Visible Witness: The Visual Construction of Power &

Resistance in the NBA

ByAndrew Hill

April 26, 2013

American StudiesProfessor Laura Grappo, Supervisor

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List of Images

1…. Marion, Indiana, August 7, 1930. The lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith

2…. Hank Willis Thomas, “Strange Fruit”: The Playoff

3…. Hank Willis Thomas, “Strange Fruit”: Hangtime

4…. Hank Willis Thomas, “Branded”: ‘Basketball & Chain’

5…. A King’s Limits: Nike ‘Witness’ campaign billboards in Cleveland, OH

6…. Vogue, April 2008: LeBron James & Gisele Bundchen/ 1917 World War I: “Destroy the Brute” Recruitment Poster

7…. “Summer of LeBron”: Free-agency graphic

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Andrew Hill

American Studies 402

Professor Grappo

Spring 2013

Visible Witness: The Visual Construction of Power & Resistance in the NBA

The visual culture of the National Basketball Association is as dynamic and

dominating as the images it depicts: athletes performing feats of strength and skill to a

rhythm all their own. I was five years old when Space Jam was released, with the narratives

expressed above acting in my acculturation to U.S. popular culture; this undercurrent of

sublimal messages embedded in the NBA’s imagery acts perpetuates the highlight-reel

identity and the dehumanization of the athlete. The visual culture has changed since the

Michael Jordan-era of the 1990s. In the contemporary game where relative new-comers

like LeBron James have taken the spotlight left by the Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson and the

legends of the past few decades. The NBA, as a cultural institution, produces their players

today in a larger market of media and communication. In the images we consume and the

language that informs those images and the culture around the Association the athlete is

separated from the person; theirs is what I will term a ‘highlight reel identity.’

One constant in the representation of the black male athlete through the NBA is the

highlight reel-identity. Black bodies flying over the lines of the hardwood, past the arms of

the opposition, then launching into the air- sweat-soaked muscles glistening under the

flashing cameras and penetrating arena lights. The highlight reel-identity is the body in

motion, and the body as a commodity. The racial imagination feeds off the picturesque,

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living- breathing verdict that Black men do this naturally- that their natural place is

running the fields and courts to our amusement and amazement. The highlight reel-identity

is the character colored in by statistics and the myth of social implication and belonging.

This body only exists under the lights of the arena, and is constructed in that way; the

athlete is only important as the fetishized object of the dominant ideologies of race in the

United States. The Black body is beautiful in its natural aptitude for physicality; there is a

great profit in the extraction of its propensity for labor and spectacle, and a notable

discomfort when this body thinks outside of these prescriptions. These are the images that

are fed constantly through the U.S. media through the mediums of the games, magazines,

television and movies.

The 1996 film Space Jam1, starring international basketball icon Michael Jordan, is

an outstanding example of this discourse of the highlight reel- identity. Space Jam

perpetuates the image of the Black body as useless without its natural ‘talent.’ In the film

then NBA stars Patrick Ewing, Muggsy Bogues, Larry Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Shawn

Bradley each have their ‘talent’2 stolen from them by cartoon space aliens from “Moron

Mountain”.3 Wielding the stolen talent, the alien group transform into the tall, muscular and

athletically sound juggernauts of the “Monstars”.4 Meanwhile, the NBA stars are left shells

of themselves, being removed from their respective teams and undergoing physical and

psychological tests to discover the root of what is wrong with them. An especially telling

moment comes as the film follows Barkley who ventures into an urban basketball court

1 Space Jam directed by Joe Pytka (1996; Warner Brothers Family Entertainment)2 Seemingly a confluence of their coordination, attitude, and composure under the pressure of performance3 Space Jam (1996)4 Ibid.

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where a group of young women are initiated in a half-court game amongst themselves.

Seeing Barkley standing outside the fence on the edge of the court they welcome his

request to play with an awestruck “You’re Charles Barkley!” After getting thoroughly

outplayed, one young woman adds insult to injury spiking down Barkley’s sole shot

attempt and exclaiming “You’re not Charles Barkley! You’re just a wannabe that looks like

him!”5

Like each of his colleagues, Barkley has lost his social value in the loss of his natural

talent. Extracted from his core, the shell left of the players is that of the Black body, having

no place in the league, their communities, or homes. They are pathologized, even whilst

Bogues openly reasons through the fact that there is nothing wrong with them, the film

marginalizes their bodies until we find them in the final minutes of the film where we find

them playing together in a listless gymnasium. Despite this fate of the marquee players of

the period, the NBA’s decision to stop play for the safety of the players is an afterthought.

After voicing personal concerns over the potentiality of being similarly affected, the film’s

NBA commissioner urges the players to ‘get out there’ and dress in the hallway if

necessary. Only after the inconclusivity of the tests on Barkley, Bogues, Bradley, Ewing and

Johnson does the commissioner take the stand that ‘until the health and safety of the NBA

players can be assured, there will be no more basketball this season.’6 This decision clearly

an afterthought in the larger scheme of the plot, but criticizes the dynamic between the

player and the league itself. The league places precedent on the athlete, not the men. The

men appeal to the commission about their concerns entering into the arena and the

5 Space Jam (1996)6 Ibid.

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potential of suffering the fate of having their talent stolen; the commissioner decides to

lockout the players to prevent further losses like that of Barkley, Bogues, Bradley, Ewing

and Johnson. Far from semantics, the voices of the men consigned to the NBA are waved off

for the continuity of the NBA season despite the unexplained circumstances of the

symptoms affecting five of the league’s most notable. It is only when the indefinite loss of

these stars has become apparent that the concern for the other players is felt. The value of

the athlete is heavily weighted on performance, being the spectacle. Without the propensity

for profit in this way, the athlete is worthless.

