Month: March 2001

I walked out of my office yesterday and saw something very eerie. Two planes were flying high above, leaving long trails of white smoke behind them. The planes, unfortunately, happened to be headed toward each other. I was expecting to be an eyewitness to a terrible collision, but they missed each other, one being higher than the other. But their paths of smoke did collide, creating a giant white cross in the sky. It may not have been the Virgin Mary appearing on the side of a trailer or on a honey bun, but it certainly seemed like a sign to me. A sign of what I don’t know. But I thought I’d better be a nice guy just in case. I had also just read David Waters’ “Faith Matters” column in The Commercial Appeal, which I always enjoy, and it was about taking Sunday off from the world and enjoying God’s creation. And since it was Sunday and I was at work and desperately wanted to not be, I left to take Waters’ advice and do one of my favorite things: go to the zoo and just wander around by myself, looking at the animals, and– more importantly– to enjoy one of God’s greatest creations, a corndog. Well, it seems that most of the animals had the same idea. All of the cats in Cat Country were either hiding or were sound asleep. They looked very much like my cat at 6 a.m., after she has clawed my forehead enough at 5 a.m. to wake me up and then eaten her Fancy Feast and half-and-half and gone back to bed, leaving me a nervous wreck. Every day. The monkeys were about the same. One looked at me and literally put his hands over his head and lowered it in total disgust. When I strolled over to see the orangutans, one turned his back on me and the other one crawled into an empty barrel. But I remained optimistic. When I walked into the Creatures of the Night area and removed my sunglass clips, I was amazed not only at how dark it was but how blurry they had made it. I could barely make out which animals were which. It actually caused me to become very disoriented and slightly nauseated, and, after circling around in a panic trying to get out, I finally found the exit door– only to discover, once out in the sunlight, that one of the lenses of my glasses had fallen out, thus leaving me half-blind. Luckily, it was attached to the sunglass clip in my pocket. I walked over to see the bears, and one of them was sitting in the exact position I sit in when occupying a barstool, only his head was leaned back instead of being lowered toward the floor. My very favorite animals, the California sea lions, were in pretty good form. I have this thing about the sea lions. I’m always convinced that no matter how big a crowd has gathered, they are looking directly at me. They are thinking, please tell these members of the great unwashed to leave us alone. We want to go home with you. We know we’ll have a great time living in your bathroom and drinking martinis. We know you’d feed us sea scallops instead of the stuff they feed us here. Oh, well. It was a nice day at the zoo just the same. And now it is a workday and there’s a jackhammer just outside my window tearing the street apart, and the lens of my glasses is now permanently lost, leaving me half-blind again and sitting at a desk that’s vibrating so hard things are falling off. David, would you please do something about Monday? Thanks.

Now that we’re NBA material, it’s time for a little two-man game. You know, John Stockton and Karl Malone, Dick Enberg and Bill Walton, Marv Albert and Doug Collins. Our team: Mr. Optimist and Mr. Pessimist.

Is this cause for celebration?

Optimist: Absolutely. The NBA was possibly Memphis’ last real chance for major-league sports. We’ll pay dearly, but the lesson of the NFL was that the high bidder wins.

Pessimist: Buying into the NBA today is like buying Yahoo at $400. The sports bubble is about to burst. When sportswriters like Steve Rushin of Sports Illustrated and Frank Deford of SI and National Public Radio see it coming, watch out.

If FedEx is involved, how can Memphis go wrong?

Optimist: It can’t. FedEx CFO Alan Graf and the marketing folks are delighted with FedEx Field in Washington, D.C., and, to come down a few pegs, the FedEx box at AutoZone Park. And before signing off, FedEx checked with its biggest institutional investor, Memphis-based Southeastern Asset Management and its top executives, Mason Hawkins and Staley Cates. Hawkins and Cates are all for it, and no less an authority than Warren Buffett has called them two of the best value investors in the game.

Pessimist: Sports ain’t stocks. Those guys don’t know any more than the rest of us on that score. FedEx and Southeastern have been wrong before and they’ll be wrong again. Rich guys are hard-wired to do deals. They don’t relate to ordinary Memphians struggling to make ends meet.

