By: Marc H. Morial
President and CEO
National Urban League
Last month I wrote a column about how too many inner city boys are putting basketball before education, only to be left with no futures once their playing days are through. Today I want to talk about two former NBA All-Stars, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, who chose another route. Both Johnson and Bing grew up in poverty, graduated from high school and college and went on to accomplish great things in business and politics after they retired from playing basketball.
Kevin Johnson became Sacramento's first African American Mayor in 2008 after 12 seasons as a point guard for the Phoenix Suns and a subsequent career as a successful Sacramento developer and civic leader. The son of a teenage mother, Kevin was raised by his grandparents in the city's rough Oak Park neighborhood. Young Kevin excelled both academically and athletically at Sacramento High School and earned a scholarship to play basketball for the University of California at Berkeley. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1987 with a degree in political science, numerous basketball records and an NBA draft offer from the Cleveland Cavaliers. Johnson went on to a stellar career with the Phoenix Suns and then returned home in 2000 to serve as the CEO of St. Hope, a non-profit community development corporation he founded to improve education and revitalize inner-city neighborhoods. He was elected Mayor of Sacramento in 2008 and has laid out a bold vision for that city's future.
NBA Hall of Famer Dave Bing may have just taken on the toughest job in America. On May 5th, the Detroit Piston alltime great was elected Mayor of Detroit, a city that has been hit especially hard by the current economic meltdown. Bing's background and track record have prepared him well for the challenge.
Like Kevin Johnson, Bing was also a basketball prodigy and a child of urban poverty. A graduate of Washington, DC's Spingarn High School, Bing attended Syracuse University where he is known as "the greatest player in Syracuse history." He earned a degree in economics and after a great NBA career, founded the Bing Group and became one of the leading African American businessmen in the country. Ronald Reagan once named him, "Minority Small Business Person of the Year" and in 1998, Black Enterprise named the Bing Group its "Company of the Year." Upon accepting that award Bing said, "As a black with the stigma of being an ex-jock, the toughest thing for me was getting people to realize that I had the intellect to get things done and that I was serious about making the leap from athletics to business."
Kevin Johnson and Dave Bing have proven they have both the intellect and the seriousness to be big city Mayors. They've used the lessons of teamwork and discipline that they learned on the basketball court and in the classroom to succeed in both business and politics. I hope the young men see them as true role models and say, if KJ and Dave can do it, you can too.
Enviroshop is maintained by dedicated NetSys Interactive Inc. owners & employees who generously contribute their time to maintenance & editing, web design, custom programming, & website hosting for Enviroshop.