But that was a different day: no Turner, no ESPN, no satellite dishes. My grandfather Simon Barkley watched the Atlanta Braves religiously. He probably watched every game since the Braves moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee in 1966. They were what was on. And the only NFL games we could watch when I was growing up in Alabama involved the Cowboys, the Redskins or the New York Giants. That was it. The affiliates didn’t even care about any regional games. (When I became friends with Roy Greene, the thing I used to ride him about, because he played for the Cardinals, was him getting his butt kicked all the time by the Cowboys, Redskins and Giants.) Every Sunday we’d come racing home from church, hoping the NFL game was a 4:00 p.m. game and not a one o’clock game. Same thing in basketball: it was the Celtics, Lakers or 76ers. No local games, no regional games, nothing. And now, you can see it all, whatever you want, twenty-four hours a day. You don’t have to worry about what the local affiliate wants to show. You’re not at anybody’s mercy. It’s amazing how you get used to what you have. Now I don’t even know how people could live without the dish.