Filed under: Basketball
The game ended when the refs refused to continue officiating. The player who attacked the referee is 18-year old Mason Holland. The referee is 51-year old Jim Hamm. According to police, Holland was "remorseful" for his attack and he said that he was frustrated over uncalled fouls being made by the other team.
Obviously, this incident should lead to a serious punishment for the young man involved. Referees should not, in any way, feel that they are physically threatened when making unpopular calls during an athletic event. What I hope, however, is that we don't somehow conclude that the young man who made this mistake is some kind of irreparable social deviant. My interpretation is that there was plenty of testosterone flowing in the game and it simply got out of hand. Young people, often unable to handle hormonal changes, can sometimes do things that they regret. In fact, during college, I once threw another player to the ground in the heat of competition. After the incident, I immediately left the court and went home so I could cool off.
My point is that the young man's ill-advised decision to attack a referee will probably lead to serious and harsh punishment by the school system and the basketball coach. They will probably even make an example out of him, to remind the other athletes to stay in line. Also, this incident remind us of the way our society often interprets violence from black male athletes. The black male athlete is one of the most admired specimens in the world, but there's a part of the American psyche which sees the black man as an animal that needs to be controlled. Therefore, when black athletes engage in violent activity, they are typically made into examples and even have their sanity questioned. But we should notice, however, that the way the public responds to a fight in the NBA differs vastly from their reaction to violence in the National Hockey League. That difference is not a coincidence, and you cannot disconnect the reaction to this incident from the fact that black boys are the ones who are most often suspended and expelled from school. Black men don't usually get second chances.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.