Floyd Mayweather vs. Jeremy Lin, Racism or Envy? … by Martin Wade

Like clockwork Floyd Mayweather injected race into a situation with about as much insight as he exhibits in (24/7) family counseling. Somehow via Twitter (his rightful forum) we are led to believe that Floyd is a spokesperson for the downtrodden black athletes of the NBA. Whining about the obvious attention Jeremy Lin is receiving for his success brings to mind Sean Hannity or Glenn Beck crying about the media’s “infatuation” with another barrier breaker, Barack Obama. When you are advocating from a position of majority (in this case NBA ballers) you present yourself as someone who is comfortable with the status quo; someone OK with exclusionary tactics used to judge someone for anything but performance. This from a man who went on Ustream and suggested Manny Pacquiao (a Congressman) “make me some fried rice.” Naively Floyd has complained in the past about the lack of Nationalistic support from African-Americans as if there’s a country called “Africa America…” What he’s missing is the fact that Jeremy Lin is blowing up partly because he is American born. That little Ustream trip into Floyd’s mind was overtly racist but this latest tweet took on a juvenile whiny tone; a tone that if Jeremy Lin spoke of himself in third person would quickly dismiss as “Hatin.” I am not prepared to say for sure that Floyd drew that comparison to start a racial firestorm, but I am prepared to make the case that what we’ve heard from him in regards to Lin reeks of “Media Envy.” ESPN is a business, which is why these imaginary NBA players represented by Floyd are now trying to situate themselves in desirable markets. ESPN has invested in leagues and stories that sell in conjunction with those leagues, relationships boxing to this date doesn’t enjoy. Floyd Mayweather is rarely featured as a lead topic, even when he finds his ass about to get locked up. “Legitimate” sports are viewed by mainstream fans as more above board and worthy of following, whereas Boxing is considered (to the uniformed) a joke with Mayweather’s three year “will they fight” saga being confirmation of that perception. Joe Sports Fan isn’t following the Mayweather propaganda websites nor is he interested in Floyd’s quest to “clean up the sport,” if you don’t have what he wants (the Best Fighting the Best) he won’t bother – he’s got football. When Floyd finally called out Manny Pacquiao in a Tweet and made it clear he wanted to “get it on” the mainstream fan (logistics be damned) got behind him. But when Floyd made that call to Pacquiao and spoke to the number 2 draw in Boxing as if he really could order fried rice, the average Joe tuned out again and quick. In true “P.R. disaster 101″ the Mayweather camp proudly reported how he told Pacquiao what he was not getting and who was in charge; it may impress the wannabe ballers who support  Floyd, but it won’t keep him on ESPN as a serious topic… again. Even Basketball players like Kobe Bryant ask guys like Max Kellerman “what’s going on with that? Why don’t they just do it?” It’s what they understand; they live by a schedule. Jeremy Lin can’t duck ANYBODY and I find it hard to believe an actual NBA player after 3 or 4 games would complain to Floyd about Lin’s coverage. The NBA is a meritocracy, Boxing is a murky political beast and if a brotha thinks Lin can’t ball he can bring his case to the court. Floyd was simply envious of the coverage and thought he’d make a “plea” for a population of guys playing a historically condensed schedule; guys with no time to practice, magically have time to vent their frustrations through telepathy to a boxer. The brothas who do what Lin is doing “every night” are LeBron James, Allen Iverson and Michael Jordan – that is how historic Lin’s statistics are for an NBA player in his first 8 games; the black players who excel (nightly) are marketed like no other sport. What Mayweather really has a problem with is something he (despite his purses) isn’t very good at: creating mania. Don’t believe me? In the run-up to Floyd’s bout vs. Victor Ortiz I heard Leonard Ellerbe brag about how much money they make during an interview, when the interviewer asked how they got to that point Ellerbe (in 2011) cited the Dancing With the Stars/WWE appearances from three years ago. The interviewer, on staff with HBO and part of hyping the event didn’t have the balls to follow up on Ellerbe’s vague assertion.

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