From left to right: Phoenix Suns players Chris Paul, Devin Booker and coach Monty Williams are trying to move forward after owner Robert Sarver was suspended for one year and fined $10 million by the NBA. Christian Petersen/Getty Images
PHOENIX – The revealed racist, sexist and misogynistic acts of team owner Robert Sarver have put a dark cloud over the Phoenix Suns that has deeply affected the players, coaches and general manager.
“It’s cloudy right now, to tell you the truth. I don’t know what is in between the lines,” Suns center Deandre Ayton told Andscape during media day at Events On Jackson. “We have to figure it out before the first jump ball.
“This is media day. We just have to lock in more. Just block out all the noise.”
Other factors contribute to the noise: The Suns went from going to the 2021 NBA Finals to being upset as a top-seed in a deciding Game 7 to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of last season’s playoffs. The Suns and disgruntled vet Jae Crowder mutually agreed that he not attend training camp as they look for a trade. Ayton also was much more businesslike than his usual jovial self after the Suns opted to match a four-year, $133 million extension he signed with the Indiana Pacers rather than ink him to a more lucrative five-year deal in the offseason.
But it was the team’s first public reaction to the news that an NBA investigation recently revealed racism, sexism, and misogyny from Sarver during his 17 years as team owner that dampened the mood during Suns media day. The NBA suspended the owner of the Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury for one year and fined him $10 million after its investigation revealed that he used the N-word at least five times “when recounting the statements of others.” Sarver also was involved in “instances of inequitable conduct toward female employees,” including “sex-related comments” and inappropriate comments on employees’ appearances. Sarver revealed plans to sell the Suns and Mercury last week.
Ayton said what pained him most was how Suns and Mercury employees have been wrongly affected by Sarver’s actions.
“Hearing all those stories with all the folks and employees that had their encounter with him … ,” Ayton said. “It’s hard to believe. But things like that are unacceptable. There is not much to say. It’s an unacceptable action.”
Phoenix Suns head coach Monty Williams (left) said, “when I saw the report, I was not happy about it, quite frankly, disgusted” by the NBA’s findings about team owner Robert Sarver. Guard Devin Booker (right) said, “That is not the Robert Sarver I know. … But at the same time, I’m not insensitive to everyone involved in this situation.”
Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
The NBA is predominantly Black, as are key members of the Suns. General manager James Jones, coach Monty Williams and new assistant general manager Morgan Cato are African American. While Suns All-Star Chris Paul, Jones and Williams say they never heard Sarver say the N-word, the revelation of his use of the word disgusted Jones and Williams.
“That word, I don’t like it, never have. Especially when I was younger, and I learned what that word meant. I learned how demeaning it was toward humanity, not just Black folks,” Williams said. “And when I saw the report, I was not happy about it, quite frankly, disgusted. It’s not a word you repeat anytime. And when you read the report, you read the bullet points and you see it over and over again in that way, it bothers you.”
Williams has been openly talked about fighting against racism that he has seen and dealt with since his youth in Virginia. The 2022 NBA Coach of the Year is married to a white woman and has a stepson and five Black children of his own. Sarver’s use of the N-word and the racist state of the world today has Williams concerned about his family.
“Just thinking of them living in this world where those kinds of things still happen, that bothered me,” Williams said. “So, I’m not different than you all. There was a range of emotions and state of mind that you deal with.”
Williams said that to his chagrin that it has been often found acceptable in the younger generation to say the N-word. As for Jones, he said he never heard Sarver say the N-word and he doesn’t believe it is acceptable to be said anywhere.
“Across the board … I can’t accept that,” Jones said. “The word was never directed towards me. But if it is directed toward anyone, it’s wrong. The fact that I’m Black doesn’t [make it right] for me. I’m a kid from Miami. Multicultural family. Just not a Black thing. It’s a people thing. It’s offensive. As much as I can, I try to make sure people understand that it’s not a cultural thing, it’s a people thing. But that word is not acceptable anywhere. And I just hope we can find a way to eliminate it from the vocabulary in general.
“It means different things to different people. But just because you’re not the source or where it is directed to doesn’t mean you can’t be offended by it. I know it’s a deep answer, but that word is problematic. So as much as we can do to eliminate it, we should move forward.”
Guard Devin Booker has known Sarver longer than any player as the longest-tenured Suns player after being drafted by the franchise in 2015. Booker said he read the entire report on Sarver and was shocked by the findings.
