Author: Running It Back

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Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf – A Lesson in Protest

This week we run it back to the story of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf to glean lessons about the protests we’re seeing in 2020. Mahmoud began his life as Chris Jackson, a poor kid from Louisiana who battled Tourette’s Syndrome to become a tremendous college basketball player at LSU in the early 1990s. We chronicle the challenges he faced finding his way as he eventually found solace and spiritual direction through Islam. That in turn led him to change his name and begin with a silent protest of the National Anthem that eventually went public. As he remained true to his convictions, he was blackballed by the NBA and was quickly out of the league, in some ways presaging the story of Colin Kaepernik in 2016.

What lessons can we learn from Mahmoud’s story? How is he similar and different from Kaepernik? We dive into all of this as we look for lessons to be learned based on the transformative story of the life of Abdul-Rauf. And we also harken back to the early 1990s along the way.

Thanks as always for listening.

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Coach John Thompson’s Georgetown Hoyas and the Ewing Era

We begin by reflecting on the tragic loss of Chadwick Boseman, aka Black Panther, before diving into the history of the other legend who passed recently, Georgetown Coach John Thompson. Coach Thompson was a towering figure who established a program whose legacy we’re still experiencing to this day. We explore his impact on college basketball by focusing on getting young black men access to education while giving them support as men. We extol the timeless ways in which he connected with his players for good times and bad as we tell the stories of Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, Allen Iverson, and Michael Graham. And we explore the lessons in his decision to walk out in 1989 to protest Proposition 48 and its impact on traditionally underserved student-athletes.

And, of course, we dive into Ewing and Thompson’s storied run from an appearance in the NCAA Finals against Dean Smith, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, and Michael Jordan in 1982 to a Championship in 1984 to a legendary run in 1985 which culminated in the shocking upset by Villanova in the Finals in 1985.

While we mourn the loss of Coach Thompson, we take some solace in running it back to another time and learning from the life of a man who had the courage to stand by his conviction and the vision to establish a legacy that changed the world.