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Page 46
Drum: COVER FEATURE
central character, a brilliant high school basketball
star with ‘the world at his feet,’ is called ‘Jesus’. Lee
is playing with real history here as the idea of black
men as heaven-sent athletes commissioned with a
celestial mission reaches a high point in the ‘divine
one’ Michael Jordan. Jordan’s basketball supremacy
in the 1990s was unsurpassed; his speed, height
and agility placed him head and shoulders above his
peers. Jordan worked miracles, he could do things
that other players could only dream of. His life story
was also ‘Jesus like.’ Born of lowly status he rose to
become a leader of men. When his career seemed to
be finished he came back ‘from the dead’ to lead his
beloved Chicago Bulls to another World Series
championship. However, it is with Mohammed Ali
that the athletic Jesus reaches its greatest point. While
Jordan led the Chicago Bulls, Ali led the nation. If
Jordan was Christ-like, Ali was Christ, Moses and
Joshua rolled into one, not only saving the people
but also leading them to the Promised Land.
There is however an underside to this divine
comparison. The opposite of the black man as
divine athlete is the black athlete as a demon. He is
the big, bad black athlete who makes it to the top
by sheer brute strength and toughness defying the
limits of pain and terror. Mike Tyson fits that
category well. A brilliant pint-sized heavy weight