“That is not the Robert Sarver I know,” Booker said. “That is not the Robert Sarver that welcomed me to Phoenix with open arms. But at the same time, I’m not insensitive to everyone involved in this situation. I understand everyone’s experience with other people is going to be different. But it’s tough to read because [that’s] not the person I know.”
Phoenix Suns general manager James Jones (right) said of the sale: “It brings some closure to a long period of discomfort and uneasiness.”
Christian Petersen/Getty Images
Jones initially also didn’t think Sarver was the racist, sexist, and misogynist he was accused of being. The 2021 NBA General Manager of the Year said in a statement issued by the Suns on Oct. 21, 2021, that “none of what’s been said describes the Robert Sarver I know, respect and like – it just doesn’t.” Jones felt much differently on media day with the report on Sarver out, as he now believes the “best outcome” is for him to sell the team for “the players, fans and staffers and everyone impacted.”
“It brings some closure to a long period of discomfort and uneasiness,” Jones said. “But it also gives us a pivot point to raising the standards of our organization and leading by example. When you look at the findings of this process that we’ve been through, he did not live up to a standard of excellence. Those behaviors, not just in sport but just in society in general, are behaviors that are unacceptable. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. We have to protect those that can’t protect themselves.”
Paul, Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green also made strong statements about Sarver publicly before he decided to sell. Paul, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, Miami Heat guard Kyle Lowry and New Orleans Pelicans guard and National Basketball Players Association president CJ McCollum also made their anti-Sarver feelings known in phone calls to NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
Paul told a packed room that also included his preteen son, C.J., that the Sarver report was “tough to read” and “disturbing.”
“[My son] sort of knows what is going on,” Paul said. “It was tough, just like anybody, reading all the different things as far as the N-word. It was more so the things people had to endure in the workplace. Reading all of it was tough.”
With media day over and a potential sale forthcoming, the Suns hope that the focus is back on basketball.
“It was on its way to being a distraction. But since he decided to sell the team, we could move forward and focus on the goal that’s at hand. And that is playing basketball,” Booker said.
Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.
Long before soccer firmly became part of the American mainstream viewing experience, Earnie Stewart was part of a group of men and women at the end of the 20th century eager to make the world’s most popular game as beloved as American football, basketball and baseball.
Without Stewart’s presence giving his compatriots reasons to join the soccer bandwagon, broadcasts of major European professional leagues and commercial advertisements of the sports’ biggest stars here in the States may not have occurred. While the debate about the U.S. men’s national team’s greatest of all time focuses on Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, it would be myopic not to include Stewart as one of this country’s most important players.
Few soccer players worldwide play more than 100 games for their country, and Stewart is a part of that exclusive list with 101 men’s team appearances. His 17 international goals placed Stewart as one of America’s top all-time finishers, as he still resides in the top 10 on the U.S. men’s goal-scoring list. He also played a vital role as a premier player or leader on three World Cup teams for the men’s team.
Stewart, 53, is the only Black player to captain an American men’s World Cup team, which may change at the FIFA World Cup this fall with Leeds United’s Tyler Adams emerging as a guiding force for America’s most talented team.
Stewart’s tremendous playing background makes his role as the first technical director for U.S. Soccer all the more vital. Stewart is important not only to whether the U.S. men’s team will become the superpower its women’s program has been but also to see if leadership will reflect the diverse demographics of the country’s most fervent soccer supporters.
Stewart, who was given the inaugural technical director’s position in August 2019, 14 months after joining U.S. Soccer to be its general manager of the men’s team, oversees the men’s and women’s programs. He selects the coaches for these coveted positions and sets the ethos, or “principles of play,” as he calls it, that all U.S. Soccer teams (whether the senior level teams or the youth upstarts) will follow.
Andscape sat down with Earnest Lee Stewart Jr., the Dutch-born son of a Black American airman and white Dutch mother, about his inspiring background, the outlook for soccer in America on and off the field, and more.
Earnie Stewart (center) is one of 17 players with 100 or more appearances for the U.S. men’s national team.
Brian Bahr/Getty Images
Earnie, your full thoughts on being on the field for the huge moment of the equal pay collective bargaining signing for both the United States women’s national team [USWNT] and USMNT at Audi Field in Washington, D.C., after the 2-1 USWNT win over Nigeria on Sept. 6?
As [U.S. Soccer president] Cindy [Parlow Cone] said and as [USWNT defender] Becky [Sauerbrunn] said, it’s been a long time coming, so there’s a lot of work that was going on behind the scenes. Our women’s national team pushed us as an organization, but also the men stepped up in the very important moment to make something historical like this all happen, and once the signatures go on that, it makes it a real thing all of a sudden. There’s a lot of hard work that went into it: our outside counsel, our legal counsel and those that were all involved to make this happen. I’m happy that it’s something about the sport of soccer and I think it’s bigger than that. Hopefully, we see a ripple effect around the world and go from there.
