Is the NBA throwing the gun-toting baby out with the bath water? An advertisement featuring the NBA’s two biggest superstars — Kobe Bryant and LeBron James — in a competitive light has NBA leadership all up in arms. Commissioner David Stern says the ad is in poor taste and could promote gun violence within the league.
Created by Nike, the ad features LeBron James on one page and Kobe Bryant on the other, along with the slogan, “Prepare For Combat.” A quote from each player showing how tough he is also accompanies the photos.
The fact that two players, Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, were recently suspended for carrying firearms into the locker room is what has NBA officials crying foul and distancing themselves from the otherwise appropriate ad.
It appears that lingo common to basketball is now being misconstrued to the point of being blamed for the idiotic decisions of Arenas and Crittenton. The overreaction could lead to complete sanitation of the sport, reducing it to a league of exchanging pleasantries on the court. Competition is competition, and to view it as “combat” isn’t that far of a stretch. It would seem to be completely harmless in and of itself. In fact, the element of combat is what makes any competitive sport compelling.
Bryant’s blurb in the ad says: “I’ll do whatever it takes to win games. I don’t leave anything in the chamber.”
True enough, the chamber in a gun is the compartment that holds the bullet before it is fired, but do we really think the reference was meant literally? Of course not, no more than large arms being called guns promotes gun violence.
Lebron is shirtless in his contribution, with a blurb that reads: “Opposing teams don’t realize I was a football player first. I can take those hits and give a few back too.”
Nike released the following statement regarding the controversy:
“The Nike print ad featuring Kobe Bryant was intended to illustrate his all out play and commitment on the basketball court,” the statement read. “It is a commonly used reference for shooting the basketball and no offense was intended.”
In response to Nike’s statement, NBA spokesman Tim Frank says, “We had no prior notice of this ad. … We think it is inappropriate.”
Bryant agreed and threw Nike under the bus. “That ad was done months ago, prior to anything that came out,” he said in a press interview. “Obviously, we’re very sensitive toward that considering the current time and everything that happened since then. It’s definitely inappropriate. I advised my business partners of that.”
Lebron took a different stance, though. “That has nothing, zero, to do with guns,” he said, raising his voice at reporters. “At all. At all. Zero. That’s very simple. For somebody to even say that — that’s a basketball term. To try to highlight Kobe and say that he was referencing guns is totally ridiculous.” He added that “such slang is common among his basketball peers.”
“We say a lot of things as basketball players that make a reference to guns and violence, but it’s really not guns and violence,” he said.
In the final analysis, the choices Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton made were just that — choices. To defy common sense and make the entire league susceptible to the consequences of those choices seems to be taking enforcement several steps too far, especially as it relates to a harmless ad about competition. A fine case of throwing the baby out with the bath water…
The controversial ad appears in several publications, including Sports Illustrated and ESPN The Magazine. -gerald radford
