Cooper Flagg can't escape the ghost of the Great White Hope | Lee Escobedo

"Every time Jack Johnson's big Black fists smashed into a white fighter's face, he wasn't just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson's fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America,"

"In basketball, figures like Jerry West and Pistol Pete Maravich represented Anglo excellence before the NBA's full desegregation revealed the overwhelming superiority of African-American players. By the time Larry Bird rose in the 1980s, the Great White Hope narrative had simply been repackaged for a new generation. Bird was a badass hick from Indiana. Bird was a godsend to Boston's white working class. Bird was Magic's equal. Bird was the Great White Hope disguised as the Great White Hope denier."

"From a 1985 Sports Illustrated profile: I don't want to be seen as the Great White Hope. I just want to be a great basketball player, period. But that was 40 years ago. The MVP-level white players since have all been European (Dirk Nowitzki, Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic). There hasn't been an American white All-Star in the NBA since Kevin Love in 2018: a good player, but no superstar."

Jack Johnson's knockouts became symbols of racial challenge, producing a myth of white humiliation and the search for a restorative white champion. That myth persisted across sports and inspired cultural works like Howard Sackler's play The Great White Hope. In basketball, pre-desegregation figures such as Jerry West and Pistol Pete embodied Anglo excellence, and Larry Bird's 1980s rise repackaged the narrative for a new generation despite his objections. Recent MVP-level white players have been European, and American white superstars have been scarce. The Dallas Mavericks uniquely count three white franchise icons among their best players.

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