How was your childhood and life growing up in Veghel, Netherlands?
I tell myself that I’ve been in the best of two worlds. My father is American. My mother is Dutch. I lived in California there for a little bit and then moved back to Holland. I was born in Holland as well. I went to The American School until I was 11 years old and I actually fell in love with the game of soccer probably a little bit earlier than 11 years old through my family. We played in the backyard. The love of the game, the round ball and kicking and diving and all that kind of stuff got me to really love the game. When I switched over to a Dutch school at 11, 12 years old, from a club perspective, that’s where my development started within the game of soccer. [I’m] still very fortunate to be part of soccer so, after a career as an amateur at 17 years old and a professional, and then later on being able to hopefully influence soccer in a positive way moving forward. I’ve been doing that now for almost 20 years. And every day, I wake up with a smile and go to work with a smile. So, that’s kind of like the best thing that you can have, probably.
What game, teams and/or players made you fall in love with the sport?
I grew up watching Ajax. I grew up down south in Holland, where usually you have to be a PSV Eindhoven fan, where I was very much an Ajax fan at the time. And just that the way they play soccer was one influence, watching World Cups and my father buying me my first tape of one Edson Arantes do Nascimento, otherwise known as Pelé, and just going out seeing him juggle melons and all that kind of stuff, and seeing if I could grab an orange or anything like that my mom would give me, to also go outside and master my craft. So, just a whole combination of things, of watching Ajax, world championships and just seeing the massiveness of the game and how big it is globally. And just from my hero at the time was Pelé as I got the first tape from my father. So, a combination of those three, for sure.
Were you ever intent from childhood to want to become a professional soccer player in the Eredivisie or other places?
I can’t say I was a career planner at the time, certainly not at a young age at all. I just love the game. My mother and father, they worked hard all of their lives raising us children and my father, all he has done for us, is to travel the world as I’m doing now for my family and always providing, so I’m just that mentality working hard was something that came naturally to my parents.
So, it wasn’t about career planning, it was more just about enjoying and committing yourself to that. And from that, there are steps that you then take and make once you start moving along and actually it’s no different right now. I just try to focus on the things that I have control of within my environment, work hard at it, state my opinion about it and then together with a whole group of brilliant people try to make it better every single day.
So far in your three-year tenure as the first technical director of U.S. Soccer and four years as part of the federation in a prominent decision-making level, you have overseen the USWNT retain its World Cup title and the men return to both the World Cup and the Olympics, two pivotal successes. What are some other accomplishments during your time with U.S. Soccer that you think aren’t getting talked about enough?
There are a lot of things that people don’t see. It’s one, building a vision of a sporting organization and the way that we work together. And that all revolves around our way of playing, so documenting that is extremely important and then from that documentation are the processes that need to be in place to actually be able to perform. And the better that we as staff can organize camps and organize thoughts and get feedback will make it easier to develop players. So, that process piece is something with a lot of people that we have taken care of. That’s something that I’m really proud of.
The other piece is that we’re now finally playing in a place where we’re all playing and having the same principles no matter if we’re talking about girls, boys, senior national teams, so from top to bottom, we’re thinking in the same way. And probably the main thing is, I remember in the beginning when we started with a technical plan how our female coaches or our male coaches would talk about gender. And that’s gone. There’s no talk about gender or anything like that anymore. It’s about the principles of how we want to do that. And then some things girls are faster when they grow up and in other things boys are faster, so making a combination of learning from one another so the cross-pollination to one another is also something I’m extremely happy with. Just having that communication and it starts around one big plan: How do we want to play and the principles around that. So everything is filtered around that. I’ve said how weird this sounds, COVID was a blessing in disguise for us to get our heads out of the weeds for a period of time and be able to really focus and concentrate on that.
I’m very thankful to our two head coaches [Gregg Berhalter and Vlatko Andonovski], who are open to communicating with youth national team coaches. I don’t believe that happens everywhere, let me put it that way. And then our youth national team coaches that were here work very hard behind the scenes to implement what we are trying to do.
You mentioned the COVID-19 reset you had with senior national team managers Berhalter and Andonovski. What were some of those things that you feel you all benefited from during that period?
