By TARIQ ABDUL-WAHAD
A professional sport is often a numbers game. Scoring and batting averages, tie-breaks, match points, world record times – these numbers often dictate an athlete's life span.
Once we retire, those very numbers follow us – inscribed in our professional history; a value attributed to our legacy and contribution to the sport.
In our prime, those very numbers dictate the value of our contracts; determine the trajectory of our market value to brands and sponsors; and for the most part, buy our silence as public personalities.
It is the ransom we are paid to be gagged from uttering the truth as it stands. It is the price of manufactured consent and complicity in a system that would have us perform on our platforms to entertain and sell tickets but not dare use those same platforms to bear witness.
Gaza suffering
If indeed numbers carry such great value, why does the scoreboard for humanity look so bleak?
Look at Palestine. Seventy-five years of a gruesome occupation. In Gaza, nine months of genocide. Some 186,000 children, men and women who have been estimated dead from injuries, diseases, malnutrition, and overall trauma.
At least 146 journalists killed. Some 1.7 million Palestinians displaced. More than 142,000 homes obliterated, 312,000 homes partially destroyed, 467 schools damaged, 2,590 industrial facilities destroyed and 361 healthcare facilities destroyed.
An entire people massacred by a systematic regime. These are the numbers that we should all be familiar with after all these months of resolute carnage, live streamed for the world to see.
The privilege of playing sports is not handed to us by the ruling elite. We play as children in backyards, alleyways, public parks and street corners. We play despite poor funding in lower socio-economic areas, where adequate public resources are not made available to our youth.
We play to process, to grieve, to vent, and to dream. That privilege is a blessing of Almighty God on every child on the face of this earth – including the children of Gaza. They, like us and our children, have the right to dream and work relentlessly to achieve that dream and become champions.
The values of sports are noble; they teach us brotherhood and sisterhood, compassion, discipline and resilience. Above all, sport teaches us humility: our talent is honed but it is our faith in God and what He has decreed for our paths that keeps us determined. So, when the ungodly happens, it is essential that athletes speak up.
Risking it all
Muhammad Ali, John Carlos, Tommie Smith, Peter Norman, Bill Russell, Mahmoud Abdul Rauf, Colin Kaepernick, and so many others paved the way to use sports as a catalyst for change. At the risk of losing it all, they spoke, marched, kneeled and questioned.
Some of them did lose it all; they lost sponsors, contracts, earnings and reputations. But the ultimate cost has already been paid in the catastrophic loss of lives, so in truth, there is nothing left to lose.
When the power of empire relentlessly destroys in the most brutal and graphic of ways, human beings must gather their courage to speak up in solidarity with the oppressed.
Athletes4Ceasefire inscribes itself in this very mindset. It was born from athletes who have heart; athletes who will not do business as usual during this genocidal madness. Kenny Stills, formerly of the New Orleans Saints in the NFL and Omar Dreidi, an NBA agent, spearheaded this movement of athletes with humanity and love in their hearts.
Achieving success in professional sport did not elevate us above our communities, but instead enhanced our sense of belonging within those local and global communities. Sports made us better empaths.
As athletes, we love a level playing field and we know when something is wrong. And what is happening in the occupied Palestinian territories is not just wrong, but a violation of several international human rights laws.
Athletes4Ceasefire
Palestinian rights have been violated for decades, and this ongoing onslaught has outlined the sheer barbarity that ruling powers are brazenly willing to display. It takes us to the deepest levels of human depravity and Athlete4Ceasefire recognises that.
Failure is not unfamiliar to us. Be it bad shooting percentages, missing an open goal, double faulting, or failing to win the race – every setback is part of a longer, overarching journey. We have failed time and time again.
But we always rise to the occasion until our resilience becomes part of who we are. As athletes, we are equipped to deal with humanity's failures, and genocide is humanity's greatest failure.
The game has not been lost; the ball is in our court, and we can change the score. Of that, I am sure.
Some say courageous athletes are a placebo for civic engagement in society because we can talk, but who will listen? My contention is that if we are the placebo, citizens must become the actual cure. People must become vocal when and where the inhumane happens.
I am an athlete, sure, but I am a human being first and foremost. And it is my responsibility, as a member of the human race, to speak up for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an end to all oppression across the globe – be it in Palestine, Sudan, Congo, and everywhere else people are suffering.
The game has not been lost; the ball is in our court, and we can change the score. Of that, I am sure.
Tariq Abdul-Wahad was born Olivier Saint-Jean in France in 1974. He was the first French basketball player to be drafted and play in the NBA in 1997. Abdul-Wahid studied Art History at San Jose State University, and also holds a Masters in Sports Management. Upon his retirement from professional basketball in 2005, he has been particularly active in youth sports in the Bay Area region of California with ventures such as BlueSox Basketball and Norcal Performance Training. He also has spearheaded many projects focused around youth sports in France and Senegal. He is married to Khadija Ibn-Lahoucine and has three kids Amine, Hind and Anas.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.
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