Unpleasant. Baseball is a hobby. I dont write about professionally. Wasame drop a bit, i invited to have a lunch with the president. Across the field with a players only other team from a town around its bird was jim leylands son. Justs sitting across and was a dad. Thinking how thrilled i was to see that guy. President , they come and go. Just as toledo, we will let you close. Basing baseball with the rest of life, i think for fans what channel does is jail natural aggression and tribal instincts which people have. David and i are sitting with a phillies hat and a mets that and we are very civil. The prices have gotten ,igher and things have changed back in the not so old days if i went to shea stadium with a phillies at and cheered too loudly in the phillies were winning or if they came to the and he was tearing too loudly for the mets, they have a lockup in the stadium. There would be fisticuffs. It channels peoples natural tendencies to fight with each other into something that isnt really important as opposed to fighting about something that is. Wanted turn the program over to george. [applause] let me thank cspan. No more significant thing has happened in politics than cspan. If you believe in the necessity of government and the process of government, cspan has been extraordinary in what they have done. We are grateful that cspan decided to share this time with us today. We will share it with the nation. I want to acknowledge the the cochair of homeland security. My appreciation to my wonderful friends. To all of you, lets do the appropriate thing and thank this extraordinary panel. [applause] more about a market for its next with nba hall of famer kareem abduljabbar, Michael Irvin and others talking about sports and race. The panel is hosted by the United States conference of mayors. It is just over an hour. Let me give a little background. Jackie robinson integrating baseball, sports played a pivotal role in advancing civil rights. Adam silvers swift and decisive response to Donald Sterlings thatl comments makes clear in Todays Society institutional racism is not welcome. In light of both events and the longstanding battle against institutional racism in sports, we are taking the action today to discuss the social and political implications of racism in sports. Through the interactive conversation, panelists will tackle questions that ask white racism pervades sports and society. We are convening today to learn and to discuss how sports should serve communities and how we together can become agents of change in our cities with our sports teams. Before we move on to our panel i would like to introduce a leader in addressing the intersection between sports and cities. The ballard is chair of mayors professionals Sports Alliance. It is to share among mayors resources and information on issues related to professional sports and to work effectively with leagues, players, and owners. Give around of applause to mayor ballard. [applause] good morning. Sports bring people together. They bring communities together. Deep layoffring the run when athletes do good work in the community, sports bring nations together. At many of us gasped portugals last second goal last night . Sports can also divide is. There can be a meanness and ugliness as is the case in this clippers episode. That he Sports Alliance stood with our president Kevin Johnson as he worked with the players and the alumni as they addressed the situation. I applaud the nba for taking swift and decisive action. Sports organizations are part of who we are. They represent us as a community. Despite the elite athleticism we witness, we really want them to embody character and compassion as a community. That includes the respect for all of our citizens. Diversity has always been about respect. Respect was lacking in the clippersorganization. Respect has come at such a great price. This is the life of jackie robinson. It is our responsibility to continue the march. I look forward to the panel. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you, mayor ballard. I going to introduce the panelists and we will have a serious conversation. Panelist that i would like to bring out to give a male oral perspective is our very own michael letter. Michael the reputations for being a passionate sports down. Sports a long history of as it is spurred on serious conversations about race. Ben chapman was one of the loudest voices opposing Jackie Robinsons integration to baseball. Very loud round of applause to michael nutter. [applause] secondly, i would like to bring out a person who was originally scheduled to moderate. I thought he would give a better perspective sitting on the panel. We switched places. I did know i was going to lose my voice. Roland martin is an influential reporter and commentator. He has a long career at bt and cnn. Et and cnn. He is from houston. He went to texas and him. He is a journalist with a masters degree in christian communications. He has written several books. Lets give around of applause for roland martin. [applause] all right. Since we are in dallas, this is for you. I get a chance to introduce a dallas cowboy legend. This is a surprise guest. We did not him put him on the schedule intentionally. Toled the Dallas Cowboys three super bowl championships. Children from7 Fort Lauderdale florida. He went to the university of miami. He won a National Championship there. One of the greatest wide receiver to ever play the game. Lets give around of applause to Michael Irvin. [applause] most of you know that michael is also a personality and commentators on football on a regular basis. He is got that personality that is just magnetic. It is awesome to have him here. I dont know if you get a chance to see his acceptance speech into the hall of fame, it was one of the most amazing acceptance speeches of all time. One more round of applause for the playmaker. [applause] this is the biggest and production im ever going to make. This is exciting. You should clap before i even say his name. Just let them know that we love him before we say his name. [applause] listen to this. I did not want to go long. Time nba championship. He won six of them. Six time most viable player. 