I’m a firm believer in being together. And human interaction is, I think, extremely important. And what happened was not everybody was traveling. We had more opportunities to be in the office together. We’re having a wine and tea summit on [September] 15th and 16th to discuss everything about YNT [youth national teams]. We planned this probably five months ago and that was the first time we could get all of our coaches, without our senior national team coaches, due to their travel, together. So that period where we were dormant and weren’t able to travel with coaches did give us the opportunity to actually focus on each other and the thoughts that we have in moving the way we want to play and moving forward.
Quinn Sullivan (right) and the U.S. Under-20 men’s national team qualified for the Olympics for the first time since 2008.
ORLANDO SIERRA/AFP via Getty Images
We want to become world champion on the men’s side and stay world champion on the women’s side. We have a good way to go on the men’s side, but we can’t be blinded by the success of an amazing generation. We got to keep moving forward and evolve the game.
It’s been two months since the Under-20 men won the U-20 CONCACAF tournament to send the men’s program back to the Olympics for the first time since 2008. What is your final overview of that tournament’s success matching the ethos of what you want from your teams?
Where would I start with this? And I say this with a little hesitancy because it might come off that I think winning is important, that’s what my whole life revolves around. However, as what you were talking about, it’s the way that we did it that’s important. CONCACAF is a great environment for us to show what we can do, but winning in CONCACAF doesn’t mean anything. Because now you have to go to the global stage, Olympics, world championships and show your traits there. Qualifying is fantastic, but especially what you were talking about, the way that we did.
I’m never too concerned about players missing chances or making mistakes. That’s what I want our young players to do. I want them to take adventures, make sure that in our philosophy that to get to the global stage and be successful there you will have to have players that are creative, that can handle decision-making under stress in tight spaces. That is what that game is about at that level. That means we have to prepare for that level.
And the way that Mikey Varas with the Under-20 team did not only play and get results and qualify us for the Olympics and world championship, it made me extremely proud. There was a really determined and set way in understanding between players, from Paxten Aaronson to Quinn Sullivan, scoring goals being dangerous, always forward facing, forward passing, plus a good organization. Now we’re in the right ballgame and if we can start doing this over and over again, we will be prepared for the global stages and the Olympics and world championships.
Because we’re bullish, we want to become world champion on the men’s side and stay world champion on the women’s side. We have a good way to go on the men’s side, but we can’t be blinded by the success of an amazing generation. We got to keep moving forward and evolve the game.
You currently still are the only Black Player in USMNT history to captain an American side in a World Cup game. What is your full perspective on your legacy and place as a Black player on the team and your position on the history and future of diversity on the national team?
My place in that? Hmm …
I was very privileged in that I grew up in Holland, a very liberal country that accepts everybody for the most part. Not to say everything’s perfect, because that’s also not [true]. I didn’t realize what I heard some of my colleagues experienced in the United States. For me to captain our men’s national team at the time was just something as a soccer player. I identify myself as an African American. [I viewed myself then] not as an African American but as a soccer player, being able to lead my team, our team, the U.S. team, the biggest country in the world. For all the goals I scored, that is the moment against Portugal that I was probably most proud.
And then later on, when we talk about U.S. Soccer DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and how important it is and what kind of places that has in our organization, you start to look back and say those are important moments. I’m a sports man at heart and I pride myself by thinking that I don’t see color [in terms of trying to see everyone equal on initial glance]. I see good and bad, that’s what I see. I try to be as unbiased as I can in the decisions that I make. As I said, youth national teams are not [solely] about winning, and I say that with a little bit of a smile since I love winning. But at the senior national team level, it’s about winning.
And if we address the root of the problem, I think in the end, to your point about DEI, we’re going to solve the problem. It might not be tomorrow, because I don’t like window dressing, like the Rooney Rule as an example. What has it really done for us up to now?
So we have got to do better with that and that for me starts at the foundation of everything. And that’s my core belief in life and as long as we go to the core root of the problem, and fix it there, man, in some cases it might be a year, in some cases it might be five years, but then we’re going to be in the right place.
You talked previously with [former men’s team forward and current New England Revolution analyst] Charlie Davies and how he expresses the importance that you and Cobi Jones had on him growing up, and myself too. And another notable Black American soccer figure of the ’90s, Briana Scurry …
I saw her actually too on the field [during the equal pay signing].
Oh, really … ?
Yeah, I tell you what, I got nervous. I’m in the box and I see Kate Markgraf, Kristine Lilly, Briana Scurry, I got nervous there, I have to say, ha ha.
That bond that you have with not only Cobi, but with other prominent Black players on the 2002 USMNT team, Eddie Pope, Tony Sanneh and Carlos Llamosa, how was that camaraderie back then?
