ESPN's Black Magic

I viewed the second installment of "Black Magic," a powerful documentary which is receiving critical acclaim. Very powerful, but it also left me sad. It was great to learn more about hoops legends like Dick Barnett, Earl Lloyd, Bobby Dandridge, Pee Wee Kirkland, Bob Love and Al Attles. These guys broke barriers in college and professional basketball. The documentary also highlighted some of the great coaches at HBCUs, including Dave Robbins, a white coach who has won over 700 game at Virginia Union. Racial barriers are coming down in all aspects of society, not just sports. However, the one area that has lagged is minority opportunities in coaching at the collegiate level, particularly in D1-A football.

I have said before that just like the "Steroid Era" in MLB is getting labeled with an asterisk, so should entire eras of professional and college sports when blacks were systemically denied the right to play. If today's numbers are distorted because guys were juicing, so is every statistic ever recorded in white-only professional leagues. How many home runs would Josh Gibson have hit had he played in the Majors? Or how many fewer home runs would Babe Ruth have knocked had he regularly faced Satchell Paige, who Joe DiMaggio called "the best and fastest pitcher I've ever faced," and other great Negro League pitchers? I think we can all agree that players today are judged on their abilities, not the color of their skin. If you can play, you will get the opportunity to play at whatever level your ability allows. It's an efficient market. But if a black coach can coach, he will not automatically get the same opportunities that his white colleagues might. And that TODAY! The colorscape (if that's a word) in college basketball and more so in the NBA is showing definite improvement, but the number of African American coaches still does not reflect the proportion of black players. (See related post: The odds of two African American coaches meeting in the Super Bowl and college championship)

It was interesting to learn the history of John McLendon, Clarence "Big House" Gaines and Ben Jobe, all tremendous coaches who achieved phenomenal success at HBCU's (In 1966 McLendon became the first black coach hired by a predominantly white school). Ben Jobe, former assistant coach at University of South Carolina and Georgia Tech became head coach at HBCU Southern University. In 1993 the Southern Jaguars played Georgia Tech, coached by Jobe's close friend Bobby Cremins, in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Southern won by 15. Cremins on Jobe's ability to coach at bigger schools like Duke and UNC: "He would have been the perfect coach. Anywhere."

While college basketball and football today is pretty darn good, how much better would it be if the very best players were coached by the very best coaches?

--Marc Isenberg

Comments

[Emmett Jones]

"While college basketball and football today is pretty darn good, how much better would it be if the very best players were coached by the very best coaches?"

Its good to see that things like the Rooney Rule are starting to pay some dividends. Still disappointing to see College Football lagging behind with their "guidelines". I still think the ideal you mentioned in your question is a very long way off, but talking about it is at least a decent first step.

I saw Black Magic tonight as well. Definitely one of ESPN's better documentaries.

[John personal trainers Austin TX]

The documentary Black Magic is some more memorable TV I have ever watched. It was powerful stuff - beautiful, poignant, eye-opening, and bittersweet. I wanted to learn more. Ben Jobe, and Bob Love alone could have been the subject of their own documentaries. Their quiet dignity is in stark contrast to the large egos of today’s athlete.