FORT WORTH, Texas — It’s been nearly 30 years since Charles Barkley told the world he didn’t think he should be a role model, a message that today’s pro athlete has no concept of asking.
On Tuesday afternoon at the Hope Farms center in Fort Worth, Dallas Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb was the surprise guest at the unveiling of a refurbished basketball court for the facility for at-risk kids.
The court was donated by the Kobe Bryant’s charity, “The Mamba & Mambacita Sports Foundation.”
For this load of young kids here on Tuesday afternoon under finally mild temperatures, seeing CeeDee Lamb in the flesh was the combination of meeting Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.
Talking to CeeDee Lamb was a surreal moment. Dribbling a basketball with the guy they see on TV is a moment that they will never forget.
CeeDee is no childhood myth.
“Once I found out I had the opportunity to do this, I really wanted to be a part of it,” Lamb said on the court that features Fort Worth’s skyline with Kobe Bryant’s jersey No. 8 as well as his late daughter Gigi, who wore No. 2.
Bryant and his daughter died in a helicopter crash on Jan. 26, 2020.
Lamb is partnered with Body Armor sports drink, which has a link to the Mambacita foundation. The charity organization picked 10 U.S. cities to donate basketball courts, and Fort Worth’s Hope Farms made the list.
“Any time there is a chance to give back or get involved in giving back to the community, or just being with kids, I am for it,” Lamb said. “I remember when I was one of the young ones. Just seeing a guy I looked up to, or seeing an very inspirational person, and just understanding that one day I want to be just like him.
“No matter what he’s going through, good or bad, I want his life.”
Lamb, who was born in Louisiana, not too far from New Orleans, moved to Houston after Hurricane Katrina destroyed much of that area.
He is the second oldest of seven boys, four on his mother’s side and two on his father’s side. Lamb didn’t grow up exactly like these kids at Hope Farms, but he can relate to all of them.
His mom famously drove her son 45-miles, in Houston traffic, one way so he could practice with his pee-wee team.
“I want to be a great role model for the younger generation,” he said.
Of all of the changes in major sports in the last 20 years, the acceptance that they are all role models is universal. Today, there is no hesitation.
Even if they don’t really want to do it, they know they are.
It’s a dramatic shift from the generation of pro athletes who in the 1980s and early 90s were the first to benefit from the massive exposure generated by the advent and expansion of cable television, and increased media coverage of all things sports.
Famously, in 1993 Barkley was in his ninth NBA season and established as one of the best players in basketball, with a personality like no other.
He would say, and often do, anything.
That year, he filmed a Nike commercial where he said, “I am not a role model. I am not paid to be a role model. I am paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court.
“Parents should be role models. Just because I dunk a basketball, doesn’t mean I should raise your kids.”
The genesis for the commercial came from Barkley after years of speaking to school kids; he noticed that schools where the children were predominately Black, all of the kids aspired to be athletes whereas when he visited schools where the children were predominately White, “10 percent” of the kids wanted to be athletes.
Last year, Barkley recounted the evolution of the famous Nike spot on The ETCs Podcast with current NBA star Kevin Durant and host Eddie Eddie Gonzalez.
Barkley told the hosts, “I always joke to my friends, I’m the only person in the world that ever got in trouble for telling kids to listen to their parents.”
Barkley is as accurate then as he is today. It was a powerful spot that led to debate that endured for well over a decade.
Today, there is no debate.
The parent should be the role model, but the kid wants to be the person they see on TV, or their screen.
The reach and appeal of celebrity is the power of the sun.
It’s just a matter if the athlete embraces and wants the responsibility, or tries to minimize the weight of being an athlete.
Our collective expectations for anyone kissed by celebrity is so low that it doesn’t take much to set a decent example. Most of the time being even an average role model just means not screwing up, and being polite in public.
Whatever the specifics, the athlete today knows they are watched, and that the kid they used to be wants to be them.
“I feel like it just comes with the territory,” Lamb said. “I’m playing for the Dallas Cowboys, wearing No. 88, No. 1 receiver. It’s all part of it. I’m taking it with a full head of steam, and I am enjoying every bit of it.”
Judging by the reaction of the kids whom he hung out with at Hope Farms, he really doesn’t have a choice, so he may as well just enjoy it.
