A day before America's celebration of the civil rights movement and its most prominent leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the All-American Basketball Alliance announced its intention to start an all-white basketball league. According to the Augusta Times, the new league, based out of Atlanta, will attempt to kick off in 12 cities starting in June.
The only requirements? Citizens must be born in the United States with both parents of Caucasian race. While most may cringe at the thought of this attempt to discriminate or laugh at its outlandishness, Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, says the league is not racially driven.
"There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing," Lewis told the Augusta Times. "I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."
If this explanation offers any sort of comfort to those initially shocked or disturbed, he then reaffirms the horror by explaining that he wants to get away from the "street-ball" played by "people of color." To support the organization's objective, Lewis explains he is unsatisfied with how professional sports operate, citing the incident with Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who was recently suspended indefinitely from the NBA for bringing a gun to the locker room.
"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" Lewis added. "That’s the culture today, and in a free country, we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."
Mayor Deke Copenhaver of Augusta, a desired city for the ABAA, does not support the organization.
"As a sports enthusiast, I have always supported bringing more sporting activities to Augusta," Copenhaver said. "However, in this instance, I could not support in good conscience bringing in a team that did not fit with the spirit of inclusiveness that I, along with many others, have worked so hard to foster in our city."
Lewis admits he is struggling to find people in the targeted Southern towns to pay the $10,000 "licensee" fee, but he remains confident he will secure the funding.
"People will come out and support a product they can identify with," Lewis said. "I'm the spoken minority right now, but if people will give us a chance, it'll work. … The white game of basketball, which is essentially a fundamental game, works."
Clint Bryant, athletic director at Augusta State University, thinks the idea is laughable.
"It's so absurd, it's funny, but it gives you an idea of the sickness of our society" Bryant said. "It shows you what lengths people will go to just to be mean-spirited. I think at any basketball level, no matter if it's all black, all white, all Hispanic, all Asian or anyone else, the players should just be a basketball team."