This message is not lost on Shawn Bradley, a former star of the Dallas franchise who

repute figured mainly on sheer height- 7’6”. As a white male in a growing predominance of

Black men his identity falls too within the highlight identity discourse of the athlete, albeit

playing the role of the token minority. The film highlights this sentiment as the difference

between Bradley with and without his talent is seemingly the ability to run the floor with

his own body. The alien wielding his talent does little more than lose the tip-off, which we

would assume he was heavily favored to win (being at least twice as tall as any character or

person for the Looney Tunes). The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective

acknowledges this underachievement stating, “Blanko, the Shawn Bradley Monstar, failed

to register a single stat throughout the course of the game… Bradley’s ‘talent’ can’t muster

even a shot attempt.”7 This performance and the underlying questions of the belonging for

white men on the court are all the more evident as NBA legend Larry Bird and Bill Murray

openly comment through the film about a new age of NBA basketball. The imagery of the

7 “Compiling The Absurd Box Score For Space Jam” The Harvard College Sports Analysis Collective, March 22, 2011. http://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2011/03/22/regressing-compiling-the-absurd-box-score-for-space-jam/

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true athletes, the true basketball stars, is that off the aggressive, heavily muscled Monstars

of Bogues, Ewing, Johnson and Barkley dunking and bullying their way through the

competition.

The physique of the Black body is further represented as an embodiment of their

natural talent. Besides the height- which is truly the only attribute gifted from Shawn

Bradley- each Monstar wielding the talent of a Black NBA star developed superfluous

muscularity and bulk. Alongside the big hands, big feet and rotund buttocks (à la Pound-

the Charles Barkley Monstar)8 the imagery of ‘natural talent’ of the Black athlete plays off of

the stereotypes long held against Black persons. Each of these qualities are framed within

an essentialized physicality that requires a confinement to the court; the physical

dominance of the Monstars is too great to be loosed from the basketball court, where their

talents are naturally aligned. Their intellect or skill is negatively commented upon, if ever

at all. The talent stolen didn’t require of them to practice or train, nor develop any strategy

in approaching the game- even Michael Jordan, in preparing for the game against the

Monstars, takes just a single practice to get his rhythm back after a year away from

basketball. For Jordan’s colleagues in Barkley, Bogues, Bradley, Ewing, and Johnson, the

return of their talent has the immediate effect of returning to form. With their talent they

are complete- the ‘natural’ athlete they were born to be. Having no intrinsic value of

intellect or social acceptability, these men are forgotten altogether from the plot, their

community and from the fanfare they formerly held. Without these qualities- this talent-

these Black bodies are relegated to the periphery of society and away from the attention

they would otherwise garner as spectacles.

8 Space Jam (1996)

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The myth of belonging is best characterized by the ‘othering’ athletes are positioned

by. From the NBA, the player is given ‘free agency,’ or the decision to choose for himself

what team he offers his services to. Free agency is short-lived as the ownership of a team

can freely move ‘contracts’ with other organizations for equal value. Commercial

representations of basketball players can also contribute to this culture of displacement, as

a Hotels.com commercial depicts a black basketball player as too tall for the camera- the

character was depicted without his head.9 Even while the commercial suggested the

website was for everyone, it also represented the Black male athlete as not fitting in the

picture of ‘everyone.’ These representations are problematic as it perpetually depicts these

men as the problem, never the solution. In free agency, the men and their owners are in a

battle of interests as the franchise is in constant threat of being taken hostage of by a star

player. The Hotels.com advertisement depicts the Black male athlete as occupying a space

that they neither fit in nor ‘fit in’ amidst the white families on vacation. We see these

patterns laced throughout the representation of the Black male athlete of the NBA.

The field of representation has also expanded in the contemporary NBA culture.

With social media and commercialization constantly expanding, the opportunities for self-

representation have grown. Commercials are a medium that has expanded in the number

of athletes who has access to endorsement advertisements. LeBron James, Chris Paul and

Dwyane Wade, each a superstar in their own right, have participated in the commercial

side of entertainment. Most prominently, James and Paul have been featured in spots for

State Farm Insurance which have received heavy commercial rotation in the past few years.

9 “Hotels.com TV Spot, ‘Make Someone Happy’” iSpot.tv video, 0:29, http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7kcQ/hotels-com-make-someone-happy

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LeBron James has also participated in advertisements for Nike and Samsung. Each

commercial presents a different perspective of the man and the athlete. NBA players also

have their identity crafted in the visual presentations of their game days. From the time

they come on a camera, they are under the NBA’s rules of conduct. Speaking specifically to

the dress code installed in 2005, NBA players are expected to fit a certain image in

presenting themselves as products of the NBA.

Hank Willis Thomas’ art series picks upon the embedded narratives of the highlight-

reel identity. In images from both his “Branded” and “Strange Fruit” exhibits, Thomas

appropriates these identities into scenes indicative of the power structure perpetuating

these themes of a dehumanized Black body, the spectacle and the ‘natural athlete’. Three

images from these series stand out in the construction of the highlight-reel identity: one

known as “Basketball and Chain”10 from “Branded,” and two others from Thomas’s “Strange

Fruit.” “By employing the ubiquitous language of advertising, Hank Willis Thomas is able to

talk explicitly about race, class and history in a medium that almost everyone can decode.

The artist is particularly interested in the commodification of the African-American male

body.11 Each image carries the thematic of basketball- the ball itself figuring into the

representation of the images itself. The images feature Black persons- which I will take to

be male-bodied persons12- in various positions of elevation from the ground. Each body

displays some manifestation of physicality: the jumping, the muscularity, and the

10 Thomas, Hank Willis. Basketball and Chain, 2003. 30”x20.” Terminartors. http://www.terminartors.com/artworkprofile/Thomas_Hank_Willis-Basketball_and_Chain11 Thomas, Hank Willis. Jack Shainman Gallery. http://hankwillisthomas.com/2011/Branded/1/12 I will not assume to the sex-identity of the person depicted in ball-and-chain. Within the discourse of athlete-representation sex does inform different narratives as pertaining to gender, belonging, and sexuality. In this context, the dominant narratives carry a common thread of the highlight-reel identity- the denial of those features in identity unique to the person

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combination of the latter in the dunk shot. In association to the narrative previously

expounded upon through the analysis of the Space Jam film, these images reflect on the

packaging of the NBA player and how the “African-American sports stars are traded”13 as

social capital.

