MJ and the Nike Goons
By Bruce Martinez
It was a big deal, for a lot of people, so they say. Let's get excited. Michael Jordan is back.
Many say this comeback won't be a failure like Larry Holme's or Magic Johnson's or maybe even Deion Sander's. The pundits say he will drop 30 a game and that a whole generation of high school players masquerading as NBA stars will begin to fear the basketball gods and maybe will stay in school. Some even say the Basketball Messiah will lead the Wizards all the way to the promised land, or at least a .500 record.
All of this will be fine and dandy and maybe just a whole lot of fun to watch, and we know Ahmad Rashad and David Halberstam are happy like pigs in the muck, but none of it matters to me. For Jordan's comeback to mean anything to me, he has to do more then play at his illustrious best, he has to take on a greater evil, namely the profiteering goons at Nike, and the big goonmaster himself Phil Knight.
Jordan has known just as long as the rest of us that Nike athletic shoes and thus, the shoes that he endorses, are constructed in sweatshops across the world. These sweatshops pay workers less than a living wage, and they rarely if ever provide health care or even sanitary working conditions for their laborers, many of whom work 16 or more hours day. Many of these shops employ children who were not born when Jordan began his career in 1986.
The irony to me in this is that many of these children love Michael Jordan, and all are excited about his return. In my time in the third world, there were always three people the children knew: Jesus, Britney Spears and Michael Jordan. Jordan is a figure in their lives, and they work to pad his and Nike's pockets. This, of course, is not Jordan's fault. There are complex economic factors at work that could be argued about for many years. However, this doesn't mean Jordan is powerless in stopping this cycle. He is one of the most visible persons on earth, and in many ways he has as much sway at Nike as Phil Knight does.
All it would take is one press conference to begin to turn this around. Jordan could make a profound statement that would have more impact then a thousand G8 protests. He could instigate change, he could tell Nike that every employee in every one of their factories deserves basic human rights and a fair wage, no matter what the effect on profit margins are. And the world would be a better place because of it.
It is constantly said that Jordan has nothing left to prove in the sports world, but there is a whole ton left he can prove and change in the real world. Many will say it isn't his place to be a social critic, and that he is just a basketball player, nothing more, nothing less. They ignore that he is more then a basketball player, he is one of the most recognizable faces on earth, and he always has the ear of the world, and the attention of the masses. No one on earth stands on such a podium and it is time for him to step foward and speak.
Email Bruce or call (408) 554-4852.