19 time nba allstar. Hall of fame inductee. Played with the bucs in milwaukee. Went out west to l. A. And 15 more championships. Ucla,ew york, went to played under john wooden. Won three championships in college. Isyou add those up, that nine. And wasis a freshman not allowed to play varsity sports or he wouldve had a tent. In college he was so effective they literally changed the rules because he was there. This is a rule change are in a real way. He is a legend. Is also a New York Times bestselling author. He has written books on history and civil rights. Documentary has been made about one of his books. Two time naacp image award winner. Give around of applause to the greatest player to ever play the game, kareem abduljabbar. [applause] i feel like we can all go home. I feel like we have been to church. Look at kareem for just a second. Dignified and distinguished. What makes him so amazing is not only the arguably best player to play the game, it is what he did off the court. For him to be here today with these panelists is amazing. This is often something that people do not know about him. He is not an upfront for some. Last night, he took mayors at the dinner. Of applause for treating our mayors to dinner last night. [applause] are you ready . We are going to get it going. Were going to have this panel discussion. Im going to stand up to her because i am losing my voice. I want to throw the first question out to mayor nutter. What was your gut reaction when you heard the Donald Sterling tape . I was stunned. Is this true . Did somebody really say this . We have youtube and elected officials know about that. Maybe it was doctored. That . Somebody sale of i watched it. I knew it was nine or 10 minutes. Im probably not go watch the whole thing. It is the epitome of an accident. It was fascinating. It just went on and on and on. At the end i was disgusted. People . To talk about you are the owner of a team. You should be responsible. I had some of the thoughts. This is a family program. It was insane. It is been found to be true. It is legit. We know the end of the story. We have to give our president huge recognition for the role that he played in the nba and the commissioner handled it properly. It was a stunning moment in america. A question for kareem. You wrote an impressive Time Magazine piece which was awesome. What was your first reaction and there will be a surprise of where youre coming from . My first reaction was surprise. I had worked for mr. Sterling. I coached the clippers in the year 2000. He invited me to his daughters wedding. Idea exactly what was going on. I know elgin baylor. I know what he was complaining about. Whichconfused not knowing set of facts mr. Sterling stood behind. Then when his words came out it was so obvious and shocking. It was disgusting. All of those things wrapped in one. The surprise of it, to find that sentiment in a person who relies on black americans for so much of his success and public profile was amazing. Someonet believe that could have that much bigotry inside and think that it was ok. Your gutl, what was reaction would you first heard it . I was hurt. I was hurt for the players on the court. And for the fans. Lets be real. The clippers have been waiting a long time for this. Now, they are right have been waiting a long time and there have been a lot of loyal fans. They have chris paul and doc rivers. People that are such upstanding africanamericans that represent the best we have to offer. Of point out an attack one the best we have to offer in Magic Johnson tom a i was hurt. I wont say that i was totally shocked. , we still have the remnants of some of these still left. I am not shocked, but i was hurt during we have heard some things prior to this about Donald Sterling. On and he kept going on and on, i think we heard more of his heart. I was shocked and hurt for all those people. He does not have add. He is just a twitter maniac. I want you to know that he is paying attention. Ive got dad some new followers. And . Reaction was people were surprised by it. To the degree that he did. The reason i was pleased with it was because we are living in denial because there are too saying this is Postracial America because there is a black president. Racism doesnt exist. To the internet you can see case after case after case. We act as if things are changing. You see black mayors and ceos. Somehow these people have been wiped out. What do we do about what is in somebodys heart . For him to be a team owner, it is no shock. You have a city councilwoman in texas who was recorded saying we need to get those blacks off the school board. And she refuses to apologize. She is on a pollock genex saying that we need to get those blacks off the school board. Of raceont the reality in america, who is here from akron, ohio. . A pulitzerer won prize for a series on race and ushering in a citywide conversation. What we love to do in america is we love to not have that brutally honest discussion. We want to have the nice we all get along conversation without realizing there are people in power who are elected officials who might be in charge of having black people who work for them but have a hardcore view on the issue of race. It forces people to say we might want to examine ourselves. It forced the nba to answer some questions when you had examples of this owner and you are silent about him. He league did nothing when lost a housing lawsuit. I want to come back to. Kareem went to college in the 1960s when civil rights was at the top. Inplayed professional sports the 60s and 70s. Era . E at the end of an help us connect with what you are going to then and where you think we are today. Is when wehappened have the fact that we had the legal means to combat institutionalized racism, a lot of black american said ok. Now we have the tools to achieve something. It is taken us decades to achieve those things. When it comes to working on what we have ales hearts, very long way to go. Even though we have these tools, we have a long way to go because people do not understand their own bigotry. So endemic to the human experience. Theye dont get