The Denver Nuggets are back in the playoffs again. Also, Nikola Jokic is back in the running for a 4th Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. This year, the final choice for the National Basketball Association (NBA) MVP award appears to be between Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Despite the best season of his career, Jokic apparently stands to lose the award to SGA who is leading his team to what seems to be the Promise Land.
Gilgeous-Alexander, a Black player, does not need some powerful person in the NBA media to put a thumb on the scale on his behalf. But that is exactly what is happening as ESPN Black Analyst Kendrick Perkins is at it again. Perkins cannot help himself. He let everybody know that that he voted for SGA for MVP, possibly influencing the vote that is still going on.
I remember the 2022-2023 Denver Nuggets campaign and the excitement of winning it all. Nikola Jokic and his supporting cast had done an excellent job of taking on all comers and achieving the ultimate success that was the NBA Championship trophy.
Jokic was also the favorite to win the MVP award that year. He had won it the previous two years and that had apparently irritated some people that feel that the NBA is a basketball playground for Blacks only.
So, ESPN leading analyst Kendrick Perkins pulled out the race card and insisted that Jokic was benefiting from racial bias of White MVP voters. That appeared to change the dynamics of the vote that year and center Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers (a Black player favored by Perkins) got the award. Since then, Embiid has not lived up to his billing and has become largely unavailable to his team.
Meanwhile, in 2024 Jokic went on to win his 3rd MVP. For reasons of his own, Perkins publicly decided that he would not take part in the MVP vote this year. He then took that promise back and decided to “help?” SGA.
It is true that the NBA is a majority-Black institution. It is also true that the face of ESPN has turned Black in the last years. That fact however, calls for a better sense of responsibility and a more even approach to the sport and to the media business. This is not the time to act like the oppressor that the Black community has long complained about.
Also, over the years, the Black community has produced young men and women hungry for success in sports and the entertainment industry among others. At the same time, that success does not give anyone the right to lord over others.
Besides, it is very possible that the new hungry kids in the NBA and other sports are Eastern Europeans. If we look around the college and professional ranks we will find a very large and growing number becoming the new superstars.
Black America has achieved a measure of success in many industries both public and private. It can be said the African Americans have even become the face of a major political party.
Although the Black community has been able to achieve power and influence in important sectors of everyday life, not everyone has gotten the message that there is an important duty that comes with the notion of leadership.
That seems to be lacking in folks like Kendrick Perkins that achieved some power. They continue to voice their own racial biases while calling for justice.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of LaVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to News@lavozcolorado.com.