In approaching the complexity of meanings within Thomas’s art it is important to

acknowledge the exhibit titles which Thomas has chosen for the purpose of priming the

viewing public to the meanings sought in the arrangement. “Strange Fruit,” for instance, is

reference to jazz piece popularized by Billie Holiday upon release in 1939.14 The poem,

“Strange Fruit” was penned by a New York

schoolteacher, Abe Meeropol, and

published in 1937.15 Written in critique to

the abhorrent lynchings of Thomas Shipp

and Abram Smith16 in Marion, Indiana

1930, the written text “Strange Fruit” is a

12-line prose describing the way lynched

bodies fit the Southern atmosphere. These descriptions figured the swinging bodies into

the nature of the South- tied to the landscape inasmuch as they are to the culture. To this

point, it is important to note that while the lynching of Shipp and Smith took place in the

North, “This Marion, Indiana, lynching is among several thousand in American history

(U.S.), though unlike most it happened in the North and in a community with little harsh 13 http://hankwillisthomas.com/2011/Branded/1/14 "Strange Fruit ( 1939 )." Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/doc/ps-aasc-0378 (accessed Wed Apr 24 14:47:46 EDT 2013).15 Ibid.16 I will not repeat here what they were charged with because to do so would lend legitimacy to their apprehension in suggesting probable cause.

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racial antagonism.”17 The performance of the mutilation and efficacious position these

bodies were made to occupy followed in the Southern-attributed culture. As surmised by

Journal of American History essayist, James H. Madison:

“[T]he Marion tragedy, like many southern lynchings, was a spectacle lynching. The mob

was not content to murder their victims at the jail or to carry them off to an isolated spot.

They chose the courthouse square because it was the civic and geographical center of town.

The mob deliberately performed their drama on that stage, using lynch ropes as their

central props. They insisted the county coroner not immediately cut down the two bodies.

They must hang through the night, they shouted, to send a message to blacks who stepped

out of line. Long after the sheriff finally cut the lynch ropes, the photograph remained: the

upper half with its vivid brutality; the lower half showing ordinary Americans without

sorrow or shame.”18

The position of Black male in respect to this culture of spectacle, the policing of the Black

body, and more widely the racial framework of the U.S. is what is at the heart of the images

in Hank Willis Thomas’ “Strange Fruit.” In this framework we must account for ‘lynch

ropes’ as a “central prop,”19 and the purposeful selection of space as a means to exhibit a

domination of the Black body. It is in the scenes depicted by Thomas that we can

understand the “Strange Fruit” thematic of the contemporary Black male athlete.

The first piece from Thomas that I will examine is one from the

“Strange Fruit” set which I will reference as The Playoff. The image

depicts two Black men, both elevated in mid-air. Both are shirtless,

17 Madison, James H. “A Lynching in the Heartland: Marion, Indiana, August 7, 1930. Teaching the Journal of American History http://www.journalofamericanhistory.org/teaching/2011_06/sources/day2ex1_photo_madison.html18 Ibid.19 Ibid.

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exposing the muscularity of their arms and legs. One of the men has his back facing the

viewer, his arm outstretched so as to block the play of the ball-handler who partially

obscured from view by the first man. Neither of their faces are visible; one because his back

is turned to us, and the ball-handler’s because his arm is raised so as to cover his face with

his hand. Putting this piece in conversation with Meeropol and Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”

questions the positionality of the Black body in the cultural landscape and the racial

framework of the U.S.

The men depicted in this first image from Thomas’s “Strange Fruit” would seem to

be engaged in a competition for a place on the noose. The men, acting within the discourse

of the basketball game, are placed at odds- as defined in the game by who has possession of

the basketball. The contest is structured such that they find themselves in constant

opposition: on defense, trying to steal away the opportunities from the individual with the

ball and prevent them from acquiring the game’s capital- points; on offense, exploiting the

weaknesses of the defense in order to create as great a separation between your

accumulation of points and that of the opposition. The significance of these roles within

this great drama of the game is what gains are made in trading in the basketball game’s

capital. What Thomas positions these men to demonstrate is that their performance,

regardless of the victor or their identity (hence the invisibility of their faces), are set up to

achieve a net loss for the athlete in the public diminution of character and social death of

that identity.

These are the narratives of the highlight-reel identity: an oversimplification of

identity, of purpose and meaning. In kind to the referenced lynching of Thomas Shipp and

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Abram Smith, their lynching was an event- a spectator sport as it would be. Much in the

likeness of the image of a photographed Marion, Indiana community gathered around the

hanging feet of Shipp and Smith, the bodies of the men are illuminated by the camera flash.

Their bodies are exposed to the gaze of the audience. Thomas Shipp, whose face is badly

disfigured, hangs with his chest and stomach exposed. Identifying Shipp was in some ways

aided in that Smith’s pants had been torn off and divided as souvenirs, then clothed with a

Klansman’s robe,20 a feature that can be perceived in the image. Smith’s arm and lower legs

are exposed. More deeply into the nature of lynching, specifically in this case, the

performance was one of silencing the voice and perspective of the Black men. Killing them,

demonstrably so, illustrates an ideology that the law is in the hands of the white public. To

this end, the Black body is expendable as a marker of this power of judgment- the

ideologies of white supremacy are affirmed in the action of degrading and destroying the

personhood of a Shipp or Smith, leaving their body to be manipulated as effigies. The body,

removed from the character and personality, is subject to the labels placed upon it by the

power that make it a spectacle. The “Strange Fruit” are markers of white supremacy

because they have been appropriated to be so, and have been robbed of an agency to say

otherwise. The charges and stereotypes lobbied against them are then immutable and

canonized within the viewing public and popular culture. These narratives are reified in the

second image drawn from Thomas’s “Strange Fruit”.

Also drawn from “Strange Fruit,” this second piece, which I

reference as Hangtime, echoes many themes from The Playoff, while

adding new perspectives on isolation and the highlight-reel identity. There

20 Lynchings & Hangings- Page 9. Legends of America. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/ah-lynching9.html

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are multiple differences although it is clear in form and concept that the images are related.

