CHAUNTE’L POWELL: History is in the eye of the beholder

The funny thing about history is a lot of times it depends on who’s telling it.

Chicago Bulls fans remember the 1998 Finals as the series where Michael Jordan hit the iconic jumper over Byron Russell to clinch the title solidify his legacy as the G.O.A.T. Utah Jazz fans might remember it as the biggest push off never called.

Fellow Miami Hurricanes fans remember the 2003 Fiesta Bowl as the one that ref Terry Porter stole from us while the rest of the world remembers it as the one the ref took into his own hands and botched because, let’s be real, there’s really no other way to remember that one.

Anyway, in the same manner the lens in which one is viewing a particular sporting event through matters, so does the context and perspective one brings for things like legacy, both on and off the court.

I see LeBron James’ 3-5 NBA Finals record as, how many other players have taken their team to the Finals eight times? Others somehow manage to see failure in that feat because Michael Jordan won six straight, completely ignoring his early struggles against the Bad Boys Pistons of Detroit in the late 1980s.

I see Muhammad Ali as a celebrated and decorated athlete who made just as much an impact socially, and, the funny thing is, many individuals do, as well. But at the time, he was public enemy No. 1 for being an outspoken black man unafraid to stand in his convictions, and that part of the story often gets left out.

I believe that Colin Kaepernick is going to get the same treatment one day. The NFL, the very entity that forced him out of his career, will one day celebrate his courage and fight against adversity while omitting they were the adversity.

A small, possibly naïve, part of me hopes that this treatment spills over into the rest of society. That Ferguson protesters will one day be lauded for their bravery although they’re persecuted and even executed today. I hope that many who inspired Kaepernick, the ones who marched and fought for Eric Gardner, Sandra Bland and the many, many others lost to police brutality, receive their flowers in the history books.

I hope this not because I enjoy revisionist history, but because if that’s the price that comes with actual, tangible change, then I’ll take it. If one day I can live in a nation sans the even half the issues faced today, I’ll deal with having to throw a side eye at individuals I know were not down with cause originally.

Either way, time marches on and the story is being written. The question is, which side of history will you remember being on?

Contact sports writer Chaunte’l Powell at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @chauntelpowell.