Scoop Jackson

Thangs done changed on Madison Ave. It's as if someone wrote a nerve-striking, race-relations story about the future of the team and not long after it was published the entire script was flipped. It's as if Bulls GM Jerry Krause took heed to a fan's advice. It's as if owner Jerry Reinsdorf called Al Sharpton.

The fact that 1998-1999 season turned out to be one of the worst in franchise history only put the Bulls in the position to "color" their roster with the No. 1 draft pick. Now a BMWG (Black Man With Game) is the franchise player. A black man from Duke (how ironic is that?) has come here, Blade-like, to resurrect what was about to be left for dead.

With the addition of Ron Artest, Hersey Hawkins and Chris Carr, and the return of Dickey Simpkins, the Bulls are, in the words of the late, great Biggie Smalls, looking "black and ugly as ever."

However, there's beauty in them red uniforms. The Bulls are looking like they may challenge the New York Knicks as the other NBA team that makes being "black so beautiful." If they add Marcus Fizer, Kenyon Martin or Darius Miles on June 28 this draft, and get Tracy McGrady, Jalen Rose, Tim Duncan, Glenn Robinson or Damon Stoudimire as a free agent, the Bulls can become a twelve-man Million Man March.

But... Chris Mihm is a marked man.

The University of Texas superstar will be this year's NBA great white rookie hope, much like Wally Szczerbiak was last year.

Mihm, if Jerry Krause gets his way, could be in a Bulls uniform come October. This will make many people in Chicago happy. Especially white people.

There is a propensity in sports for fans to cheer louder for and embrace athletes in the same racial bracket as themselves. The more color imbalance in the sport, the more love that "alienated" athlete tends to get. It's natural. It's human nature. Blacks cheer louder for Tiger Woods not solely because of the color of his skin, but because of the color that dominates the sport of golf. Whites cheer loud for John Rocker not necessarily because they identify with him or his views, but because the color of America's most cherished sport is becoming less and less dominated by white skin every year.

In basketball the same applies. In the minds of the execs under Reinsdorf's thumb, it won't hurt to have a white player as one of the top three options in the offense. Because basketball at the NBA level is still a White Man's Game. Racial parity is what "the game" is and always will be all about, at least the game that's really being played. History don't lie, yo--Oscar Robertson needed Jerry West, Elvin Hayes needed Rick Barry, and Magic needed Bird for the league to thrive.

The Ebony and Ivory tandem, the Tenspeed and Brownshoe, the Will Smith (and whoever's his co-star) Syndrome. Teams are going to keep showing us gray matter: a black and white sharing top billin'. The New Jersey Nets have already renewed the cycle with Stephon Marbury and Keith Van Horn, and the Sac Kings are building with J.Dub and Chris Webber.

Next up will be the Bulls. Krause and Reinsdorf, they see trends too. Elton Brand, sooner than later, is going to have a white counterpart to help share the credit for bringing the Bulls back to where they once were. They will figure out that a "white baller" will be stronger alongside Brand than ballin' against him. Inhale; smell the racial harmony. Smells like fried chicken and bagels.

Krause and Reinsdorf will see this as the future for not just the Bulls, but how it will benefit the profit sharing and marketing of the NBA as a whole. Massa Stern will send them love for this move, and the Lethal Weapon combo will definitely keep the luxury suites in the United Center packed. Which is really all that matters anyway. And that's how the game will be played in Chicago.

Trust me, they're not about being racist, they're just about being smart. Or at least that's what they'll say.

Editor's note: This is a follow-up to Scoop Jackson's award-winning, February 1999 dissection of the Chicago Bulls, "White Man's Game." The original piece and this follow-up can be found online as part of a larger discussion on race and sports at www.sportsjones.com. (2000-06-08)

Also by Scoop Jackson

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