The Black body is again defined in context to the noose, the basketball, and the basketball

game motif, in addition to the physical spectacle of the body at work. Like the first image,

the Black male upper body and the legs are exposed highlighting the muscularity defined in

those areas. The defender has since disappeared, leaving the offensive player to be

examined in isolation. The backlight of the image has since gone out, leaving the elevated

body suspended in darkness. Nonetheless, the body gleams off a distant light, also

illuminating the noose, the basketball, the player’s basketball shorts and shoes. The player

maintains a grip on the basketball which would seem to be caught within the noose.

The imagery of Hangtime depicts the Black athlete when the arena lights go off. This

is a central concept to the highlight-reel identity as it asserts the pre-determination of the

Black body to the quality of the spectacle. The body, even after the crowd disperses and the

lights go off, is still associated to the labor and spectacle to which it is bound. The body,

again having no face, is anonymous to us- the personality or history of the man hung there

has fallen away from the subjected body, which hangs in suspension to be given purpose in

competition and performance. Like the bodies of the Shipp and Smith whose bodies were

left to hang through the night, the conception of athlete hangs in the air even after the

game. The private identity of the men who engaged on the court is not regained after they

have left, rather they are appropriated to the game itself. The loss of a personal identity is

key to understanding the make-up of the highlight-reel identity.

Hank Willis Thomas’s “Strange Fruit” pieces presented here tie together the

spectacle of the lynched body and the athletic body. These bodies carry the common

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distinction of a cultural Blackness. Todd Boyd, a cultural theorist with strong focus on the

NBA explains in his text, Young, Black, Rich and Famous that “For most of their history

Black people have had to exist outside of what is known as mainstream America.”21 What

has since happened according to Boyd is that “The Blackness that defines basketball now is

as American as apple pie…”22 What is suggested here is a re-appropriation of the Black

body from the margins to the space of the spectacle. The Black body is given the possibility

of inclusion and social value within the structure set aside by white supremacist ideologies.

The highlight-reel identity represents a gilded opportunity to be seen, to be appreciated as

opposed to marginalized. The men in Thomas’ “Strange Fruit” are jumping for the noose in

order to capture this promise of inclusion. What is implied in Hangtime is that the

‘achievement’ of this inclusion is a stripping of humanness- reflecting back on Boyd, the

Black body is made into a consumable good, like apple pie. In this way the body is

controlled. Whether the game lights are on or off, the athletic body is dependent on the

position as a spectacle, as property. The basketball becomes a marker of this need as it

reminds us, when viewing the images of these bodies, why they are allowed to occupy this

space in popular culture.

Another image that closely ties to those from “Strange Fruit” comes from Thomas’

“Branded” series. Hank Willis Thomas’ art series “Branded” picks upon the embedded

narratives of the highlight-reel identity and many of the themes identified from “Strange

Fruit”. Thomas again employs the Black body to talk explicitly about race, class and history,

as well as the commodification of the Black body.23 Branded, with respect to “Strange Fruit”

21 Boyd, Todd. Young, Black, Rich & Famous (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2003) 17422 Ibid. 17523 Thomas, Hank Willis. Jack Shainman Gallery. http://hankwillisthomas.com/2011/Branded/1/

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and the control of the emancipated Black body, connects to the 1896 U.S. Supreme Court

case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Homer Plessy, described as a man who was “seven-eighths white

and could pass,”24 brought a case before Judge John H. Ferguson regarding Plessy’s being

asked to move to the black car on a train into Louisiana.25 With the U.S. Supreme Court’s

decision in favor of Louisiana’s segregation policies the legal institution of ‘separate but

equal’ laws. The sole dissenting justice, Kentuckian John Marshall Harlan, would state in his

opinion: “If evils will result from commingling of the two races… they will be infinitely less

than those those [evils] that will surely come from state legislation regulating the

enjoyment of civil rights upon the basis of race.”26 Enforced social divisions would ensue in

spite of Justice Harlan’s opinion, yet even after the repeal of this decision the marked

boundaries embedded in the U.S. would inform the construction of dichotomies like that of

the NBA. In a league of predominantly white ownership, and predominantly Black athletes,

the social division supported from Plessy v. Ferguson continues to play a role in the U.S.

culture. Within this culture, the images of these Black men carry what Justice Harlan

warned to be “the brand of servitude and degradation.”27 Like the previous scenes from “Strange

Fruit” the central thematic is basketball- the ball itself figuring into the text of the image,

and contextualizing the narrative to the NBA.

The “Branded” image, which I will refer to as “Basketball & Chain,” characterizes

what the title might suggest insofar as the literal depiction of the ball and the chain. Prior to

24 “Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 )." Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/doc/ps-aasc-0055 (accessed Fri Apr 26 16:06:49 EDT 2013).25 Ibid.26 "Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 )." Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/doc/ps-aasc-0055 (accessed Fri Apr 26 07:48:55 EDT 2013).27 "Plessy v. Ferguson ( 1896 )." Oxford African American Studies Center, http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/doc/ps-aasc-0055 (accessed Fri Apr 26 07:48:55 EDT 2013).

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receiving the image, the title of the piece signifies the metal weighted ball affixed to

prisoners by their captors. The weight, used from the decks of slave ships to prisons,

conveys the condition of imprisonment. Within the image itself, the fact that the basketball

is weighing down on the Black body is telling of this imprisonment, that what we might

perceive as innocuous is in fact insidious. What can be said in respect to this relationship

between ball-and-chain and the individual is that the former gives the latter purpose- it

binds them to an identity, a space in society. The ball is weighted so as to contain this

identity, and to encourage an ostensible conformity to said identity. For the prisoner,

whether as a slave or convict, the ball deters exertion beyond the one’s status.

Looking now at the image, the basketball is indeed the item hailed in the title- the

focus. The basketball equally balanced with the athlete, suggesting they carry an equal

importance, and, in conjunction to the chain, that their meanings are tied together. The

athlete in this sense is an accessory to the ball and chain, that the athlete- faceless and

nameless- is given meaning in association; the ball gives the athlete a place in the image (or

in society) even if achieved by restrictive means, and if the identity is a marginalized one.

As an inhibitor to full mobility, the basketball is an obstacle not in front of the person but

constantly behind them- something they can’t get past, but must constantly struggle with

into the present. It is a burden, veiled in the ideology that without it

the Black body would be outside of the picture, beyond our view and

without the benefit of ‘fitting in.’ This dogma would suggest that without the ball-and-chain

the Black body would be worthless.

