I chose to read “Black Steel”: Intraracial Rivalry, Soft Power, and Prize Fighting in the Cold War World and A Tribute to Kobe Bryant. Both of these articles dove into the backgrounds of the individuals discussed in the articles and their personalities on and off the court. The first article focused on the attitudes and personalities of three of the most notorious boxers of the early 70s, Muhammed Ali, George Foreman and Joe Frazier; all black athletes. The author talks about the appeal these intraracial feuds had on not just American fans of boxing but around the world, where countries were gaining independence and wanted to score that autonomy and recognition. The leaders of these countries put millions into hosting championship matches with the hope of notoriety from world powers, but as America developed its own entertainment capital (Las Vegas), international matches started falling off, breaking the hope of countries gaining favor in this Cold War period. Also talked about was the obvious civil rights movement occurring during these scheduled bouts, and it highlighted even more each of these boxers approach to the movement and how Ali was incredibly outspoken and Frazier being more moderate when it came to politics or the movement itself. George Foreman was the outlier in this trio, adopting a more laid back persona trying to vie for his place among the greats of this era, and with hip-hop/soul on the rise in the African-American community Foreman used it to his advantage to garner his reputation.
My second reading was about the early life and career of Kobe Bryant, one of the best NBA players of all time and how his upbringing may not have been the same as other African-American players yet he still came out as one of the leagues best. Most topics discussed revolved around his growing up in Europe away from the centers of basketball playing in the up and coming European league. He had help due to his father being a former NBA player and Kobe’s personal coach before high school, along with his uncle teaching him American-style while he visited his family during summer breaks. His father had taught him the best moves from his former teammates that would help improve his overall game before moving back to America so Bryant would have the chance to experience the high school league. Compared to the usual feeling of black players in the NBA at the time, Kobe came from a well off family and had the skills to completely skip his college years to be immediately drafted out of high school. His experience compared to the boxers of the early 70s is starkly different, yet all of them rose to be some of the most well known athletes around the world.
