中英双语 | 体育运动与社会正义
为什么NBA和NFL这两个最重要、黑人最多的男性联盟在过去两年，应对危机的处理方式如此不同？正如弗里曼和杰克逊指出的那样，这一切都与组织动态有关：结构、文化、权力和利润。
2016年8月14日，旧金山49人（SanFrancisco 49ers）的四分卫科林·卡佩尼克（Colin Kaepernick）在一次季前赛奏国歌时单膝跪地。起初没人注意，但在他一次又一次单膝跪地之后，终于有人问起原因。他在8月26日解释道：“我不会站起来，以为一个压迫黑人和有色人种国家的国旗为傲。”舆论反应不一，有支持也有反对。
On August 14, 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem before a preseason game. Few people noticed at first. But after he had knelt again, someone finally asked why. On August 26 he explained: “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color.” Reactions were mixed: support and vitriol.
五年半后的现在看来，卡佩尼克当时有先见性的和平抗议产生的效果不容小觑。他的行动引发了一场运动，以及职业运动员对公众影响的反思——还有职业体育联盟放大或雪藏“雇员”所传递的社会信息。
Five and a half years later, it’s impossible to overstate the prescience and consequence of Kaepernick’s peaceful protest. It started a movement and raised fundamental questions about the role of professional athletes in public life—and of pro sports leagues in amplifying or muting the sociopolitical messages of their “employees.”
这些联盟是价值数十亿美元的企业，经营者当然非常清楚自己的决定会对利润产生怎样的影响。不出所料，他们对卡佩尼克及其追随者的反应也存在分歧。美国全国橄榄球联盟（NFL）试图压制这名四分卫，在来自球迷、特朗普总统和其他共和党人的压力加大后，NFL制定了一项禁止在奏国歌时屈膝的禁令。美国男子篮球和女子篮球联盟（NBA与WNBA）强调了一项现有规定，即奏国歌时必须站立，但也鼓励了利于商业运作的异议形式。美国职业足球大联盟（Major League Soccer）强调了球员以合适的方式进行和平抗议的权利，而美国职业棒球大联盟（Major League Baseball）和国家冰球联盟（NationalHockey League）则没有制定明确指示。
These leagues are multibillion-dollar businesses, of course, run by people who are keenly aware of how their decisions affect the bottom line. Not surprisingly, their responses to Kaepernick and his followers diverged. The NFL sought to undermine the quarterback, and after pressure mounted from fans, President Trump, and other Republicans, it instituted a ban on kneeling during the anthem. The men’s and women’s basketball leagues—the NBA and the WNBA—emphasized an existing rule mandating standing for the anthem but encouraged more-business-friendly forms of dissent. Major League Soccer reinforced the rights of its players to peacefully protest in any way they saw fit, while Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League set no clear guidelines.
2017年秋天，卡佩尼克实际上已经被NFL除名，但他仍是社会行动主义的象征。在艾莫·阿伯里（Ahmaud Arbery）、布伦娜·泰勒（Breonna Taylor）以及2020年乔治·弗洛伊德（George Floyd）事件之后，“黑人的命也是命”（Black LivesMatter，简称BLM）运动势头强劲，各个联盟的运动员都在以前所未有的声量疾呼，响应卡佩尼克的语言和动作，甚至穿上了他的球衣。
By the fall of 2017 Kaepernick had effectively been blackballed from the NFL. But he remained an icon of social activism. As the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement gained momentum following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd in 2020, athletes across leagues were speaking out in unprecedented numbers, echoing Kaepernick’s language and posture (and even wearing his jersey).
在这波抗议中，一些联盟——NBA和WNBA——已经成为企业社会正义的指向标。NFL等其他联盟只是昙花一现。最近出版的两本书，《比赛不只是游戏》（The GameIs Not a Game）和《无畏的橄榄球行动派》（Football’s Fearless Activists）的作者都是资深体育记者，提供了关于体育运动和行动主义发展历程的实用参考资料。
Throughout this reckoning, some leagues—namely, the NBA and the WNBA—have emerged as beacons of corporate social justice. Others—namely, the NFL—have flickered at best. Two recent books, The Game Is Not a Game and Football’s Fearless Activists, both written by veteran sports journalists, offer some useful context for how we got to this moment in athletics and activism.