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The basketball prevents real progress; it is, by system,

limiting. This vision takes us deeper into the image- first, into the

fact that the person is in flight in spite of the basketball; second, the

ball is not grounded, but also in flight. To the first perception, that

the person might still achieve a jump, one cannot say that they have

freedom. While the capacity for mobility is there, it is systemically limited by the ball-and-

chain. Over time, and certainly with age, the basketball will be progressively more taxing

on the body, but also the mind as imprisonment becomes as close as the basketball. In

addition, the ball is a social marker of difference, of ‘otherness.’ It opens for our imagination

the racist narratives of ‘natural athleticism’ and reifies the hierarchy whereby the Black

male bodies- especially athletes- occupy a policed public space.

The spaces allotted for the Black body figure mainly into athletics where the

imagined natural aptitude for labor and spectacle are fit- on the courts and fields of our

sports culture. As previously alluded to, these spaces are deeply reflective of the structure

of power through race and imagery. The dichotomy of ownership and athlete- of mind and

matter on a micro-level- is ingrained in the culture and operation of the NBA and its

production of images. Once a year, the exhibition of this power structure is nationally

telecast. For every championship team in the NBA, the ring and banner ceremony is a

moment when the NBA franchise recognizes key figures in its organization for their

contributions to the team’s achievement on the court. The most recent example came in

Miami, Florida’s American Airlines Arena at the beginning of this past NBA season.

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October 30th, 2012 marked the date for the emergence of a new season in the

National Basketball Association (NBA). This the marquee game of the night would feature

the league’s best: The Miami Heat team that won the national championship for the 2011-

2012 season, and LeBron James the elected most valuable player of the season and

playoffs.28 These trophied prime achievements, as well as the Olympic gold medal he

earned over the summer with the NBA’s Team USA, James was widely lauded as the best

player in the game today. This game would play host to the pageantry of the championship

ring and banner ceremony. The championship team of the previous season would usher in

the season with their coronation; players and player-relations administration take the floor

together to accept the diamond-studded gold rings custom-made and styled to the tastes of

select personnel, and bearing the organization’s emblem. Within this ceremonial

procession, the structure of the business is for once put into the public sphere. Here we see

the hierarchal ideologies at work as the order of who receives is choreographed to convey

power and importance.

This October celebration is important to the study of the visual representations of

power in the NBA as it presents this power structure to the public. The ties and the talent

meet in a rare moment to celebrate the achievement of the team- the accomplishment of

the basketball team in competition, and the success of buying the right athletes, and

managing an effective structure. This separation is never clearer than on this floor where

the athletes are labeled with team-branded warm-up apparel and sneakers, while the

ownership and executives sport suits black and gray European-cut suits. In spite of the fact

28 “NBA Basketball: Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat” Turner Network Television, first broadcast October 30th, 2012

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that only a half hour earlier, the men now sporting Miami Heat jerseys on the court had

been adorned in their own designer label professional garb, it was fitting for the them to

don their uniforms in the face of the ownership and the larger public. They are marked

men, even in this celebratory atmosphere- their identity on this field of play is that of the

athlete.

On the court the identity of the NBA athlete is just that- the athlete. The highlight-

reel identity of the fills in the qualities of the athletic body with the racialized imagination,29

divided along the Black-White colorline. In a league like the National Basketball Association

where Black players represent over 78 percent of the active NBA players30 the visual

dynamic of power places Black men on the court and white men in ownership of Black

labor. This divide has been authenticated through the American (U.S.) racial imagination as

a natural formation of the inherent abilities of the ‘races’. The expanding presence of

African-American players began with the full-scale integration of professional sports in the

1960s, although “the color barrier of the NBA was broken in 1951 by Nathaniel

‘Sweetwater’ Clifton with the (New York) Knicks, Earl Lloyd with the Detroit Pistons, and

Chuck ‘Tarzan’ Cooper with the Boston Celtics.”31 This history is pertinent in understanding

the racial plane on which the NBA operated prior to the now super-majority of African-

American men in the NBA. The Black male was never just an athlete, but a representative of

an expanding presence of African-Americans in the public and popular discourse.

29 Statistics increasingly figure into the identity of the athlete.30 Lapchick, Richard, et al. “The 2012 Racial and Gender Report Card: National Basketball Association” June 2012: http://www.tidesport.org/RGRC/2012/2012_NBA_RGRC%5B1%5D.pdf31 Rhoden, William C. Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete. (Three Rivers Press, NY: 2006) Pg. 151

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This history carries a greater weight in the implications it holds in the expanding

representation of the contemporary NBA player. William C. Rhoden, the author of Forty

Million Dollar Slaves, suggests that the NBA player today carries with him the

responsibility and legacy of pressing for further “power” within the structure of the

system- in this case the NBA. This mantle has evolved with the Black community to which it

is integrally connected. Rhoden recalls the evolution of this power through Black athletic

participation in the U.S.: power in freedom from slavery, power in achieving personal

success, power in opposing white supremacy, power in developing community-centered

institutions, power in pursuing a platform of change, and power in out-playing the system

of exploitation in the sports-industrial complex.32 The legacies of the Tom Molineauxs, Jack

Johnsons, Curt Floods, the Jackie Robinsons, Willie Mays’, Muhammad Alis, the Allen

Iversons follow in this tradition to further the power of the Black community. It is my belief

that these advancements in power are not mutually exclusive, but grounds on which each

generation of Black athlete has had to re-establish and advance. The contemporary NBA

player like LeBron James in indicative in this steady movement of Black representation and

achievement.

Returning to October 30th, 2012, the Miami audience is cued into a roar as the arena

lights cut to darkness. The spotlights stream quickly over the crowd in the Miami-based

American Airlines arena reaching a crescendo as they fall into a blinding flash on the court,

prompting the flash of flames emitted from the backboards. A video begins on the jumbo-

tron above the court to the instrumental anthem of “Niggaz in Paris”. Flashing across the

screen are the dunk shots, jump shots, alley-oops, and victories of the Miami Heat team.

