NBA Playoffs: A Model To Solve Nation's Immigration Woes?

My grandfather came from a small village outside of Minsk in Belarus. It was a real Fiddler on the Roof situation. Open farms, horses and hard times. You know anything about Belarus? These are the jokers who were so drunk they shot down an air balloon a few years ago mistaking it for an enemy fly-over. They're also the same people ravaged by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. By anyone's definition, Belarus is an outlaw nation. When my grandfather got to Paterson, New Jersey in 1920-something, the last thing on his mind was football, basketball or baseball. It wasn't even part of his consciousness.

It didn't matter. He spawned two generations of jocks, excelling in all the American games. We were no different. Tough polish kids redefined football in Western Pennsylvania. Men with vowels at the end of their names became legends in the American Pastime. Today, the NBA is chock full of people from every nation. Three of their last four MVPs are "foreign." Major League Baseball is loaded with Japanese, Australians and Latin Americans -- many of them are the best players. And where are all these Nigerian NFL defensive lineman coming from? I guess Nigeria.

This debate on who's American, what's American and what do you have to do to be American -- it's moot on the field of play. Sports offer a language that all immigrants can speak readily. They can show their American-ness immediately. But as we see our so-called American games populated at the elite levels by people from other countries, can't we also see that these sports provide refuge from the trappings of nationality? The game belongs to no nation. It is its own sovereign state, a pure meritocracy -- a place where anybody, with hard work and ability, can come and rise to the highest echelons. Your origin is not important, what you do when you're there is all that counts. Isn't that what should count?

In June 1999, Andrei Kirilenko became the youngest European player ever drafted by the NBA. He is from Siberia. Basketball in Siberia? How in the world did that happen? I'd say it's no more incongruous than the words "Utah Jazz."

Comments

[clr2]

blindjester - I'm sure anyone can find one "professor" to quote about any issue. The facts are that our school are over populated with students who don't speak English and our emergency rooms are full with people who don't speak English. These people are "undocumented" ILLEGAL ALIENS. BILLIONS of dollars are being spent on ILLEGAL ALIENS. We need to use that money on our own citizens who are poor. The answer is simple deport all ILLEGAL ALIENS, heavily fine those who hire ILLEGALS, and return to the original intent of the 14th amendment and do away with anchor babies.

[steamboat]

Dave, don't forget these NBA players are the ones doing endorsements for the shoe companies that have their products made by 'sweat-shop and political-prisoner' labor overseas?....yeah, some model.

[Dave Hollander - Huffpost Blogger]

See Dave Hollander's Profile

Yes, many accept those endorsements. And there"s also Stephon Marbury, he of the smooth come on "You gettin" in the truck?" thrown at a Knicks intern outside a strip club" not exactly your model NBA citizen, who nobly puts out a line of sneakers selling for $8.99. But this stuff is all off the court.

My point is that the games themselves, like precious few other realms, offer a sanctuary from racial, ethnic or national identification. All that matters in sports is you and what you do. I like that. And maybe, just maybe, it tells us something about what our race-obsessed, border-obsessed, faith-obsessed world is capable of achieving.

[UnbiasView]

Give me a break. I'm sure you'd be so bold that you would turn down $100 million because of shoes made in China . . . LOL.

[clr2]

There isn't an immigration problem in our country - there is an ILLEGAL ALIEN problem in our country. We are spending BILLIONS to educate and provide health care for people who don't belong here. We need to spend this money on our own poor. The answer to the ILLEGAL ALIEN problem is to deport all ILLEGAL ALIENS, heavily fine those who hire ILLEGALS, and return to the original intent of the 14th amendment and do away with anchor babies. Legal immigration is great - we need to stop ILLEGAL immigration.

[blindjester]

"We are spending BILLIONS to educate and provide health care for people who don't belong here."

You know that's not true, right?

Immigrants, whether they rent or own, are paying the property tax that pays for schools.

And all employees pay payrolls taxes, including immigrants. Illegal immigrants never get a refund for overpaying their income tax, never receive social security, and are ineligible for medicare. They help fund the system, but can't benefit from it.

It's possible there's a net cost to you and me--but probably nothing like what you think it is. And the benefit to our society from their work and spending likely outweighs that cost.

[clr2]

What is the "benefit to our society"? ILLLEGAL ALIENS are sucking our systems dry. You kid yourself if you don't think that we are paying BILLIONS of tax dollars to support ILLEGAL ALIENS. In California alone ILLEGAL ALIENS are costing us 9 BILLION dollars and that's not including the cost to educate them. Wake up!

[blindjester]

Don't let facts interfere with your rant.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=881584

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States

"Aviva Chomsky, a professor at Salem State College, states that 'Early studies in California and in the Southwest and in the Southeast...have come to the same conclusions. Immigrants, documented and undocumented, are more likely to pay taxes than they are to use public services. Illegal immigrants aren't eligible for most public services and live in fear of revealing themselves to government authorities. Households headed by undocumented immigrants use less than half the amount of federal services that households headed by documented immigrants or citizens make use of.'"

[UnbiasView]

Agreed but I don't think we can deport anyone until we seal the border.

People all over this country are getting sick of illegals committing multiple times and not being deported. In Minnesota some illegal just drove into a school bus and killed a few kids, she had been stopped by police before and nothing happened.

[Henry]

I have always wondered how Lithuania and Serbia-Croatia were such stellar places for basketball players. You are right about competition and respect of teammates and loyalty to teams. It unites us from the micro levels to the macro levels. (Wait until Japan wins the "World Series")

You miss a part, however. How about Kareem Abdul Jabar? And for that matter Hakim Alaijawon, the Vaslav Najinsky of basketball. These people are Muslims and proud to be so.

[noneIn2008]

How can you support a capitalistic meritocracy as a model of conduct? This is unfair to the less fortunate players. The NBA is unfair to the self esteem of all the players. They should pay all players equally. They should limit scoring to be equal among all players. They let too many Yugoslavian players in the league, it should be more globally balanced.

[McSameisthegame]

This is the most foolish post on Huffpo of all time! Why should the best players-the ones the fans come to see-get paid the same as a benchwarmer? How could scoring ever be "equal among all players"??? The only reason so many Yugoslavian players are in the NBA is because the NBA team general managers think they are the better players. You are the ONLY person I have ever heard make these assertions. Congratulations!!!You are a true commune-ist! That is NOT meant to be derrogatory-just a fact of definition! Should all the NBA players live in a barracks,too- so certain ones don't have better living quarters than others? Should they all have the same cars and clothing,too???

[Overd0g]

I believe (hope) he/she was parodying standard leftist "equality" drivel.

[McSameisthegame]

The NBA rewards the best players with the biggest paychecks-even if they are a "younger",but great player! Our Congress rewards NOT merit, but seniority-how's that working out for America,jerky???

[Maanu]

brief and positive. thanks