Cobi and I roomed together for the bulk of our men’s national team career. From beginning to end, we were always roommates. I cherish those moments that we had, the conversations that we had, all kinds of things.
And then seeing the next African American standing up and Tony playing an amazing World Cup in 2002. And Eddie Pope, one of the best defenders the U.S. has ever had. Eddie was capable of anything and everything. And so humble. So humble.
It’s fun to see that everybody is involved in the game in some sort of way. Some are agents, some are helping from a coaching perspective. So, to see that just warms the heart.
Weston McKennie (left) and Tyler Adams (right) are starring for the U.S. men’s national team.
Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
It’s the second consecutive season of a number of young USMNT players playing in the best club soccer competition in the world, the UEFA Champions League. How excited are you about this continued development of seeing Weston McKennie score at another big stadium versus an elite club, a header versus PSG, as well as Sergino Dest, Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna?
I think it goes back a longer period of time when U.S. Soccer created the development academy. It’s pretty logical to see the influx of talent into the national team, after not qualifying [for the World Cup] in 2018, and then making those steps to the bigger clubs.
For those European clubs, the growth of MLS and NWSL, the American player is still interesting just from their physicality. We still need to work on some things, decision-making and creativity. And we can do that with some changes. But the growth of those players and transfer into Europe at the highest level, Champions League, is something unique. It’s fantastic for the sport.
For young kids to be the next Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic and Gio Reyna, how great is that to be able to see them? … These are just fantastic things to see and it shows the growth that’s happened from there. And now, that just needs to continue.
It’s been over two years since the murder of George Floyd and the 2020 summer of Black Lives Matter protests changing the world. U.S. Soccer allowed their players, particularly Black players, to express their public candid thoughts on the changes required to end racism and racial injustices. The federation repealed that players and coaches do not have to “stand respectfully” for the national anthem if they do not want to. What are any other changes in U.S. Soccer that you have witnessed from that summer to address any issues of past inequality and needed diversity?
Obviously I’m a bit biased since I work in U.S. Soccer. If I just take the last two to three years under Cindy Parlow Cone, the discussion that’s gone on about it is already amazing in itself. Is everything perfect? Probably not. However, the discussions are there, we’re taking things into account, we’re talking to players, we’re trying to move forward as an organization. And as I say as an organization, we are a total landscape that needs to take everything on board. And it’s just U.S. Soccer that needs to do that.
I’m trying to be a leader in that, and the historic moment that happened with the equality signing, I think there have been steps taken that are extremely important and great for the growth of our sport. And even bigger than sport. I think they’ve done a really good job, but as U.S. Soccer, you’re almost like the government, it’s never good enough.
We talked about Briana Scurry earlier, we have witnessed a major increase of Black players on the USWNT over the last few years. Along with mainstays Mallory Pugh and Crystal Dunn, we have seen the likes of Sophia Smith, Alana Cook, Naomi Girma and other Black players called into rosters. What do you attribute this sudden increase to?
Once again this goes back longer and the DA [diversity awareness] and the roots and providing opportunity.
And if we can provide opportunity for those not as fortunate and just lower the level, the entry level of being able to play the game of soccer — if you look at it, it’s just balls and cones — that’s what we’re talking about. But I understand, logistically, we’re very challenged with all the travel that we have to do.
But I am convinced that if all these kids start to love the game just as much as we do and you have a big influence on that as parents, as U.S. Soccer, in having really good coaches that can create fun. That’s the most important thing: fun and safe environments that are always challenging and that kids can play at their level. And the more that grows, at the root, instead of having 5 million kids playing, if that becomes 10, 20, 25 million, then you can also imagine that the costs will really swing.
Really simply, now that we have all these kids playing the game, we have to provide a structure for that. And then we are going to see even more of those players coming through. Latinos, African Americans, Caucasians. It’s going to be a better mix of who we actually are from the United States.
Are there any other future soccer players in the Stewart family after yourself?
So my father was in American football, my mother was a sprinter, my sister was a Dutch national champion in swimming. She was the first woman of African descent to become a swimming champion in Holland.
And my little brother played soccer, he was actually at professional clubs, including PSV Eindhoven, and he never made the next step. My son played for a longer period of time but also just quit, so the next one up is my little brother’s son and he’s got to carry the torch somehow, ha ha.
What are your expectations for the USMNT as they return to the World Cup in late November in Qatar?
Gregg and I, when we both started with U.S. Soccer, one of the things we said was that we want to change how the world views American soccer. And what we mean by that is when Gregg and I played, team commitment and defense [was the style].