32 Rhoden. Pg. 6

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What is absent from the spectacle are the men who exist when the game and the season is

over. There is no highlight of ‘the Decision,’ LeBron James’ televised choice to join the

Miami Heat organization two years prior, or that of All-Star teammates Dwayne Wade or

Chris Bosh. There is no highlight of the philanthropy efforts of James in his hometown of

Akron, Ohio where his education and fitness initiatives make a difference in the lives of

numerous ‘at-risk’ youth growing up with similar obstacles as a young LeBron James. There

are no videos of the fatherhood of James, Wade or Bosh. The highlight-reel gives us only the

‘natural Black athletes’ that materialize with the jerseys and the arena lights. The true

genius and resistance to the power structure of the NBA must be observed at the margins

of this identity, in the visual texts of the game and of the experiences of these men beyond

the hardwood.

The championship celebration of 2012 would not have been had it not been for “the

Decision” and the strategic collaboration of LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade.33 In

what was deemed “the Summer of LeBron (James),”34 James figured as the centerpiece of a

free-agency season in the summer of 2010. Free-agency is a uniquely defined privilege

within the culture of the NBA. Free-agency is conceived as either restricted or unrestricted,

the former entailing that the team currently contracting a player has the first right of

refusal on whether that player may leave the team, provided they pay the player more than

any other teams’ maximum offer. Unrestricted free-agency is without this provision, giving

the player the ability to choose which team he wishes to play for. Although the conditions

of unrestricted free-agency are conceptually accessible to even the passing fan, the culture 33 As well as their teammates Joel Anthony, Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Terrell Harris, Udonis Haslem, Juwan Howard, James Jones, Mike Miller, Dexter Pittman, and Ronny Turiaf 34 Wojnarowski, Adrian. “” June 25, 2010 http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=aw-lebronfreeagent062510

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around free-agency is very tense- especially in the “Summer of LeBron”35. Having been

hailed as a once-in-a-generation talent since high-school, every NBA team fed into the hype

of his impending decision.

The boundaries of loyalty and ownership within the NBA imagination are contoured

by the imagery of the athletes themselves. In this way, the culture of the NBA extends

beyond the contract and enters into its own realm of meaning-making in regard to the

identities of the athletes. Examining the career arc of LeBron James produces a spectrum of

images that fit within the motif of the highlight-reel identity. From his early NBA career

through to his movement to the Miami Heat franchise, James has been figured into the

system of the highlight-reel identity.

35 “ESPN Special: The Decision” Entertainment Sports Programming Network, July 8, 2010

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LeBron James broke into the national spotlight as a high school Junior, when he was

featured on the cover of the February 2002 Sports Illustrated issue “The Chosen One.” Still

17 years-old, James was being heavily courted by media and corporate spokespersons

alike.36 With the potential James carried, in the eyes of sports giants Nike and Adidas, he

was projected to be “a year from signing what's expected to be the most lucrative shoe deal in

history for an NBA rookie, estimated at $20 million over five years.”37 These are all expressions

of value placed on James’ body and his body of work at that point. After being drafted into the

NBA in 2003 by the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise James was marketed as the face of the

franchise. The images jointly referred to above as The King’s Limits set the context for this early

NBA representation of LeBron James. Stylistically, these Nike brand images relate closely to the

images from Hank Willis Thomas, specifically those of “Strange Fruit”. As alluded to in the

caption, the images of James were figured prominently in downtown Cleveland- this was the

medium of introduction of the franchise’s new asset. The Nike tagline “We Are All Witnesses”

highlights the spectacle that is James, while his muscularity is also offered unto the viewing

audience. The ads don’t feature James’ name nearly as prominently as his number- his identifier

under the ownership of the franchise. The emerging message is that you would recognize him by

his athleticism and by his franchise label. These are the tenets of a highlight-reel identity; James

36 Wahl, Grant. “Ahead of his Class” Sports Illustrated Vault, February 18, 2002. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1024928/1/index.htm37 Ibid.

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A Kings’ Limits

As a part of Nike’s “Witness” campaign, these murals hung on Cleveland’s Landmark Office Tower and were taken down the weekend after “The Decision” according to the Associated Press article, “Cleveland erasing memories of LeBron”. The tower, “a long 3-pointer from Quicken Loans Arena,” represents James stature in the public eye- unremoved from the branding of the franchise and the basketball.

is known as the basketball player. His value is ascribed to his propensity for labor on the

basketball court. Without his jersey and without the basketball, he is anonymous.

Even as James’ visibility and popularity grew, his identity remained tied to the league. In

endorsements and features James was tied to the basketball. His personal identity was suppressed

by this association, allowing for the media to

affix labels to his character indiscriminately.

One of the more extreme and criticized

examples came from the Vogue, April 2008

issue where James was pictured with famed

model Gisele Bundchen.38The image

juxtaposed with the Vogue cover is a 1917

World War I recruitment poster,39 mirroring

in a plethora of ways the James-Bundchen image. From the obvious associations of the ‘brutish,’

black monster, as well as the sexual threat that beast figures as in respect to the bare-breasted

illustrated woman (or the similarly dressed Bundchen), a new wrinkle has emerged in the text of

the Vogue cover. Where the “Mad Brute” of the propaganda poster wields a bloodied club of

culture, James has picked up basketball. Putting this image in conversation with Thomas’s Ball-

and-Chain, we can understand clearly how basketball and the highlight-reel identity operate in

policing the Black male.

