How LeBron James et al Owe Curt Flood a Debt of Gratitude
by hassan Pérez
The very recent LeBron James "story" of free agency and greener pastures and unrestrained hate from a scorned rich man has been told and retold and spun in many different directions and will probably continue to be told and spun for some time to come.
Yet, one angle this writer has seen very little of is the "seed" angle. If the multimillion dollar contract James signed with the Miami Heat is the fruit, then the courageous stand made by Curt Flood forty years earlier is the seed.
In January of 1970, when many of his peers in Major League Baseball were enjoying their last few weeks of winter break before the start of spring training, Flood - who at the time was an outstanding veteran outfielder for one of American baseball's most popular franchises, the St. Louis Cardinals - sued Major League Baseball. At issue was the infamous reserve clause which effectively placed the power of managing a player's movement within the big leagues exclusively in the hands of the owners of the member ball clubs. Players had no rights, no leverage, no bargaining power over where they played, when or if or to whom they were traded, how much they made, et cetera and Flood argued that those policies, that clause was in violation of the 13th Amendment of the Constitution. Flood's position was that the reserve clause perpetuated "involuntary servitude."
Even casual sports fans know that Muhammad Ali paid a great price for his stand against the VietNam War as his titles and ability to even earn money fighting were stripped away. Curt Flood, too, suffered greatly for his stand. Initial reaction to his suit against Major League Baseball was strong, virulent, and against him. As Flood recounted in his book, The Way It Is, many powerful forces worked together to try to demonize him to millions of Americans who, like Flood, worked hard and wanted to be treated fairly at his place of employment:
"If the newspaper was typical, it lied that a victory for Flood would mean the collapse of our national pastime. God prophaned! Flag desecrated! Motherhood defiled! Apple pie blasphemed!" - Curt Flood
Flood took the case to the United Supreme Court where, in a 1972 decision, ruled in favor of Major League Baseball yet, by 1975, the seed planted by Flood began to sprout.
Fast forward back to 2010 and the angry, spiteful, vindictive, emotionally unstable words launched by Dan Gilbert, owner of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, against James in a typed temper tantrum that was splashed on his team's home page shortly after James announced his decision to exercise his rights as a free agent and work where he wanted to. Gilbert's letter was a forceful, scornful tirade against a player who had honored the contract he signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers seven years earlier - as a teenager just coming out of high school.
Although some support and even applaud Gilbert's hysterical fit of filth and venom, many have stepped forward to condemn it in plain language. On the "Florida Caribbean Sports Line" on Miami's WZAB radio, host Oliver Solomon and others said that Gilbert's classless display was deserving of a fine by the NBA. In a statement released by the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, the Reverend Jesse Jackson called Gilbert to task saying that Gilbert "speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave."
*Gilbert is a modern day Massa who continues to demonstrate little respect for the workers that help make him richer and richer: Gilbert is founder and Chairman of QuickenLoans, a company that as recently as 2007 was responsible for tens of billions of dollars in mortgages, which is the defendant in an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by workers who maintain that the company grossly violated terms of the Fair Labor Labor Act by not paying overtime.
Indeed even the reactions of many people - both in and out of Cleveland - smack of a residual paternalistic mindset that has been conditioned to believe that some members of our society, in enriching others, are perpetually indebted to those being enriched. It reminds one of the character of Bob Stone in Jean Toomer's short story "Blood Burning Moon" in which Stone, a white overseer, seethed at being in competition for the affection of Louisa, a young Black woman. Stone, we soon learn, was not upset the competition but, instead, was outraged over being in competition with a Black man, Tom Burwell:
"Who ever heard of being afraid of a ni**er? Cartwell had told him that Tom went with Louisa after she reached home. No sir. No ni**er had ever been with his girl. He'd like to see one try." - story
James is being subjected to an outrage today that has the same roots as the outrage that was hurled at Flood 40 years ago. Those roots have grown into trees, trees with branches. The branches were evident in their absence from the funeral of Flood in Los Angeles in January 1997 when none of the contemporary players who were enjoying the fruits borne of the seed so painfully planted by Flood came to pay his respects.
The significance of the moment and the players so painfully absent from said moment was not lost on Marvin Miller, famed former executive director of the Major League Baseball Players' Association. Miller offered the sad truth that "there is no Hall of Fame for people like Curt."
Miller was right. There is no Hall of Fame for Curt Flood - only benefactors from his fight and virulent attackers of those exercising their rights.