What we want to change is actually the way we are playing and how do we score goals. This is trying to stay away from results: How do we step on the field and how do we try to score goals and how well are we organized.
If we can get to that stage with our players, I think we’re going to be very successful. So that piece and others now start to talk about the U.S. already a little bit. They are talking differently about the way that we play soccer. Not the way we defend or that we’re good athletes, which is kind of logical, since we in the United States play four or five different sports. And if we get to that place, I’ll be a very happy camper.
For me, that is the difference at a global stage. I guess there’s been world champions that just defended the whole tournament … [but playing that style] I think you aren’t going to have success. At some point, you are going to have to show yourself, you’re going to have to score goals and there’s a way of doing that.
We’ve been working hard on that the last four years, at not just both our senior national teams, but all of our youth teams.
You have smiled a number of times during this talk, where you seem very happy with having this job. Am I reading that enthusiasm from you correctly?
What I’ve learned about myself over these almost 20 years of doing this is what makes me tick. Winning a game, though I really, really enjoy it, it lasts about two minutes, the fulfillment of that. When somebody in their career takes the next step and I played a role in that, whether a player or a coach, that gives a lot of gratification.
I’ve learned that this role is closer to who I am as a manager and trying to create environments for people to thrive. It’s not about my idea. It’s about making sure I’m creating these environments where we can get the best out of the brilliant minds that we have with U.S. Soccer. That’s my role and that’s what makes me tick every day and get up with a smile every day.
Andrew Jones is a sports, political and culture writer whose work has appeared on The Guardian, MSNBC, Ebony Magazine, Salon, SB Nation and The Intercept. He is also proud of his Brooklynite, "Do or Die" Bed-Stuy ways.
Though only 22 years old, cyclist Biniam Girmay of Eritrea carries a lot of potential and expectations, not only for himself but for the sport as it relates to the African continent.
Cycling has long been a predominantly white sport, and it continues to be. No Black riders competed at this year’s Tour de France, the sport’s premier event.
In recent years, though, Africa has started to emerge as a player in the cycling world. The UCI Road World Championships will take place in Rwanda in 2025 and ideally serve as a crowning moment for the sport’s breakthrough in Africa.
In May, Girmay became the first Black African rider to win a Grand Tour Stage in the Giro d’Italia. On Sunday, Girmay competed at the World Championships in Australia, representing the Eritrean national team.
Although an outsider, Girmay’s name was whispered among the favorites. Instead, Remco Evenepoel of Belgium decisively won the race, completing a rarely seen Grand Tour Worlds double (he also won the Vuelta a España this year). Evenepoel is 22, the same age as Girmay, which begs the question: Is it time to take the training wheels off the Eritrean rider?
Girmay was one of the few riders to beat Evenepoel at the youth level, but years later, the gap between the two has widened. Until now, Girmay has only raced in one Grand Tour race, and he won a stage — although he promptly had to retire from the Giro after hitting himself in the eye with a prosecco cork while celebrating his victory.
He is yet to compete in the Vuelta or the Tour de France, which was won as recently as two years ago by Tadej Pogačar, cycling’s Slovenian young star, at age 21.
Yet Girmay remains his country and continent’s most important rising star.
Girmay’s success is more remarkable when you consider the circumstances of his home country. Eritrea, a country the size of Pennsylvania located in the Horn of Africa, is among the most corrupt and repressive nations in the world.
Its population has to deal with power shortages, scarce drinking water, and soaring food prices. Most are reported to live below the poverty line. Society is militarized and volatile, with Eritrea again embroiled in conflict with neighboring Ethiopia as recently as this week.
When it comes to cycling, Eritrea is Africa’s powerhouse — and this has quietly been the case going back nearly a hundred years.
Thousands of people gather every weekend in the city center of Asmara, Eritrea’s capital city, to watch the local bike races.
Youngsters and adults race on whatever bikes they can get their hands on, ranging from more professional bikes sold by established Eritrean riders who are visiting from abroad to dinkier, do-it-yourself rides with flat handlebars, thick tires, and custom seats.
“The streets are just full of people,” said Georgia Cole, a fellow at Scotland’s University of Edinburgh who researches Eritrea. “Cycling is this haven of normality and excitement amidst this tragic deterioration within the country.”
Before the coronavirus pandemic, Cole said, she visited Eritrea five times in eight years but said she has not been allowed back since.
Cycling was first widely introduced in Eritrea when the country was under Italian rule in 1905. Even today, the word for bicycle in one of Eritrea’s most-spoken languages, Tigrinya, is straight from Italian: bicicletta.