38 “LeBron James Vogue cover called ‘racially insensitive’” New York (Associated Press) March 24, 2008. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/people/2008-03-24-vogue-controversy_N.htm39 Shea, Danny. “Uncovered: Possible Inspiration For Contraversial LeBron James Vogue Cover” April 5, 2008. Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/03/28/uncovered-possible-inspir_n_93944.html

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On the Vogue, April 2008 issue, James is pictured in basketball attire and in mid-dribble

with his right-hand. Carrying over the imagery from the juxtaposed recruitment poster, James

and the “Mad Brute” are depicted in desire of white femininity. With one arm around the

respective woman’s waist, both figures are limited from a full embrace of their captive by the

occupation of their right arm. Unlike the “Mad Brute’s” blood-soaked club, James wielding of a

basketball is non-threatening. In fact, it can be understood that in order to maintain his dribble

his body and attention must be divided. The focus James gives to the basketball limits his ability

to act in full consciousness; granted, in this racist40 depiction of James would suggest his purpose

is to possess the body of Gisele Bundchen. In the big picture, the highlight-reel identity and the

accessory of the basketball speaks to a cultural policing of the Black body through sports. The

NBA as an institution is limiting of the athletes, defining their greatest success in context to the

court. We see with the Vogue cover that in stripping away the personal identity of the man, the

stereotypes prevalent in popular culture can adhere to the Black body. Vogue, whether

intentioned or not, did what Marion, Indiana was able to do with the bodies of Thomas Shipp and

Abhram Smith: use it as a spectacle to police Black bodies through association, and to reaffirm a

white supremacy over Black savagery. While popular culture regularly produces images in

likeness to these themes, the NBA is one institution producing the narratives that inform it. The

most common medium for these ideologies is in respect to free-agency, the contractual

opportunity for players to negotiate their space within the league. In these moments, the Black

body is often exchanged between franchises with the openly expressed hope for profitability on

trade return.

40 As well as sexist, misogynistic and heteronormative

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The institution of the NBA informs a public on the necessity of ownership of the

athlete, which is especially visible in the free-agency period dubbed, “the Summer of

LeBron (James)”. Thinking back to the Hank Willis Thomas’s “Strange Fruit” and “Branded”

images, James is being appropriated within the NBA by analysts and agents who inform the

public of where he ‘should’ go. Between the banter and arguments of commentators and

‘NBA insiders’ alike it is can be seen that the desire is for James’ body, the perceived value

of his labor. This theme is furthered by fan art (pictured below) which picks up on the

tones of the discussions over James emanating from the league.

The image, James dressed in the jerseys of the franchises of the New York Knicks, Chicago

Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Miami Heat, and the New Jersey41 Nets. As a body, whose

expressed social value is limited to the basketball court, James need only be dressed in the

costume of our choosing. In this image, James’ decision matters only as far as affirming

what has already been advised as the right path- since each teams’ fandom has participated

in this, James is boxed into the expectations of the highlight-reel identity. The decision has

41 Now Brooklyn-based, playing in the Barclays Center and owned by Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokorov

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The Summer of LeBron

been made for him, the reasons vetted in the imaginations of the fans and analysts. His

body will inevitably follow one, and for his compliance to this identity he will be applauded.

LeBron James would not comply with business as usual however. At 9pm EST42 on

the night of July 8, 2010, LeBron James was the subject of an hour-long ESPN special later

dubbed “The Decision”43. The televised spectacle of a then, 25-year old man and athlete

drew the attention of almost ten million44 viewers- an unforeseen plateau for a Black boy

from Akron, Ohio raised by his single mother. For doing something without a ball in his

hand or sneakers on his feet, LeBron James was attracting a great deal of attention as a

worker choosing his place of employment on national television. The vitriol and praise that

would emanate from this television special would carry the force of the anticipation for and

expectations of this athlete. The Decision was a turning point in the identity of LeBron

James, marked by a tangible shift in his visual representation and that of the NBA and

world around him. Looking at the Decision, its immediate aftermath on national news, the

“Rise” Nike video and the “Cleveland Response,” and the markers of the shift in James’

branding, this section of history illustrates the emergence of an athlete from the spotlight

of the game into a man and public figure.

The Decision was steeped in anticipation for Cleveland, Ohio, Cavaliers’ fans and the

businesses local to the Quicken Loans Arena (the “Q” Arena). In addition to the acclaim of

being an Ohio-native, James was envisioned to be generational talent that would lift the

whole of the Cleveland sports’ legacy. “The Decision” is the title attributed to James’ choice 42 “Sources: LeBron decision on Thursday” ESPN, NBA, July 7, 2010. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=535925543“ESPN Special: The Decision” Entertainment Sports Programming Network, July 8, 201044 “’Decision’ watched by nearly 10 million” ESPN, NBA, Associated Press. July 11, 2010. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5371061

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of the Miami Heat franchise, following in the decades’ long drought of success in sports for

the city of Cleveland. The city, marred by the history of The Drive, The Shot, (and) The

Fumble would take another blow with “The Decision.” James’ legend prior, as a savior for

Cleveland’s sports, was fed from the time he began gaining national notoriety in middle

school, and canonized just years later when, as a sophomore in high-school, “a local

newspaper dubbed him King James”45. The Nike “Witness” campaign would further the lore

of the athlete- the gaze of the crowds focused upon the court, the placement of the action,

drama and importance. The identity of LeBron James was appropriated to his Court, a

double-entendre all the more telling as we consider its limits in power and dominion. At

the heart of this conflict of interests engages the relationship dynamic of the athlete and the

“ownership” of that talent. Cleveland in the summer of 2010 was subject to the social

backlash of the talent declaring its independence.

The visual markers of identity are contested grounds in the NBA. The public

identity- that which we see on television, magazines, movies and on billboards- is

profitable. Insofar as the public representation of the Black athlete can carry tones of a

‘natural athletic Blackness’ and a racial hierarchy, the associative value of an athlete to a

franchise can translate to millions of dollars. LeBron James off-court value to the Cleveland

was speculated in the midst of his looming free agency. The Cleveland Plain Dealer

reported that the “downtown businesses figure to lose $48 million over the course of a

45 Jenkins, Lee. “Sportsman of the Year: LeBron James “ Sports Illustrated (December 10, 2012)

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season” when James left the Cleveland franchise.46 That the Plain Dealer47 would cover such

a story angle represents the importance of the issue.

