When talking with people about economics I tend to come of as a socialist. This isn't because I agree with Marx so much, but rather I'm naive enough to think that money shouldn't be devoid of morals or ethics. Much of the time when people talk about ethical economics they will point to Wal-Mart and the damage it does not only in the communities in which they dominate but also to those who produce many of the items that Wal-Mart sells. But this isn't about Wal-Mart or corporate greed per se, but rather a lament that humanity runs a seemingly distant second to money in the hearts and minds of many. The latest example of this is LeBron James, superstar basketball star and, in my opinion, first class dick.
The following was originally published in the Saturday June 9, 2007 edition of the National Post.
James won't use his power for good
Star refuses to sign teammate's letter on Darfur killings
Bruce Arthur
National Post
Saturday, June 09, 2007
SAN ANTONIO, Tex. -Yesterday, Ira Newble sat off to the side of the basketball court where his more famous Cleveland Cavaliers teammates were swarmed by the media. The most famous Cavalier of all, LeBron James, was in the interview room, where only the glittering stars and their coaches go. Newble, a 32-year-old journeyman, was left largely alone. He has played nine minutes in these playoffs. Basketball-wise, he doesn't really matter. But this isn't about basketball.
Earlier this year, Newble saw the film Hotel Rwanda, about the genocide in that country in 1994, and was suitably horrified. He didn't just let the horror sink away, though, and so he learned that Rwanda was not an isolated incident. And so he learned about Darfur.
Here is the short version of Darfur. Since 2003, the Islamic Sudanese government and Arab militias are accused of mass murder -- genocide, essentially, though the United Nations has stopped short of using that word -- against the black African population, under the guise of fighting rebel groups.
Research published in the academic journal Science in December, 2006 put the death toll at "no fewer than 200,000." More than two million Sudanese have been displaced. Vast numbers of women have been raped. It is an unthinkable atrocity, and it is ongoing.
Most athletes live in a self-imposed bubble. Newble decided not to.
"I feel like I have a responsibility to do [something], to use my voice, ability, knowledge and talent for other things than just shoot a basketball," he says.
So he did something. He educated himself with the help of a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts, Eric Reeves, who is perhaps the most respected academic voice on the subject. He printed off some material about Darfur, and left it in each of his teammates' lockers. He asked them to read it, then later, talked to each one individually.
He then drafted a letter to China, which is the Sudan's chief trading partner, urging the country that will hold the 2008 Olympic Games to pressure Sudan to stop the carnage. And he asked his teammates to sign it.
They all did, all but two. One, backup guard Damon Jones, has a shoe deal with a Chinese company. The other is LeBron James.
NBA commissioner David Stern called LeBron "a representative of the future of this league." LeBron himself has said his goal is to become a "global icon." And Nike, LeBron's sponsor, and the NBA are seeking to exploit the massive Chinese market.
Jones doesn't matter. LeBron does. He said he didn't know enough to sign, but that was a month ago, and LeBron could have his people prepare a dossier tomorrow, if he pleased. And so Newble is caught between loyalty to a teammate, and loyalty to one hell of a worthy cause.
"I understand, but don't understand," says Newble, softly. "I can completely understand a guy, especially someone like LeBron -- whatever he does is going to be magnified. So of course, he has to make sure he's doing the right thing. I mean, I can understand that.
"But it's on him to go out and get the information that he feels he needs to get, and make a decision."
It should not be a complicated decision.
Newble is clearly hesitant to criticize LeBron, and says he respects LeBron's stated desire to know more. But Newble is probably on his last NBA legs anyway, and his conscience leaks through, even when he is trying to downplay the disagreement. When someone says this is not exactly an overly complex issue, Newble laughs.
"It's pretty much cut and dried. But at the end of the day, it's about the bottom dollar," he says. "Trust me, I wish I was a marquee player, because I could make a bigger difference than I'm making now.
"There's nothing negative about anything I'm doing. It's not a boycott, it's not like I'm saying don't go to the Olympics. It's a protest, to make people aware, to make China aware, since they have the ability to do something about it because they have so much influence over there."
When asked yesterday if he would be more of a Michael Jordan or more of a Muhammad Ali on social issues, LeBron demurred, and it told you everything you needed to know.
"I'm going to try to be more of LeBron James," he said. "When I say that, I just want to hopefully end my career the best way that I want to end it, and then just try to be more of a businessman."
Except right now, he is both. And through the lens of Darfur, as governments around the world idly let people die, those LeBron Nike ads that say "We Are All Witnesses," are ironic, and a little chilling. It's not that LeBron can stop the killing. But it's his decision to sign, or not. And he is making the wrong one.
"It's bigger than basketball, it's bigger than sports, and it's bigger than the money," says Newble. "It's a human issue."
It should be. What consequences would LeBron James suffer for signing that letter? How would it hurt him? But LeBron wants to be Michael Jordan, and Jordan was the epitome of the soulless chase for money instead of social responsibility. To paraphrase Jordan, the Chinese buy sneakers, too.
