What Black America Needs to Learn From a Sport We Don’t Watch
By Marc J. SpearsAOL BlackVoices columnist
The NHL lockout reached its 89th day on Dec. 13.
So have African-Americans noticed? Not really.
The NHL has 30 teams, but only 18 players are of African descent. Of that 18, most are Canadian-born or have Caribbean roots. Only two, Buffalo’s Mike Grier and Philadelphia’s Donald Brashear, are from the United States. The NBA is predominately black. The NFL has a high percentage of black athletes. And while Major League Baseball’s numbers are dwindling, it doesn’t compare to hockey.
With such statistics in mind, it’s easy to understand why black America hasn’t embraced hockey.
Growing up in a minority neighborhood in San Jose, Calif., I played basketball in my driveway, football on my lawn, baseball in the streets and all three sports in the park. One of the few white kids in my neighborhood once brought out some hockey sticks and a ball to play street hockey. That interest level among the black, Asian and Hispanic kids in my neighborhood lasted about one day. The next day, we were back to hitting home runs, shooting three-pointers and throwing long bombs.
I grew up loving Rickey Henderson, Dr. J and Marcus Allen. Grant Fuhr? I knew he was like the only brother playing hockey during my youth, but he didn’t catch my interest. About the only time I’ve really paid attention to hockey is when Brashear was brutally hit in the head by a stick on the ice by Marty McSorley in 2000. The bloody, stick-swinging hit in the closing seconds of a game left Brashear unconscious and twitching on the ice.
After that I would change the highlights on SportsCenter every time something hockey related came on. Calgary’s Jerome Iginla is a star of African descent, but with hockey sidelined so is his potential drawing power to black America.
Hockey is definitely a foreign sport in the hood. But to the NHL’s credit, they are trying to get into black America. Founded in 1995, NHL Diversity provides support and programming to not-for-profit youth hockey organizations across North America that offer economically disadvantaged boys and girls of all ages opportunities to play hockey. There are approximately 32 inner-city, volunteer organizations in various stages of development that receive support from the NHL. Since its inception, NHL Diversity has exposed more than 30,000 boys and girls to hockey.
For those who truly love hockey, the current lockout is tough to deal with. In Denver, a cable station is helping hockey fans survive that loss by showing college hockey and old Colorado Avalanche games.
But even the most disinterested African-American sports fan should be paying attention to the NHL’s misery -- the lessons of hockey’s lockout might soon apply to the NBA.
If a collective bargaining agreement isn’t finalized in the summer, the NBA could be the one in a lockout a year from now while the NHL is back in stride again. While the NHL can survive without black America’s dollars, the NBA will be in significant trouble without white America’s dollars. And if the NBA has its second lockout since 1998, those white American dollars may leave the hardwood and end up on the ice.