What is not deemed important, what is lost in the highlight-reel identity is a

consciousness of the personhood of the athlete. As opposed to the fantasy of the ‘natural

athlete,’ James grew up in a marginalized community in Akron, Ohio. As reported in Sports

Illustrated “The Chosen One” 2002 article:

[Gloria] gave birth to [James] at 16, and after her mother died two years later, she and LeBron

drifted from apartment to apartment around Akron. (On one occasion their building was

condemned and bulldozed by the city.) ‘I saw drugs, guns, killings; it was crazy,’ LeBron

[James] says. ‘But my mom kept food in my mouth and clothes on my back.’48

Following this description, we are not taught to associate persons with this background to

success, promise or choice. It is more readily understood that his ‘situation’ is indicative of the

failure in his family in his upbringing; the absence of James’ father, the youth of his mother, the

dregs of his neighborhood. James was not a child seen to have a future- except by his mother

who persevered these circumstances to feed and clothe him. As Shaun Powell, author of Souled

Out? states, For too many young black men, athletically gifted or not, such an upbringing isn’t a

recipe for success in today’s America”49James was not a child seen, but rather a statistic. The

highlight-reel identity drags the Black body into the exploitation and profit of the league, but

erases connection the men of the NBA have to their upbringing and the communities from

46 Schoenberger, Robert. “How Much is LeBron James Worth to Northeast Ohio?” The Plain Dealer. June 29, 2010. http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/06/how_much_is_lebron_james_worth.html47 The Plain Dealer’s website claims the “largest audience of any media company in Northeast Ohio” (http://plaindealer.com/)48 Wahl, Grant. “Ahead of his Class” Sports Illustrated Vault, February 18, 2002. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1024928/1/index.htm49 Powell, Shaun Souled Out? How Blacks Are Winning and Losing in Sports, (U.S.: Human Kinetics) 5

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whence they grew. James expression of personhood in “The Decision” disrupted business-as-

usual and challenged the structure of the highlight-reel identity.50

The representations of the athlete are constantly being negotiated through media;

probably the greatest difficulty of this project was the constantly shifting narrative-images

adding to the latent canon which I’ve described here. Seemingly everyday new wrinkles in

the discourse are added in the commercialization of athletes. Los Angeles Clippers star

Chris Paul and his State Farm-alias/twin Cliff Paul perform the explicitly scripted narrative

of the ‘natural’ athlete. The commercial departs from this ideology stating “they were both

born to assist” with the imagery of a growing Chris Paul all including a basketball, each

reflecting on his inherent potential for basketball.

With the NBA playoffs, the tournament of the season’s marquee teams from mid-April

into June each year, the Chris Paul/ Cliff Paul- State Farm commercial has taken a new

twist. Cutting Chris Paul out altogether, the commercial centers around NBA Hall of Famers

Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Reggie Miller- both now commentators employed by TNT. The

commercial begins with Smith throwing the ball between his hands, Miller offering the

opening line of “Kenny, are you sure you want to do this?” referencing the basketball hoop

across the parking lot. The hoop, positioned behind a mid-sized sedan harkens to the 2011

Sprite Slam Dunk competition when Blake Griffin, another L.A. Clippers star player, leaped

over the hood of a Kia sedan. Smith responds to Miller exclaiming, “Man, you saw me in the

1990 Dunk Contest!” to which Miller quipped, “That was twenty-three years ago!” In this

commercial we continue to see the narrative of maintaining the value placed upon the

50 The responses analysts had to The Decision even to today speak to how great of an impact James had in disrupting the system. In space and time consideration I have included some notable quotes in the Afterward.

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Black body through athletics. Even decades after leaving the court, and moving on in

finding a new and successful career, “The Jet” is dragged back into the association51

allowing the basketball and his ability using it to define his value. This theme extends to

Reggie Miller who in making the alley-oop pass to Smith a skill that Miller is not renowned

for. The need to redefine himself within the discourse of basketball is symptomatic of

system restricting the identity of these men to extend beyond the court, or the field as it

were. This is made all the more clear as Marv Albert, a noted and tenured NBA

commentator, is allowed the space of spectator and commentator solely, remarking only

how ‘clearly dillusional’ Smith is in the attempt. As a white male, having established himself

well beyond the court, his identity is not confined to the ball. If not for prior knowledge of

him or looking for him in the cast list, you wouldn’t know he had anything to do with the

NBA- he is allowed anonymity and definition away from the game.

The commercial ends with Smith having crash-landed through the windshield- his legs

depicted as hanging out of the windshield itself, while his upper body has emerged through

the passenger window. Cliff Paul, the absent Chris Paul’s twin brother, comes into the

scene after the accident. It is further telling that although they are hailed as twins, Miller

does not acknowledge this clear resemblance between the State Farm agent Paul and the

NBA star Paul. It would seem to suggest that without being accessory to the basketball and

the basketball-related feats, Chris Paul would be unrecognizable. The association we can

make to these men away from the court is dictated as beyond unimportant, but rather

unfeasible and unrealistic.

51 Double entendre

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The slideshow of images that cover my computer screen every so often includes a

compilation of Black men whom I find inspiring: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris

Paul, as well as Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Nelson Mandela. So that the images files are not

bereft of order and management, each image carries the name of the figure and is filed

within a corresponding folder capturing a thematic of what they are related to socially. In

filtering through the images of James, Wade and Paul, each prominent basketball players

within the contemporary National Basketball Association I reached a dilemma; how can I

place the images of them out of uniform, off the basketball court, or with their friends and

family into a folder labeled ‘NBA.’ In previous years I may not have questioned this action

but presently I wondered why is it so easy to sum up an individual into to their profession-

why can we stereotype the NBA player so easily? The NBA, as a cultural institution,

produces their players in that way. In the images we consume and the language that

informs those images and the culture around the Association the athlete is separated from

the person; theirs is what I will term a ‘highlight reel identity.’

These images and the ideology embedded within them are widely dispersed and central

to the culture of televised sports. This culture allows for the dehumanizing violence in

language and action against the athletes; while certain persons can envision the personal

narratives of the player, the culture emanating from the NBA does not encourage an

identity beyond the profit structure of the league. If you think of the athlete, they should be

thought of as a product and asset of the league- that’s where you will find them, that’s

where they belong. From the film Space Jam, through the representations of athletes in the

commercials airing today, the dominant ideology of ownership is prevalent. While players

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look for avenues to self-expression through self-branding, the avenues will remain tightly

constricted as long as the fan accepts the object of the Black body, and the narrative of the

‘natural athlete.’

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