Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Lakers/Warriors; And Knicks/Heat
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
17 May 2023
🖨️ Print Article
 Lakers/Warriors; And Knicks/Heat
1987 Lakers (Photo: Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images)

                                                                                   Lakers/Warriors; And Knicks/Heat

 

It’s fun falling into fantasy lands. Fun watching sweaty,

dripping wet, teamwork of nephew-grandson men! Brisk

Passing/sharing! Rebounding missed shots! Chasing down

loose balls…

It’s fun escaping School Shooting of The Day—and

War of the Week!

Fun forgetting Pentagon Parties, Pinocchio politicians

and their elephant excrement-donkey dung $campaigns

It’s fun purchasing ‘personal’ pizzas, local pizza place,

and metaphor-watching with working-class ‘strangers!’

Fun following brown round ball whizzing crosscourt;

‘round keys; secretly daydreaming the politically ‘impossible’

It’s fun removing my mind from War House! From W-Drone

Ranger-Boss Tweet-Ol’ Schmo biz. Off sleazy senators, corrupt

congressmen infesting Capitalist Hill. It’s fun forgetting grand

dragon governors and 4th quarter comebacks by confederates

It’s fun watching furious fast breaks of great Jazz quintets—

playing “I can’t breathe!” bent backs; hands on knees—

Substitutions and timeouts… It’s fun when “Hands up, don’t

Shoot!” is ‘bout blocking shots—Not autopsies, flowers, funerals.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

sports
Black Sports; Politics

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Colin Kaepernick’s “The Perilous Fight”
16 September 2026
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
Wolfgang Bronner
Entertainment as Militarization: The Spectacle of the Super Bowl & WrestleMania in Nashville
06 May 2026
The spectacle of major sporting events does not simply distract from a city's crackdown on the working class.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
EDITORIAL: After the Olympics: Buying off Protest, Harry Edwards, 1969
16 July 2025
“Racists don’t give up easily, we learned, and the racists in sports are especially dedicated.”
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Nathan Kalman-Lamb and Derek Silva’s Book, “The End of College Football”
06 November 2024
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.
OJ Simpson at his trial
Gus Griffin
O.J. Simpson and Understanding the Black Support He Never Deserved
17 April 2024
O.J.
Colin Kaepernick
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
The Karma of Kap or curse of capitalism??
21 February 2024
The Karma of Kap or curse of capitalism??
Yes! An NFL Player Can Be Exploited
Gus Griffin
Yes! An NFL Player Can Be Exploited
23 August 2023
Michael Oher’s story of exploitation is even worse than the white savior narrative presented by Hollywood.
The Super Bowl and the Trouble with First Black Symbolism
Gus Griffin
The Super Bowl and the Trouble with First Black Symbolism
08 February 2023
Whether Super Bowl quarterbacks, or presidents, or police chiefs, unquestioned admiration of the "first Black" should come to an end.
BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Dewitt King
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Dewitt King
21 September 2022
In this feature, we interview organizers, journalists, scholars, and athletes working at the intersection of sports and Black struggle. 
BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Courtney M. Cox
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Courtney M. Cox
13 July 2022
In this feature, we interview organizers, journalists, scholars, and athletes working at the intersection of sports and Black struggle.

More Stories


  • BAR Book Forum: Andrew J. Douglas’s “W. E. B. Du Bois and the Critique of the Competitive Society”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Andrew J. Douglas’s “W. E. B. Du Bois and the Critique of the Competitive Society”
    08 Jul 2020
    Du Bois appears to have anticipated the coming of the neoliberal dystopia.
  • When France Extorted Haiti – the Greatest Heist in History
    Marlene Daut
    When France Extorted Haiti – the Greatest Heist in History
    08 Jul 2020
    The indemnity Haiti paid to France is the first and only time a formerly enslaved people were forced to compensate those who had once enslaved them.
  • Nicaragua – How Phony Human Rights Groups Slandered a U.S.-Targeted Nation 
    Stephen Sefton
    Nicaragua – How Phony Human Rights Groups Slandered a U.S.-Targeted Nation 
    08 Jul 2020
    Nicaragua's case is a text-book example of how genuine human rights research has been subverted so as to produce highly biased reports.
  • The Weaponization of Culture
    Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, BAR editor and columnist
    The Weaponization of Culture
    08 Jul 2020
    While statues glorifying white supremacy are being torn down across the globe, a Maryland county is busy desecrating African graves and building a new edifice to white supremacy.
  • Cuban Spies Disguised As Doctors
    Roger Stoll
    Cuban Spies Disguised As Doctors
    08 Jul 2020
    The European Union now excludes travelers from the COVID-ridden U.S., but
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us