27 April 2018

Open Letter to the NBA and the NBA Players’ Association ‒

from an avid, but very disappointed, fan

Judy Waters Pasqualge

I am a big fan of the NBA, and a US citizen, who is following the post-season in real time via cable TV in Colombo, Sri Lanka, along with my husband, a US/Sri Lanka dual citizen ‒ he shares the concerns expressed below.

My enthusiasm for professional basketball and its players dates at least to those great Larry Bird Celtics-Magic Johnson and Kareem Lakers match-ups, and includes ten years in Brooklyn, following the great Patrick Ewing team, and the superb commentators Mike Breen and Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier on the Knicks Radio Network.

From my view over here, there was a very unfortunate piece of coverage during the 25 April Minnesota at Houston game, at about minute 9:00 of the fourth quarter.

As the Dancecam went over the crowd, the cameraman focussed for quite a long time on a young boy, perhaps age 10 or 11, who swivelled and gyrated his hips in a sexually suggestive way, then pointed to his crotch, and finally made what can only be called a nasty macho face.

On top of that, your number two commentator, Reggie Miller, piped in that this was probably the best dance.

I realise that this incident happened quite quickly, and certainly that there would have been displeasure among various people in the NBA, but still questions remain:

Why did the cameraman focus so long on this boy? Why did the technician receiving the camera feed do the same? Did the latter’s supervisor think that this was all quite normal and great ‒ and how about the people above him/her? and how about the Houston club organisation? the TV network and its advertisers? the NBA global marketing division? the upper management of the NBA? Commissioner Adam Silver?

This image was broadcast to your international audience. That audience is growing ‒ and includes many women, who are encountering such attitudes every day in their normal lives ‒ but too bad if this is happening at the same time that the NBA is carelessly cheapening its own great product.

By the way, the Sony Six cable feed I see comes via India, where the Jr. NBA is putting in place great training programmes for boys and girls, AND where women are fighting back against impunity in rape ‒ including against young girls. Will the NBA take responsibility for the images it sends to young Indian men and women?

I could only wonder: What would have happened if an NBA player had done this? A level 2 technical foul and ejection from the game ‒ a suspension?

From over here, there is notice of and much appreciation for the growing involvement of professional athletes, especially noteworthy in the NBA, in speaking up against prejudice, racism and the denial of rights. The world is watching, and there is gratitude, and inspiration.

Now is the time for all involved in the NBA to include women in this advocacy.

Or at least consider my last questions: Is this how you wish to portray the United States to the world? its values? even perhaps Christian values? its support for democracy?

Right now, even more than cheapening the game of basketball to the world, you are cheapening women, and, as in the US, over here the tide has turned in women passively accepting such an image.

You can issue an apology for this, broadcast it, and use that apology to add to the global education needed on discrimination against women and proper behaviour. You have an opportunity.

Just remember: what was seen in Houston looks like what it is: a cheap shot, a macho act, by a nasty young bully. In comparison to this, an apology would be seen for what it is: a courageous act.

At the very least, you can inform your staff and commentators, educate them, and make sure that this does not happen again.