A Mentor Meeting a Higher Standard

A few years ago there was a commercial for Hebrew National hot dogs, in which some actor dressed as Uncle Sam was about to bite into a hot dog. The voiceover said that while the U.S. government had federal standards for hot dogs, the folks at Hebrew National had “to answer to a higher authority.”

In a way John Thompson is the Hebrew National of coaches.

And I’m glad and relieved Thompson heard the call of the higher authority, and backed away from the lower standards of those slot machines at the Las Vegas airport.

Over the years Thompson has built a program that has been scrupulously clean and enviably successful (though more bunkered than the 18th hole at Pebble Beach). In a university that is overwhelmingly white, his teams have been overwhelmingly black, and have brought much credit and much honor -- and much television revenue -- to that university, and to Thompson. Thompson was so highly respected by his peers in the basketball business that he was named to coach the United States Olympic basketball team in 1988, perhaps the highest honor a basketball coach can have.

And Thompson has used the forum his success has given him to speak out boldly, and controversially, on issues of education and sports and morality and race. In so doing he has become one of the most important figures and role models in sports.

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Thompson is more than a coach, in the way Dean Smith is more than a coach, in the way Bill Bradley and Arthur Ashe were more than players. They are people who are worth listening to for more than the mere candlepower of their celebrity -- they are thoughtful and interesting, even inspirational.

We hold certain people to a higher standard, and coaches -- leaders of youth -- are at the top of that list. Perhaps it is unfair, but because of Thompson’s moral imprint, many of us have come to hold him to an even higher standard than other coaches.

Over the years he has become a mentor not just for his young players, but for many young men, black and white. The story of Thompson confronting the notorious drug dealer Rayful Edmund III, and warning him to stay away from Alonzo Mourning, has become legendary; it was an unorthodox move, one that perhaps only someone as imperial as Thompson could have pulled off. The body of respect and authority Thompson has gained over the years is what propelled Allen Iverson and his mother to come to Thompson. He is the pope of black coaches.

Maybe if another basketball coach applied for a gaming license, it would be no big deal. It would be over quickly. But with Thompson it became a much larger, much more complex issue. Race entered into it. Minority entrepreneurism entered into it. Morality entered into it -- not to mention the NCAA and the Catholic university where Thompson works. Everything Thompson does or says attracts a crowd, creates disturbance, foments a fuss. Being a devout contrarian, he’ll be the first to tell you he likes that.

It’s that higher standard at work.

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I’m glad Thompson decided to acquiesce to the wishes of his employer -- not the NCAA, but Georgetown University, saying he did so out of love and respect for Rev. Leo O’Donovan, the school’s president: “This man (O’Donovan) has been very supportive of me, and he’s not comfortable. If he’s not comfortable, I’ll walk away from it.”

Surely there are more appropriate places where a college basketball coach can put his money, better doors of opportunity and perception that Thompson can break on through to the other side.

Being involved with organized gambling, even in an entrepreneurial way, carries a coating of impropriety. We all cringe a bit at the mention of Las Vegas, as if it were an unholy temptation. Thompson might have had our envy for striking a sweet deal on slot machines, but I’m not sure he would have our respect. Why forfeit any of his stature on something like this?

The president of Georgetown saw it correctly. The gaming industry is simply not the place for an active basketball coach. It’s not about race -- O’Donovan endorses Thompson’s desire to expand business opportunities for blacks -- it’s about the uncomfortable relationship between sports and gambling.

Those of us old enough to remember the awful point-shaving scandals in New York in the 1950s and 1960s (and the later one at Boston College in the 1970s), feel a twinge whenever the link between gambling and college sports gets too close. The one sure way to kill the golden goose of sports is to undercut the integrity of the games.

Thompson’s position was that he was OK because it was just slots -- no casino gambling, no sports books. But I don’t buy that narrow interpretation. That’s too fine a line to draw.

He knew the firestorm this would provoke, and he tried to position himself on the high ground. That was obvious in his comment the other day that Adolph Rupp owned horses -- we all know that bringing up Rupp’s name conjures the last deliberately all-white basketball team, and is, therefore, a code word for racism. The reasoning goes: If Adolph Rupp can have horses, who among you can tell John Thompson not to have slot machines? But that is a straw man. This may be about economic opportunity for all men, but is mostly about economic opportunity for one man, John Thompson.

The timing of this story is curious. In the past Thompson has maneuvered to put the pressure on himself, rather than on his team before big games -- but this story may have blown up more than Thompson anticipated, and it may prove to be an obstacle for his team.

It is also curious that Thompson backed away so quickly and completely. He usually takes a side for the long haul. Considering all it entailed, legally and strategically, it didn’t figure Thompson would go to the trouble of applying for a gaming license, then give up on it before the license was granted. But whatever rationale he used to get into this mess, he had the good judgment to drop out quickly.

Spike Lee, a friend of Thompson’s, once urged people to Do The Right Thing.

By backing away from the easy pull of the slot machines, Thompson has.