1. Charles Barkley said he wasn’t a role model. But when sports stars like Chuck speak up,
people listen.
In the autumn of 2014, from the NBA to the
NFL to the Olympic movement, athletes
striding up to the dais of public discourse
are finding a confident tenor in their voice.
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Five St. Louis Rams entered the field of play
field last week with their arms held up in the
“hands up, don’t shoot” gesture. This week
Derrick Rose donned a shirt reading “I Can’t
Breathe” during pregame warmups.
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Following in Rose’s footsteps, LeBron James,
Kevin Durant, and other members of the
Cleveland Cavaliers and Brooklyn Nets wore
the same shirt to honor Eric Garner before a game in the Barclays Center.
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"It was a message to the family," James said. "That I'm sorry for their loss, sorry to his wife.
That's what it's about.
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"Obviously, as a society we have to do better," James added. "We have to be better for one
another."
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For far too long, the struggle and courage needed for life outside of sport has been seen as
inappropriate to express inside the athletic arena. Perhaps no athlete, ever, cast a shadow as
large as Michael Jordan. Perhaps no athlete, ever, did so little with this forum.
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When asked why he didn’t endorse a candidate running against a long-time opponent of civil
rights in his native North Carolina, Jordan said Republicans bought shoes, too.
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No matter where you stand on the divide going on in the streets of St. Louis or Cleveland or
New York City, the awakening social conscience of athletes is refreshing. They're evoking an
earlier, transcendent time.
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2. “Once the record was mine, I had to use it like a Louisville Slugger,” Hank Aaron wrote in his
autobiography, "I Had a Hammer." Aaron had a higher purpose than just having his name atop
the home run record list. It was his duty, he said, to carry on where Jackie Robinson left off.
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Nothing is more American than Americans respectfully exercising their right to free expression.
This marketplace of ideas isn't shared around the globe. Having this, though, is what makes
our country great.
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As a member of the 2014 U.S. Olympic team, I sat down with
the top Olympic brass the night before heading off to Sochi,
Russia.
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The USOC said that while they didn’t agree with Russia’s human
rights laws, if any athlete or coach spoke out on human rights
issues while at the Games we would be dealt with swiftly and
severely.
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If we did, we were sure to be on the next flight out of town, the
officials said. The U.S. and the international Olympic
committees would not fight back against the host country on the
issue of human rights. On Monday, the IOC rewrote the Olympic
Charter’s non-discrimination policy, making the Games more
inclusive. While there is still work to be done, the strength of the
Olympic spirit is in the effort, the struggle, and the refusal to
never give up. Slowly, the tide is falling on the sanitizing and de-
politicizing (if not the hyper-commercialization) of sports.
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These last couple days some of the biggest names in sport
have gone against the Jordan brand ethos. Instead, these stars
are acting more like Tommie Smith, John Carlos and Peter
Norman.

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Walking up to the center of the athletics arena at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics during the 200
meter dash award ceremony, medal winners Smith and Carlos took off their shoes, unzipped
their jackets and extended gloved fists overhead in a silent statement of support for human
rights. The third medal winner, Peter Norman, wore a human rights badge like the other two.
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The punishment for all three was severe: athletic careers left in ruins and death threats were the
start. After that, Carlos and Smith were treated like traitors in America, and so was Norman in
Australia. Now, in the limelight of their lives, their demonstration today is viewed as courageous
and principled.
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"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice," Martin Luther King Jr. said.
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What those three did in the arena hardly cheapened the competition. Instead, their actions
eclipsed the sports arena. Smith and Carlos and Norman had the guts to stand up when
everyone was telling them to sit down.