How to sell Black Athletes to a White Audience? The Representation of Blackness in the NBA from 1984 to 2005

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 1.3, Bielefeld University, language: English, abstract: David Stern turned the NBA into a billion dollar business. However, when Stern started his mission, the NBA had a serious image crisis: The league was perceived as drug-infested and too-black. Stern himself claimed that race, if everything else was handled correctly, would not be an issue in professional sports and basketball in particular. With regards to Stuart Hall, this paper will investigate what the dominant, or as Stern phrases it 'correct', way of handling race looks like and what kind of conclusions can be drawn on the basis of that approach. The main focus will be dedicated to the (by the NBA) created image of Blackness and how they try to portray and depict their players.