So Memphis can’t afford this?

Optimist: Nonsense. Memphis is no Silicon Valley but there are some very, very rich folks at local companies you don’t hear much about. Drive around Houston High School some time and check out the housing stock. And Memphis “saved” $200 million by not bidding up for an NFL team.

Pessimist: Sure the sky boxes will sell out, but to get to 13,000 season tickets you need breadth of wealth as well as depth, year after year. Seven out of 10 kids in the city schools are on free lunch, and the percentage has been rising, not falling. Season tickets for the Memphis NBA team will be the sucker buy of the year. The price structure will collapse the day after the opener, and you’ll be lucky to scalp a ticket for $20.

Don’t we have to have an answer to the Tunica casinos?

OptimistAbsolutely, and the NBA will keep some of that $500 million to $700 million a year in Memphis. Tunica is here to stay and it will bleed Memphis dry. You fight it with a major-league investment.

Pessimist: Scratch a gambler and you’re more likely to find a couch potato than an NBA fan. Phil Satre, the CEO of Harrah’s, has said Tunica’s biggest competitor is television, not sports. The sports honchos just don’t get it when it comes to the difference between interactive and passive entertainment. Arenas will compete with casinos when they put in slots and $6.95 buffets.

What about economic impact?

Optimist: The publicity alone is priceless. Suddenly Memphis is major-league, and the glass is half full, not half empty. It happened in Nashville and Jacksonville and it will happen here.

Pessimist: You want economic impact? Go look at the Mike Rose Soccer Complex when the parking lot is full of minivans and SUVs from three states. Memphis could do the same thing for youth swimming, basketball, tennis, and baseball.

Can the Tigers coexist with the NBA?

Optimist: Coach John Calipari says they can.

Pessimist: What do you expect Calipari to say? Right now he’s making about $500,000 less than Rick Pitino at Louisville. He gets a raise out of this deal either way.

So why do two NBA teams want to come to Memphis?

Optimist: Because of its long-term prospects and inherent strengths. It has a central location, low cost-of-living index, good companies and leadership, and corporations like Boeing and International Paper are fed up with places like Seattle and New York.

Pessimist: Heisley and the NBA cleverly played Memphis against Louisville, two second-tier cities worried about sliding into the third tier. Charlotte’s NBA outfit has worn out its welcome, and the owners and the league fear they will lose a referendum on a new arena.

How can we pay for a new arena?

Optimist: By raising the sales tax half a penny and giving half the money to schools and half to the arena. Put them in a referendum separately and both fail. Couple them and it passes. And both the city and county have hidden wealth in MLGW and Shelby Farms.

Pessimist: Mayor Herenton says media cynics and naysayers will try to scuttle this deal. Well, was Jim Rout a naysayer when he voted against The Pyramid when he was a county commissioner? After the hoopla, open-minded people with the best of motives will decide they can’t support a new publicly funded arena, if for no other reason than the experience of Vancouver and Charlotte.

Among a crowded room of reporters, city and state officials, and FedEx brass, J.R. “Pitt” Hyde III made this stunning announcement:

“After 30 years of pursuing a professional franchise, first in the NFL, and now with the NBA, I am happy to report that two franchises have filed for Memphis as the NBA site.”

The Vancouver Grizzlies and Charlotte Hornets submitted separate applications to the NBA board of governors naming Memphis as the city where they wanted to relocate.

“What happens from this point is that the league will be establishing an expansion committee,” Hyde said. “They will be doing two things. One, they will be evaluating all of our applications to assure themselves that Memphis qualifies in every respect as an NBA city. The second thing they will be doing is that they will be evaluating the two franchises that have applied to Memphis and they will make a selection between those two.”

Hyde seemed certain that the local ownership group of Staley Cates, Andy Cates, Charles Ewing, and himself “will own up to 50 percent of whichever franchise ends up here in the city.”

The press conference was in fact more of a pep rally with non-media out numbering reporters by at least 7 to 1. Of the various speakers, Ewing, the African-American small businessman, was the most lively.

