As children we look at professional athletes as role models. We can argue about if they should or shouldn't be role models from now until doomsday and it won't change the fact that kids look at them that way. When choosing role models kids often look for people they think they can identify with. As a young white boy growing up in New York it was natural for me to idolize guys like Don Mattingly and Ray Knight. It doesn't mean I was a racist kid or that I didn't like Reggie Jackson or Willie Randolph or even Darryl Strawberry. (George Foster is a whole other story.) It just means that Mattingly and Knight were people I thought I could be.
Does the NBA need more white stars? I don't know. But certainly it helps the league to have stars from all walks of life and ethnicities to help touch the young fan base and thus 'breed' (for lack of better term) their future ticket holders.
As for Bird, the comments made him look like a total wack job. Check this out (from Reuters):
In an interview with ESPN to be aired Thursday ahead of the Game Three of the NBA finals, the former Boston Celtic, widely considered one of the greatest players ever to hit the hardwood, was asked if the league lacked white superstars.
"Well, I think so," Bird said. "You know when I played you had me and Kevin (McHale) and some others throughout the league.
So far he's OK. But then he goes south.
"I think it's good for a fan base because, as we all know, the majority of the fans are white America. And if you just had a couple of white guys in there, you might get them a little excited.
"But it is a black man's game and it will be forever. I mean the greatest athletes in the world are African-American."
Sounds like he's been talking to Jimmy the Greek. But seriously, I think Bird meant well and didn't mean his comments to sound as bad as they did. I think he was asked a tough question by Jim Grey, a reporter with a history of asking inappropriate questions (remember him hounding Pete Rose at the All-Star game a few years ago?), and felt that a no comment would sound worse than a comment. So he began to talk and next thing you know BANG! We'll have to wait and see what the repercussions of this are.