The sport was initially exclusively for Italians, the repercussions of which are still arguably felt today across cycling, but Eritreans quickly displayed potential once granted the right to compete in some races starting in the mid-1930s.
In 1939, a special race was arranged, ostensibly to display Italian superiority. But instead, an Eritrean named Ghebremariam Ghebru won the race.
Stories about Weldemichael Asghedom, the country’s first cycling superstar years later, are still fondly told across Eritrea today. Nicknamed “Berbere,” after a local hot pepper, Italian riders apparently found him too hot to handle.
It is not uncommon, Cole said, for kids in Eritrea today to believe their idols are accessible. Eritreans commonly gather to watch cycling’s biggest European races — the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España — and then see local prospects like Girmay training for those competitions when they return home.
“It’s not rare to catch a glimpse, which is really inspiring, I’m sure, for young people [who] are all cycling on fairly similar roads,” she said.
Biniam Girmay of Eritrea finished second in the U23 men’s road race during the World Championships in Belgium in 2021.
Tim de Waele/Getty Images
But the journey that took Girmay from his hometown of Asmara to the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, was far from straightforward. Even now, leaving Eritrea for better training and opportunities is daunting for many prospects.
Cole said that other countries are often hesitant to grant Eritrean athletes visas because they think Eritreans might be trying to escape the dire situation back home.In 2019, four Eritrean soccer players defected while on a trip abroad, and the country’s entire national soccer team did so in 2012.
“Cycling is still at a time where a rider from Africa has a lot more logistics,” said Aike Visbeek, the sporting director of Girmay’s current team Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert.
This means that opportunities for Africa’s best can be limited. Even Girmay, Visbeek said, tends to face a lengthy process when waiting to see if he can enter other countries.
“If you want to be professional, you must be in Europe,” said Benjamin Giraud, a French former cyclist who worked with Girmay in 2020 and 2021.
But sometimes, being there is impossible. Eight years ago, three Eritrean cyclists were denied visas to train at the UCI’s countryside training center in Switzerland, the same center that Girmay would eventually use after moving to Europe in 2018.
Other obstacles beyond the riders’ control persist. For example, COVID-19 requirements also hinder how or if Eritreans can move around the world, since the country has no existing vaccination campaign.
Benjamin Giraud, a French former professional cyclist, first noticed Girmay at a competition in Gabon in 2019. In a tricky stage of the race, Giraud saw Girmay best 11-time Tour de France stage winner André Greipel.
Their paths crossed again a year later, when Giraud retired as a cyclist and joined second-division French team Delko as sporting director. The team signed Girmay, fresh off his stint training in Switzerland, to his first professional contract.
That January, Giraud says, Delko asked the newly-signed Girmay to report to their base near Marseille in the south of France. It was winter and it was freezing cold.
“He came in shorts, T-shirt, nothing more,” Giraud said, chuckling.
Girmay’s two developmental years with Delko, before the team closed in 2021 because of financial difficulties, allowed him to adjust to European cycling. Races in Europe typically rely more on strategy, and the narrower roads mean more technical courses for the riders.
The Eritrean rider had offers from some of cycling’s biggest and wealthiest teams but signed with Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert, a Belgian team with the World Tour’s smallest budget.
“He is a rider who reads the race really well. The potential is unlimited,” said Benjamin Giraud, a French ex-cyclist who worked with Biniam Girmay (left) in 2020 and 2021.
David Stockman/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
Visbeek’s pitch was that Intermarché could provide more opportunities for Girmay exactly because the team didn’t have the money to attract the same names he would be behind on other squads.
Girmay was sold on the offer, and the team has worked closely with him since to help him peak at the right time and relieve the attention around him. Soon after joining, during last year’s World Championships in Belgium, Girmay finished second in the U23 men’s road race.
“There are races where we are pretty sure he can ride for the victory and races where he goes as an investment,” Visbeek said. “But some of the races we thought were an investment, he’s already riding for a result. That’s the good part about his development.”
But even though that development has yet to truly hit the big stage, the belief in Girmay’s future remains strong.
“Maybe the limit for him will be the time trial and the really high mountain, but he is a rider who reads the race really well,” Giraud said. “The potential is unlimited.”
Wilko Martínez-Cachero is a Los Angeles-based journalist and audio producer from Madrid, Spain. He covers the intersections between sports and society.
