Date of Release: September 14, 2009 (SportsBusiness Journal) by Richard Lapchick I recently returned from Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders program. It was the sixth time I visited South Africa, a country I came to love while helping lead the sports boycott of its apartheid-era government during the 1970s,…
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Date of Release: June 15, 2009 (SportsBusiness Journal) by Richard Lapchick I am unabashedly a fan of the NBA and the Orlando Magic. I grew up in a house with a father who was a coach in the early days of the NBA. Basketball was part of our lifestyle. I love the game but also…
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Date of Release: May 22, 2009 (Special to ESPN.com) by Richard Lapchick In December, I wrote a column calling for a civil rights movement in college football. It focused on the small percentage of African-Americans and other coaches of color among the 119 Bowl Subdivision schools in football, relative to the 46 percent of college…
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Date of Release: April 3, 2009 (Special to ESPN.com) by Richard Lapchick The image is striking: An African-American man who is a Muslim talking to audiences about Jewish people who were leaders in the early civil rights movement and how African-Americans and Jews shared a common fight against oppression. More…
Date of Release: March 17, 2009 (Special to ESPN.com) by Richard Lapchick I have known and been friends with Anita DeFrantz for three decades, since she was a vice president of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee for the 1984 Summer Games. She is one of sports’ true pioneers, both for her marvelous athletic career…
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Date of Release: March 9, 2009 (Sports Business Journal) by Richard Lapchick America needs the Jackie Robinson Museum now. It is that simple. As the Major League Baseball opener draws closer amid the crunch of the economy, we see cutbacks all across the nation. Jobs are being cut, businesses are closing, homes are being emptied…
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Date of Release: February 27, 2009 (Special to ESPN.com) by Richard Lapchick If you are a soccer fan, you know that Pele called Lilian Thuram one of the 125 greatest soccer players of all time. Thuram, who turned 37 this January, led the 1998 French team to the World Cup and appeared in 16 European…
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Date of Release: February 18, 2009 (Special to ESPN.com) by Richard Lapchick A circle closed in the history of basketball in America when John “Wonder Boy” Isaacs passed away on Jan. 26. Isaacs, 93, was the last living player for the Harlem Renaissance, the great all-black team in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. More…