在第一本书中，罗伯特·斯库普·杰克逊（Robert Scoop Jackson）介绍了格雷格·波波维奇（GreggPopovich）和史蒂夫·科尔（Steve Kerr）两位NBA教练、“小皇帝”勒布朗·詹姆斯（LeBron James）等针对有关问题积极发声的人士（当然也有卡佩尼克），还介绍了一些大家深有感触、媒体频繁提及的话题，如“不被尊重的”女性运动员、数据分析的偏见、“橄榄球的伦理和种族道德”。作者精心整合列举了各个角度的特写，呈现出一个与现实世界政治紧密联系，但仍希望与之隔绝的行业。杰克逊写道：“我发现，最高盈利层做决定的大多数，都是离比赛核心文化最远的人。”
In the former, Robert Scoop Jackson presents incisive profiles of some of the leading voices on these issues (including the NBA coaches Gregg Popovich and Steve Kerr, the “God” LeBron James, and, yes, Kaepernick) along with deeply felt and reported pieces on subjects such as the “UnRespected” female athlete, the bias of data analytics, and “the business of football’s ethic and ethnic morality.” It’s an artfully curated collection of close-ups that, when set side by side, tell the story of an industry that is inextricably tethered to—but still hoping to be insulated from—real-world politics. “For years,” Jackson writes, “I’ve noticed how most of the people making decisions at the highest money-generating level are those furthest removed from the cultural center of the games.”
第二本书的作者是迈克·弗里曼（Mike Freeman），详细讲述了卡佩尼克的故事，深入挖掘他做出屈膝决定、保守派媒体对他的攻击，以及他被逐出橄榄球界的过程。在形容NFL特派员罗杰·古戴尔（Roger Goodell）对国歌抗议的（不当）处理时，弗里曼直截了当地说：“古戴尔不能像NBA特派员亚当·西尔弗（Adam Silver）那样支持卡佩尼克，因为古戴尔代表了（球队）老板，而大多数老板不喜欢卡佩尼克的做法，害怕其对自己的收入造成影响，或许二者皆有。”
The second book, by Mike Freeman, provides a detailed account of Kaepernick’s story, delving into his decision to kneel, conservative media’s attacks on him, and the mechanics of his exile from football. When describing the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell’s (mis)management of the anthem protests, Freeman lobs a blunt observation: “Goodell couldn’t take Kaepernick’s side the way, perhaps, the NBA commissioner Adam Silver would, because Goodell was a representative of the [team] owners, and the majority of owners disliked what Kaepernick was doing, were afraid of the financial impact, or had some combination of the two.”
回到2020年，当美国被疫情期间一场呼吁种族正义的抗议所打乱时，NBA和NFL的反应形成了鲜明对比。NBA立即发表声明支持BLM，许多球员参与、甚至带头游行，而没有受到指责。与此同时，NFL则一直保持沉默，直到18名球星发布了一段视频，要求老板站出来发声。古戴尔发布视频回应说，应该及早听取球员意见。
That brings us back to 2020. As the United States was roiled by racial justice protests amid a pandemic, the contrast between the NBA’s and the NFL’s reactions was stark. The NBA immediately issued a statement supporting BLM, and many players joined—even led—marches without rebuke. Meanwhile, the NFL was silent until 18 of its stars released a video demanding that their employer speak out. Goodell responded with his own video, saying he should have listened to players earlier.