“I’m excited. The adrenaline is flowing so high right now so I don’t know if I will say all the right things, but I’ll say what I believe. I believe that this NBA team is good for Memphis,” he told a cheering audience. “We need your support now. Now that it is here, we have only just begun. We need you to work diligently with us.”

Ewing said he didn’t know if there would be a tax increase needed to build the new arena or not, but said that he was willing to pay that price. “If that’s what it takes, then I’m willing to step up to the plate.”

Despite the uncertainty, both Memphis mayor Willie Herenton and county mayor Jim Rout expressed confidence that this was a good move for Memphis.

“Am I thrilled? Am I happy? Do I think that an NBA franchise is great for Memphis, Shelby County, and this region? Of course yes,” Herenton said. “Today’s announcement really represents a new beginning in the history of Memphis as we move forward to becoming a serious contender for an NBA franchise. It has been my contention that Memphis’ best days are ahead of them. This is another step in that evolutionary process.”

Rout spoke of the benefits to Memphis. “I can tell you it will be amazing how much we will have for this community when you will be able to go to any city in the United States of America where there are NBA teams, open the sports section, and there you are. Memphis, Tennessee.”

Count FedEx’s Mike Glenn among those who think that the cargo giant’s willingness to participate in the deal was a significant reason that the two teams chose Memphis.

“We feel confident that our taking on the naming rights clearly was an important part of our success in being named today as a city for a possible NBA franchise,” Glenn said. “We’re excited about the opportunity to work with the [Memphis] ownership group and whichever [NBA] ownership group is designated to take the lead in Memphis, we are confident that we can come to a viable conclusion.”

The move will be the first for an NBA franchise in 16 years. The last came about when the Kansas City Kings moved to Sacramento.

The Charlotte Observer reported on Monday that the owners of the Hornets, Ray Wooldridge and George Shinn, would swap their franchise for Michael Heisley’s Grizzlies. The owners in Charlotte are facing a referendum whether the city should build the Hornets a new arena. The one they play in now is 13 years old. Some speculate that Shinn and Wooldridge think that the referendum would have a better chance to succeed with a new owner at the helm.

Professional sports teams have been swapped before. The owners of the Boston Celtics traded their franchise with the owners of the Buffalo Braves who later moved to San Diego and became the Clippers.

The Hornets are a much more sucessful team than the Grizzlies. Hyde declined to comment on the issue of a swap.

Over the next 120 days, a relocation committee of the NBA board of governors will evaluate each team’s application as well as Memphis’ suitability as a host-city. Then it will make a recommendation to the full board of governors.

Her name is Gabrielle Elise Buring. She is a 12-year-old who has done all her growing up so far in Memphis — which, almost by definition (and certainly by reputation) is as racially polarized a place as you can find in North America — or anywhere else, for that matter. Memphis is also one of the better-known capitals of the Bible Belt. The city has its share of aspiring young thespians, of course, and though Gabrielle wants to join their ranks someday, she shares with most other citizens of Greater Memphis a preference for some of the verbal distinctions now under challenge. She shuns the unisex word Òactor,Ó for example, preferring to be known as a future Òactress.Ó Why? She shrugs. ÒItÕs more feminine. It just sounds better. It conveys the right image.Ó

Typically Southern and conservative, she is. And an object lesson of a new way the 21st Century may come to regard the question of ethnic origin.

For Gabrielle doesnÕt see anything especially needful in other familiar ways of categorizing people. When asked on the occasional form to designate herself by race, for instance, this child of the 21st Century avoids the two main and accustomed possibilities and opts for the category ÒOther.Ó In that, she is like a growing number of other children of the middle class, restless with labels that are, both literally and symbolically, black and white. When the categories are broader or less fixed, she inclines toward r the designation Òracially mixed.Ó

