(ThyBlackMan.com) If David Stern is the modern plantation overseer, as stated by journalist Bryant Gumbel, then could it be safe to say that Michael Jordan is nothing more than a house nigger.
I once heard if you ‘change your sit you’ll change your position.’ How appropriate this statement is in light of the news that Michael Jordan is taking a stern stance in the National Basketball Association’s labor dispute.
According to published reports Michael Jordan, the owner of the Charlotte Bobcats, is leading a Tea Party of about 14 owners who are ardent antagonist 
opposing the League’s proposed 50-50 split with the players for basketball related revenue. The NBA Player’s union is seeking a 52.5- 47.5 split, down from the 57 percent awarded in the last collecting bargaining agreement solidified in January 1999. So if Michael Jordan, a former player, is heading the charge against the current players, then Jordan, considered by many to be the best players ever to lace up a pair of sneakers, must be Stern’s “house Negro.” I mean my analogy fits perfectly with Gumbel’s characterization of Stern – right!
To understand my presupposition we must look to the past.
Michael Jordan, a leading advocator in those 1998-99 labor disputes along with his agent David Falk, played a looming role in the players getting Stern and the League to agree to the 57-43 split the players benefited from for the past 13 years (now Jordan wants no part of such a division of income as an owner). In those negotiations the battle became so contentious between he, Stern and the owners that Jordan fearlessly told Abe Pollin – then owner of the Washington Wizards – “If you can’t make a profit you should sell the team.” Now Jordan, reported to be losing approximately $7 million per year in the small North Carolina market finds himself where Pollin was 13 years earlier.
The 1998-99 labor negotiation wasn’t Michael Jordan first dance at the rodeo. During a three month lockout in 1995, Jordan along with Patrick Ewing and Reggie Miller led the charge in an attempt to decertify the player’s union claiming that Simon Gourdine and Buck Williams, who respectively served as the union’s executive director and president, poorly represented the player’s union in previous negotiations. Gourdine and Williams are black.
If Gumbel’s commentary on Stern is accurate, as so many believe, then Jordan role can’t be nothing other than what I suggested earlier – a house Negro. The League is claiming to be sick and Michael Jordan – I suppose is saying – “massa, is we sick.”
Here’s the real deal.
Of course Jordan in no more of a “house nigger” than Stern is a modern plantation overseer. Michael Jordan changed his sit and subsequently his position changed. Like Stern – Jordan is a business man seeking to do what is best for his business. Thirteen years ago Jordan was a member of Team Players and he fought to win; 13 years removed he is now a member of Team Owners and he is fighting to win. Stern is a businessman attempting to win. Thirteen years ago Michael Jordan suggested to Stern if you look at what you are proposing from a player’s position would you take the deal you are proposing? Thirteen years removed Michael Jordan – still at odds with Stern, but much more in line with him now.
As I stated last week in my article “Gumbel committed a Flagrant 2 foul,” this is business and has little to do with somebody being an overseer. Such a position only makes these athletes victims and more importantly sullies the suffering of our ancestors seized and jailed in shackles.
Staff Writer; Reginald Williams
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