Black Ball by Theresa Runstedtler

Author:Theresa Runstedtler [Runstedtler, Theresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2023-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

Finally, after two years of speculation and debate, the wait for Kennedy’s replacement was over. At a special meeting of the NBA board of governors on Friday, April 25, the league chose its new commissioner by unanimous vote. Despite Gourdine’s best efforts to prove his mettle for the job, he was passed over in favor of a white successor: ex–postmaster general and former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Lawrence Francis O’Brien.56 O’Brien’s appointment initially took sportswriters by surprise, for he had no background in sports, let alone basketball. When the NBA had first approached him about the position, he had turned it down. “I had never even envisioned myself in the role of sports,” O’Brien confessed to Stephen Isaacs of the Washington Post.57

Yet whatever O’Brien may have lacked in basketball experience, he more than made up for with his deep political connections in Washington, DC. A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, the fifty-seven-year-old O’Brien had first gained prominence as director of John F. Kennedy’s two Senate campaigns in the 1950s and his presidential campaign in 1960. After Kennedy’s assassination, O’Brien served as a lead political adviser for Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 presidential bid and then as US postmaster general from 1965 to 1968. From 1968 to 1969 and 1970 to 1973, he was chair of the DNC. (It was O’Brien’s office that was burglarized by prowlers connected to President Nixon’s reelection campaign, spawning the infamous Watergate scandal that led to Nixon’s impeachment and resignation.) The NBA hoped that their new commissioner’s clout with federal lawmakers would help the league score an antitrust exemption. Maybe O’Brien could finally get the stalled merger with the ABA back on track, on terms that were more favorable to the interests of NBA team owners.

The NBA formally announced O’Brien’s appointment to commissioner at the plush 21 Club in New York City. For his Rolodex and his efforts, the gray-haired, chain-smoking O’Brien would be paid handsomely, with a three-year contract worth $150,000 per year, around $800,000 in today’s dollars.58 Though clearly disappointed that his deputy had been passed over, Kennedy insisted that there was nothing sinister about the league’s decision. “You know I wanted Simon,” he said during a visit to the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. “I know people will be inclined to make a racial issue out of it, but I feel that will be a mistake in judgment. Simon was well-qualified, but the owners felt he was too young for the job.”59 This was a flimsy defense. The previous two finalists, Rothenberg and Steinman, were not much older than Gourdine. Moreover, Pete Rozelle had been just thirty-four when he became NFL commissioner in 1960, and the ABA had recently hired a relatively inexperienced Dave DeBusschere, also thirty-four years old, as league commissioner.

Regardless of why, for Gourdine the news of O’Brien’s appointment must have stung. He had already been doing much of the work to run the league—and for less than half of O’Brien’s salary. As deputy commissioner, he wore many hats in the organization.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.