After all, Gabrielle has a mother who is, by the old vocabulary, Òwhite.Ó She has a stepfather who would still be considered by most people to be Òblack.Ó As it happens, her birth father was also of African-American descent. Being a child of divorce who hasnÕt seen her father since the age of two is a more important fact to her, though, than anybodyÕs racial identity. She has searched her memory for any incident that might be considered racially troubling, for any slighting treatment, for any overheard insensitive remark directed at either her or her mother and stepfather (an LPN and a restaurant supervisor, respectively) and canÕt find one. ÒItÕs never been a problem for me at all,Ó she says. In Memphis, Tennessee? ÒOh, I know there are supposed to be problems. IÕve seen it on TV and read about it in magazines and the papers. But IÕve never experienced any of it. I honestly canÕt recall a single thing.Ó

All that comes to her mind are the advantages of having had mixed parentage. She attends Campus School, a laboratory facility attached to the Education Department of the University of Memphis. The school accepts only a limited number of applicants, and she knows that she got in because she was considered Òbiracial,Ó a category Ð considered a necessary component of the schoolÕs goal of diversity — that was in short supply at Campus. She reflects. ÒAnd another nice thing about being racially mixed is that nobody would ever possibly consider me a racist.Ó (One must bear in mind that the term itself is one she knows only as an abstraction.)

As if having had two black fathers and a white mother werenÕt enough potential complication, Gabrielle also considers herself — without ever having been to a temple or synagogue — Jewish. She knows that her mother (the daughter of a Jewish father and a mother converted from Christianity) was Jewish and grasps the tradition that in Judaism oneÕs maternal line is the determining factor. But this, too, is of no great moment. .She has been to her stepfatherÕs Baptist church many times but, unlike her mother, who is on the verge of accepting Baptism (in both the upper-case and lower-case sense of the word), will keep to the Old Testament faith.

It is only, oddly enough, in matters pertaining to race that Gabrielle sees no reason for accepting brackets or categories or delimiting terminologies. ÒI fit in anywhere I am, basically,Ó she says. ÒWhen IÕm around blacks, I probably act Ôblack.Õ When IÕm with whites, I probably do ÔwhiteÕ things. ThatÕs what my friends tell me, anyhow. IÕd never noticed it myself.Ó How would she describe the difference between acting black and acting white? ÒWell, I think I act plainer around black people, and more ÔpreppyÕ around whites. I know thatÕs true because a black friend and a white friend both told me something like that. Independently of each other.Ó She tries to avoid thinking in stereotypes, though, pointing out that ÒSome blacks act like whites, some whites act like blacks.Ó

In any case, Gabrielle feels at home, as she says, in virtually any kind of company. She divides her time, on an almost 50-50 basis, between her own home and a nearby one occupied by material grandmother Jerry Cocke, a 5th grade schoolteacher and a convert to Judaism who still keeps kosher and whom Gabrielle calls ÒBubby.Ó BubbyÕs husband, David –ÔDay-DayÕ to Gabrielle — is a lawyer, an Episcopalian, and the chairman of the local Democratic Party. He dotes on his step-granddaughter. It is an open secret that one reason for GabriellsÕs spending as much time as she does at the CockesÕ home is that it is, unlike her own, a smoke-free environment. Again, she is not without firm preferences and strong convictions on some matters. It is just that race in the familiar black-and-white sense is not one of them.

An all-A student and member of one of the city school systemÕs ÔCLUEÕ classes for the academically gifted, Gabrielle, whose life has clearly given her broad chameleon-like experience, expects to do well at her chosen career of acting. ÒMy teacher thinks I have a lot of potential. He thinks I could be a writer, too.Ó The one thing she has little experience at, racial distinctiveness, is something she has to try to understand intuitively. ÒI sort of understand what life must have been like for my parents. Even after Civil Rights, IÕm told, everything didnÕt work just right.They were able to be together, but they were around some people who were still. . .Ó She looks for the right word. Ò. . .headstrong.Ó

The only racial profiling Gabrielle countenances is one that she and her peers at school, the racially mixed and the racially unmixed alike, indulge in. ÒWhenever one of us is telling the others about a new friend theyÕve met, the rest of us want to know, ÔAre they black or white?Õ You know, just so we can form the image.Ó

It is something of an irony, of course, that Gabrielle may typify a new kind of future American, who Ð both by example and by stated preference Ð makes the task of forming a defining ÒimageÓ more and more difficult. And perhaps beside the point.