it when are intensely affected by racism. They are not even aware of it. We have a long way to go. Emmett till was killed in 1965. You go to the march on washington in 1963. Nixon gets elected in 1968. It. Of 13 years, the country was transformed. If 1960 it was the marker of full freedom for africanamericans, that is 46 years. Say that dr. King was killed in 1968 and , full freedomtion for black folks in 1968. I am 45. I will be 46 and november. We walk around as if things are changed. We have amazing freedom. In the history of the country, 46 years ofcans socalled freedom. When you expand the on Donald Sterling and the issue of housing and economics and inclusion and go beyond that, we have come a long way. Talking about 46 years of socalled full freedom. If you think that we have gotten over the issue of race, we have to be delusional. It did not happen in 46 years. You still have in south africa blacks dont have access to power. They dont control capital. I will ask you both the same aestion, you remember Football Player for the Philadelphia Eagles who got the recorded saying the n word. What are your thoughts when you first heard that . Im going to hold on to what you talked about 45 years. I want to come back to that. I will address the riley cooper situation. My job on sunday and thursday to talk about it. I had watched riley cooper. He is been playing football for a lot of years. One of the things i talked about was i was coming from a basketball camp with my son in las vegas. As we walked by the pool, they had music blasting with the n word. Everybody was having a great time. Angrycooper steps in situation. And here we go saying everything about riley cooper. I said it then and i will say it we ought to take responsibility as africanamericans for injecting the word out there and making it ok. Riley cooper said in a moment of heat. You let the word go in a moment of heat. Do i count him as a racist . I dont think so. He is been around people all of his life. Richie incognitos situation is different in miami. I thought that is what the word and how it was used back in the day. He used it as a systematic way to break down another man. That is racism. A systematic way of raking down the other man. That is not tolerable. [applause] when they say athletes are not smart, you get these to appear. I am sitting next to the dictionary. Knows every meaning of every word and for him to be able to break down the issues, this drives me crazy as a former athlete. People dont give athletes credit for what they do. These are great examples. He knows more words than don king . This is true. Streetcar i were on in san francisco. We were getting an award. We were riding around. Tell me something about the great walls of china . Know a cory was built . You had to deal with it. Was swift,ion aggressive, and negative. I saw that tape. Statement that said he needed to clean up and fix it. I was left with the impression that it was not the first time in his life he did use that word. That calls into question a host of other issues. The team tried to deal the. He suddenly had to go away. Clear. Never really they were just trying to get him out of town. Out of the situation. Illy, Michael Irvin always loved playing in philadelphia. Our fans are passionate. It is not an overreaction kind of town. There was a lot of reaction to that. It was a very negative reaction. I have some thoughts about how it was handled. Whether it was handled properly. The season started and there wasnt much. He had a pretty good season. I am not going to say that all is forgotten. I think people remember. He is trying to get past it. Tv, i ame him on usually remember that. He has to deal with that. Reality aboutalse race. This is what it has evolved into. Riley cooper, racist or not a racist . As donald same thing sterling. It becomes racist or not a racist . There is nothing in between those two. Say youpens is people are or you are not. As if there is nothing that is in between that deals with how we have grown up or our perceptions. There is nothing that this is me me offe that pisses more than people asking me if i played ball there. I didnt play ball. Not didt question is you graduate or what did you major in . I was playing golf and the dude. Sked me a columnt written called no i am not a Football Player. Question. He i did not respond. We finally got done. Is we haves perceptions. We have beliefs. A lot of them are based on race. I i see a 65 white guy dont assume he played basketball. I just dont. Race, we havebout to acknowledge that there is something in between not a racist or you are a racist that plays into this and then we dont like to have that. Now it brings into question how we were raised, how are friends are around us. There are all of these black and white and hispanic and asian students. They get along great. I know this is a bunch of bs. I asked them who they ate lunch with. Who do you eat lunch with . Theyi asked that question, got uncomfortable. Said you cant tell me you get along and you live in this wonderful race neutral world because who you choose to go to lunch with defined your view. I look at the parents and say who eats at your house for dinner . The room got really uncomfortable. Work are in voluntary situations. Who you eat with and who you go to lunch with is a voluntary situation. Often we eat with people we are like as opposed to people who are different. The whole conversation changed. They realized they had self segregated. They thought they were all multiracial. It never dawned on them that they were still segregating. If you take Donald Sterling and these other issues, you examine race in a different way. There is a schism. If a guy comes up to you and , what year did you play ball . Does that mean he is racist . We have to be careful as well. Dude my size, a white guy my size, he is not asking that question. You just made an assessment. You see what i am saying . Bet is the thing we have to careful with. Maybe that has something to do with the time or the people we have been around or the culture that we came up with. Sports are huge. Lets think through this. Sports are huge in this country. The money w