据娱乐体育节目电视网（ESPN）报道，NBA为了在疫情期间安全度过本赛季，开始在“泡泡”（Bubble，代指隔离赛区）中比赛时，联盟人员投入了很多；并非所有指令都是由管理层发出。球场上贴着BLM贴纸、球衣上印着“说出他们的名字”（Say Their Names）等标语，赛后采访常会涉及社会正义。在另一名黑人男子雅各布·布莱克（Jacob Blake）事件后，球员们抵制比赛，直到NBA同意在选举日开放体育馆作为投票站。而NFL的复赛则大不相同：教练戴着口罩，球员没有戴，而且不在“泡泡”中比赛（因此有更多新冠病例）；只有比赛而没有训练（随后几名知名球员受伤）；球星在BLM问题上直言不讳，联盟的协调信息姗姗来迟。
Reporting from ESPN indicates that when the NBA began playing in “the Bubble,” its Covid-safe way to finish the season, it was with a great deal of input from the league’s talent; management did not call all the shots. Courts were decked with BLM decals, jerseys were printed with “Say Their Names” and similar messages, and postgame interviews often addressed social justice. After Jacob Blake, another Black man, was shot by the police, players boycotted games until the NBA agreed to open arenas as Election Day polling places. Compare all that to the NFL’s comeback: masks for coaches but not for players on the field, and no bubble (thus many Covid-19 cases); games but no practice season (followed by several high-profile player injuries); and outspoken stars but a belated move to coordinated messaging from the league on BLM.
为什么这两个最重要、黑人最多的男性联盟在过去一年，应对危机的处理方式如此不同？正如弗里曼和杰克逊指出的那样，《哈佛商业评论》的读者也会明白，这一切都与组织动态有关：结构、文化、权力和利润。
Why have the two most prominent male and majority-Black leagues handled this past year of crisis so differently? As Freeman and Jackson note, and readers of HBR will appreciate, it’s all about organizational dynamics: structure, culture, power, and profit.
NBA规模比NFL小（NBA有30支球队，每队15名球员；NFL有32支球队，每队55名球员）。NBA约75%的球员是黑人，NFL为70%。NBA更依赖那些拥有较长职业生涯和巨大场外影响力的高薪球星，如勒布朗·詹姆斯和斯蒂芬·库里（Steph Curry），有更强大的球员工会和对球员更有利的集体谈判协议。NBA的联盟高管、球队老板、经理和教练似乎明白，自己的角色是与球员合作，而非监督。此外（可能也是关键），NBA球迷的种族背景比其他联盟的球迷更多元，NBA直白地支持BLM不会像NFL那样对收视率或收入产生影响。
The NBA is a smaller league than the NFL (30 teams with about 15 players each, versus 32 teams with about 55 players each). About 75% of the NBA’s players are Black, compared with 70% of the NFL’s. The NBA also relies more heavily on highly paid stars who have longer careers and outsize influence off the court. (Think LeBron James and Steph Curry.) It has a stronger players union and a collective bargaining agreement that’s more favorable to players. For their part, league executives and team owners, managers, and coaches seem to understand that their role is to collaborate with, rather than oversee, the talent. Also (and this, sadly, may be key), because NBA fans are more racially diverse than those of other leagues, an unabashedly pro-BLM stance doesn’t threaten ratings or revenues the way it might for the NFL.
如果有一本记录“泡泡”的书，讲述的会是那些勇敢追随卡佩尼克的球员的故事——而不是勇敢的亿万富翁忽视电子表格的故事，而且和所有营利性组织一样，NBA对利他主义的预算有限。尽管如此，在此前一年的抗议中，NBA（连同WNBA）在展示良好的管理和企业社会责任方面已经大大超越了NFL，让我们更接近一个把初心置于利益之上的职业体育联盟世界。就目前而言，这是值得称赞的。
If a book chronicling the Bubble is ever written, it will tell the story of brave players following Kaepernick’s lead—not brave billionaires throwing spreadsheets to the wind. Like all for-profits, the NBA has a limited budget for altruism. In 2019, for example, it was reluctant to back a manager who tweeted support for Hong Kong protesters for fear of alienating its Chinese business partners. Still, over the past year of protests, the NBA (along with the WNBA) has run circles around the NFL in demonstrating good management and corporate social responsibility. It has moved us closer to a world in which professional sports leagues put purpose over profits. For that, for now, it should be applauded.
拉姆齐·考鲍兹（Ramsey Khabbaz）| 文
柴茁| 译 蒋荟蓉 |校 孙燕 |编辑
拉姆齐·考鲍兹是《哈佛商业评论》助理编辑。
原文请见《哈佛商业评论》中文版2021年1月刊
