Empty Jocks
Sunday
afternoon, 20 of history's greatest basketball players headlined a Madison
Square Garden fund-raiser for Bill Bradley. Bradley's former New York Knicks
teammates Dick Barnett, Dave DeBusschere, Walt Frazier, Jerry Lucas, Earl
Monroe, and Willis Reed sang Bradley's praises, as did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bob
Cousy, Julius Erving, John Havlicek, Moses Malone, Oscar Robertson, Bill
Russell, and Bill Walton. The event, complete with cheerleaders, movie stars,
and lights and music reminiscent of an NBA game, enthralled the press. "Bradley
Throws Garden Party, Scores," whooped the Washington Post .
Bradley has pitched himself as a man of substance in a world corrupted by
glitz. As Russell put it at the gala, "In these days of spin control, Bill
Bradley is one of the most honest people I've ever met." So it's worth asking
whether the jocks' media blitz for Bradley, punctuated by their full-court
press on Sunday's political talk shows, conveyed anything of substance. The
question posed by NBC's Tim Russert--"Why do former opponents and teammates
support Bill Bradley for president?"--raises a prior question: Why should we
care?
On the
talk shows, the players testified that Bradley is "intelligent,"
"knowledgeable," "well-rounded," "compassionate," "concerned," "wonderful," "a
great leader," "a great listener," and "a good person." They applauded his
"honesty," "integrity," "respect," and "quiet strength." They recalled that he
"played very hard," "played by the rules," and "was always interested in the
needs of people." They asserted that he "loves his country" and seeks "the good
of as many people as possible."
These
platitudes are probably true. But why did they dominate the three major
networks Sunday morning? What light do they shed on Bradley's presidential
competence or agenda? On Meet the Press , DeBusschere argued that the
ex-athletes "know [Bradley] as a man" and that voters should "listen to what
celebrities have to say about a man that they all respect and have known very
well." That explanation, however, turns out not to be true of many of Bradley's
jocks. On Face the Nation , Erving conceded that he had never played
against Bradley and knew little about him until this year. Cousy told the same
story: "My wife and I jumped on board the minute the senator called. … I didn't
have a personal relationship."
The
jocks who knew Bradley as an athlete failed to name anything he had
accomplished in politics. Nevertheless, they praised his political career.
"He's had good leadership qualities as a senator," said Lucas. DeBusschere
agreed: "He's a leader. He was when he first came into the political scene. …
He was going to study and learn … and I think he's done that." Russell added,
"He's had some experience in national politics. And then he got away for a
while … which is sometimes very helpful." Again, how do the assertions of
former basketball players clarify this question? Unable to produce evidence,
they extrapolated from sports to politics. Bradley believed in "passing and
getting other people involved in the game," Reed argued on This Week .
"That's what Bill's about, and what he'd do in his politics: getting everybody
involved in the game."
The
jocks were plainly ignorant of the issues. "Old jocks don't know a lot about
the Balkans and the Middle East solutions or campaign-finance reform and all,"
confessed Cousy. On Face the Nation , Bob Schieffer told Erving, "Well,
Dr. J, since you're the doctor here, I guess I ought to ask you about health
care." The question sounded like a joke, but it wasn't, and Erving answered it.
"I'm a proponent of Bill's position," he replied, citing "Bill's health care
plan, which I got a chance to read last night."
Bradley's campaign has been long on sentiment and short on solutions. The
athletes' testimonials did nothing to remedy that deficit. DeBusschere praised
him for "caring and going out and saying things and doing things about" race
relations. Reed called for racial "enlightenment" and predicted, "Bill will try
to make that happen." Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson observed, "Skin
color is an immediate reaction to people, and this is something that we have to
overcome. This is something Bill sees." Cousy boasted that Bradley "makes human
rights a cornerstone, really, in terms of his priorities … All those problems
stem, obviously, from man's inhumanity to man. … So I'm happy to see Bill
focusing on, you know, just getting people to get along together on a domestic
and a worldwide level."
Cousy
argued that Bradley's jock advocates should be taken seriously because they're
"concerned about issues" and unencumbered by the "baggage" of immorality that
disqualifies many celebrity athletes. Bradley "has been very selective in terms
of the celebrities that he has asked to jump on board," said Cousy. "If we're
all pretty good guys and we've lived our lives properly, then, hey, why don't
you listen to us in this case and vote for Bill Bradley?" No doubt Cousy has
lived his life properly. So have my neighbors. And they don't get on Meet
the Press .
Stripped of their rationalizations, Bradley's jocks fall back on the argument
that their opinions are important simply because they're celebrities. "Look at
America and what America is all about," Robertson argued. "Basketball is
America's game. … People come to games to see these stars play. Stars have such
influence on Americans today. And it's just apropos for me to be here to say
that Bill Bradley's a person who can generalize all these people together." On
Late Edition , Bradley said of his basketball pals, "Why wouldn't you
reach out to your friends? … I'd be stupid if I didn't do that."
If the
jocks don't know why Bradley should be president, why are they endorsing him?
Because they think their association with him helps their image as well as his.
"Not too many jocks are Rhodes Scholars," observed Cousy, arguing that Bradley
"personifies" the virtues of team sports. "Thirty years ago, everybody was a
dumb jock who played sports," sniffed DeBusschere. "Bill, I think, has proven …
that a basketball player, baseball player, football player are very intelligent
people and that type of stigma attached to you is not worthy."
But
are the jocks serving Bradley well? At best, they're helping him exploit the
superficial, elitist politics he claims to be campaigning against. That's what
happened on Meet the Press , where Russert, after hosting Bradley's jocks
for much of the show, explained the absence of a Gore representative by
reporting, "We asked the Al Gore campaign to provide celebrities who would
support him. They declined."
At worst, the jocks are
hurting Bradley by failing to comprehend and refute misrepresentations of his
agenda. That's what happened on Face the Nation , where Gore campaign
manager Donna Brazile accused Bradley of endangering "African-Americans and all
other minorities and Hispanics" by trying to "eliminate Medicaid." What Bradley
needed was a policy expert who could block Brazile's cheap shot. Instead, the
task of defending Bradley fell to Erving, who shrugged that "it's probably a
debatable issue, but knowing Sen. Bradley, he is, you know, the type of
individual who has always been fair." With that response, Erving negated his
layup for Bradley by yielding a three-pointer to Brazile. That's the problem
with basketball stars. They can score, but they can't play D.