Rod Graves continues work in improving inclusive hiring in the NFL
Fritz Pollard Alliance executive director: ‘The most challenging part of the job is recognizing that change is not occurring fast enough for many in the field’
Rod Graves, formerly an NFL general manager and a high-ranking official in the commissioner’s office, is in his fourth year as the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Perhaps no one is better suited than Rod Graves to be an advocate on behalf of the NFL’s Black employees.
Formerly both an NFL general manager and a high-ranking official in the commissioner’s office, Graves, who is Black, is the executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. The independent organization advises NFL leaders on matters of diversity, equity and inclusion in hiring at the franchise level.
As the group’s primary decision-maker, Graves has a seat at the table whenever the people who run professional sports’ most powerful league meet to discuss efforts to improve their hiring record.
Graves has never been busier.
The NFL has a hiring crisis among its teams, many league officials acknowledge privately, with many Black officials in football and business operations throughout the league believing they don’t have the same opportunities as their white counterparts to climb ladders. The NFL has 32 teams and only three Black head coaches. The last 36 openings for head coaches saw only four Black men hired.
Moreover, the NFL is being sued by three Black coaches who allege that the NFL commits widespread malfeasance in its hiring practices based on race. In 2020, Black or African American players accounted for 57.5% of those on NFL rosters. That number has been as high as 70%.
The fact is, more than half of the league’s on-field workforce is Black, but Black people are vastly underrepresented in NFL team leadership.
In a wide-ranging interview with Andscape recently, Graves offered his opinion on the hiring landscape as a new NFL season gets underway.
You’ve been in your post for a good bit now, and a lot has occurred during your watch. Has your work been harder than you expected?
I am in my fourth year as executive director of the Fritz Pollard Alliance. This has been the perfect time to work through many of the issues we’ve been facing. Corporations are more sensitive to issues of social responsibility than before. The most challenging part of the job is recognizing that change is not occurring fast enough for many in the field. I’ve worked with many of them throughout my career. I know what they put into their work and the sacrifices they make for their love of the game. Many of them deserve consideration for advancement but often don’t get it. That motivates me and many others to strive for a hiring system that is fair and equitable for all.
As we start the 2022-23 NFL season, how do you feel, generally speaking, about where things stand with hiring in the league?
Today, there is more diversity in various leadership roles across the NFL. The efforts focused on improving DE&I [diversity, equity and inclusion] have been encouraging. The numbers show notable progress in certain areas. Nonetheless, the vision is for an inclusive system that identifies, nurtures, and projects the best talent. We hope to see someday that system universally applied across the enterprise of the NFL.
Do you feel the FPA has a good working relationship with the league office?
The working relationship between the FPA and the NFL has been welcoming and inclusive. The relationship started with commissioner Paul Tagliabue and co-founders of the FPA, John Wooten and Cyrus Mehri. The partnership has only strengthened under commissioner [Roger] Goodell. Working with the commissioner, owners, league and team executives has been a wonderful experience. In many respects, our objectives are intertwined. The mission of the FPA is to seek broader opportunities for people of color and other minorities. We believe the league is best if it invests in processes that develop and identify the best talent it offers.
We were happy to partner with the league and others on that project. The league’s organizers did a great job. I am still excited about the program’s impact on the owners, the coaches, and the executives who participated. It was a great form of engagement. Everyone had a chance to relax, share views, and get to know one another. We left the event aspiring for a similar opportunity in the future.
I believe the coaching fellowship is an excellent foundational program. The emphasis has been on placing minorities into coaching fellowships that may lead to opportunities where the league does not have a high concentration of minorities — for example, QB and O-line coaching positions. The league is trying to increase the opportunities for more minorities in the pipeline. In its present form, the program only started a few years ago. Its success will depend on the commitment of head coaches to allow the participants to become position coaches.
We’ve seen a lot of progress made in the hiring of team presidents and some progress made in the hiring of general managers. Are you encouraged about those developments?
I am encouraged. Those selected for the positions are outstanding business leaders and team executives. The key to progress is sustainability. We will need to observe what happens over the next several years at those positions and in C-suite hires before getting a firm handle on progress. We are also working to spotlight diversity and hiring issues in other league subsidiaries such as NFL Films, NFL Media, NFL Properties, etc.
Commissioner Goodell seems committed to positive change. Do you think that a fair assessment?
The commissioner has been a true catalyst for positive change. He’s demonstrated that throughout his time as commissioner. I’ve had the privilege of working with him closely. I’m thoroughly convinced that he wants what is best for the game.
Jason Reid is the senior NFL writer at Andscape. He enjoys watching sports, especially any games involving his son and daughter.
