It does not take a genius to count from zero to two or to understand pro sports and major media outlets are the last plantations in America.

For example; in 2016 the NHL has zero ownership, MBL has zero ownership, NFL has zero ownership, NBA has one black owner and many in the black community thinks he should be designated as “Other”. It is not about jobs in the black community it’s about ownership.

The NHL is led by a racist by the name of Gary Bettman and this is not based on he say, she say. I was up close and personal with Bettman (NBA Counselor), Ron Thorn (NBA VP) and Horace Balmer (Head of Security) at NBA headquarters in New York City in 1978.

In 1978 I was hired by Nike as a Sports and Marketing rep to cover the eastern region of the U. S. John Phillips was the Director of Basketball and Marketing for Nike Shoes. He asked me to join him in New York City to meet with the NBA brain trust of Bettman, Thorn and Balmer.

In 1977 Nike sponsored a trip to the Bahamas, the home of NBA star Mychal Thompson of the L. A. Lakers (son Clay Thompson). The trip was in conjunction with a charity All-Star Game with other members of the NBA that included Magic Johnson. The league balked at the 1978 game and John was called to New York City for the meeting.

The meeting got off to a cordial beginning with everyone smiling and shaking hands, but once the discussion started, Bettman claimed the game could not be played. When John asked the question why? Bettman’s response was, “Because we own the players!”

I jumped up from the table and said “I beg your pardon, are you saying the players are slaves”? All hell broke loose and the meeting had to be adjourned to a later time and place. We never met again and that is how I remember Bettman. He showed his true colors. It was then I understood why Irving Johnson was named “Magic” he disappeared like a puff of smoke leaving me and John Phillips holding the bag.

In 2016 there are no “Major Media” outlets own by black folks (newspapers, radio and television). The 1% who control all the wealth can be found in their Ivory Towers and luxury box suites on any given Sunday in sports arenas throughout America enjoying combat between the lions and their slaves. If you have any doubts that the plantation mentality is a figment of my imagination, look no further then Washington, DC, the Nation’s Capitol—once called “Chocolate City”, there its taxation without representation!

According to ESPN First Take’s Stephen A. Smith, Wilbon, is “One of the most respected sports journalist in America and a pioneer”??? Wilbon would have us to believe, that the reason behind this country’s racist charade are ‘Analytics’? Come on man!

For example; was it analytics that got winning coaches Tony Dungee, Mark Jackson and Lionel Hollins fired. Sonny Hill got kicked to the curb by CBS back in the day?

Remember, this is the same Michael Wilbon who as a sports columnist while at the Washington Post, claimed his sports editor George Solomon looked over his shoulder and told him what to write and what not to write. Why should we think anything has changed?

Remember, this is the same Michael Wilbon who volunteered and told me in the NBA Wizards’ press room, “ESPN wants me to appear on a segment of “Outside the Lines” to discuss the “N word,” but I have decided not to appear because the white host has no horse in the race”!

I was impressed, because he was finally taking a stand. He had been “A go along to get along Negro his entire media career.”

The following Sunday, who do I see sitting on the set of “Outside the Lines,” with the white host who had no horse in the race discussing the “N-word? Michael Wilbon.

Major media outlets like “The Undefeated,” are still trying to dictate to us who our heroes are and who they are not. Our heroes are definitely not “Go along to get along Negroes.”

Nine out of ten barber shops in the inner-city will say “No” to Michael Wilbon and his partner in deceit, Stephan A. Smith, because they speak with ‘Fork Tongues’.

I remember when Washington Post sports columnist Donald Huff wrote a column on me in the 70s as it related to my impact on sports talk radio. He went to the street corners, playgrounds, pool halls and barber shops in the Shaw/Cardozo to see how I rated. Glenn Harris a sports talk show host on WHUR Radio on the campus of Howard University, said, “The folks in the streets love Harold Bell, I can’t figure that one out yet!” The Common denominator—I am from the streets.

Several years ago Stephan A. Smith was participating in a panel discussion on racism in America for Essence Magazine. He flat out said, “I cannot talk about racism on my radio show because my white audiences who pay my salary don’t want to hear it.”

He spoke several months later at his alma mater Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. During his Commencement speech, he chastised the graduating class to stand for something and don’t just fall for anything! Now if that is not talking out of both sides of your mouth, I don’t know what is.

According to USA Today writer Jason Lisk, “Wilbon didn’t find any cross-examples of black people who embrace analytics. Since the article posted, others have pointed out that he didn’t ask them. It would require some analytical interest in finding the truth, but if you want to say that race matters when it comes to those small groups interested in analytics, you could maybe do a poll, and ask questions that isolate hardcore sports fans, race and income and age, and knowledge of certain stats. This piece is not persuasive at all that it matters. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t”. So who is to say, this is not something Wilbon made up?

I like USA Today writer Lisk’s assumption, “It would require some ANALYTICAL interest in finding the TRUTH”. I refer back to actor Jack Nicholson’s courtroom statement in the movie A Few Good Men, ‘Some folks cannot handle the TRUTH’—-meet Michael Wilbon.

ESPN just launched a new website titled “Undefeated” aimed at discussing and focusing on black issues in America. Man, give me a break!

Washington Post columnist and former radio talk show host Mike Wise on 107 FM in DC The Fan is a contributor and I find him more trustworthy then Wilbon when it comes to trying to get the story right as it relates to the black community.

They are the only two names that I recognize so far as contributors. I thought cheerleader Jason Whitlock was on board but I understand ESPN fired him before the site launch.

I was critical of Wise when he wrote for the Washington Post, but I also gave him credit when credit was due (same with Wilbon). Wise is not a bad guy but for some reason like most in sports media they become full of themselves.

For example in a Washington Post column in January 2013 he called out RG3 shortly after Rod Parker was fired from ESPN for asking “Is RG 3 a “Cornhead Brother?” Stephan A. Smith and Wilbon were so quiet you could hear a mouse piss on cotton (see summary of column below).

WASHINGTON POST SPORTS COLUMNIST MIKE WISE CLEARS ESPN’S ROB PARKER

On Sunday January 12, 2013 there was a column titled “Why won’t Washington Redskin QB RG lll talk about his team’s name?” The story appears in the Outlook section of the Washington Post. The commentary was written by Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise.

He was knowingly or unknowingly asking the same question former ESPN analyst Rob Parker was asking his colleagues on ESPN’s “First Take” and a national television audience on Wed December 12, 2012. Rob wanted to know if RG lll was a real brother or a Cornhead brother and if he was down with the cause (where was his loyalty)?

Wise said (summary), “The one person who could make Redskin owner Daniel Snyder come to his senses and realize it is time to stop demeaning Native Americans. But I fear that Griffin is not that guy, and not just because he’ll be focused for the next few months on physical therapy on his knee. No young, dynamic leader of an NFL team is that guy (or old dynamic leader). Pro players (or blacks in sports media at ESPN) who take on controversial social debates are gone, replaced by athletes (or sports media personalities similar to Stephen A. Smith) whose goal is not to offend-because that would mean fewer commercials, a loss of sponsors and, God forbid, a Q rating lower than Michael Jordan’s.”

The bottom-line as Wise pointed out in his column, there are no more Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown, Arthur Ashe, or Curt Floods “who were down with the causes!”
That was all Rob Parker was asking on ESPN’s “First Take.” The question if you re-call, ‘Is he a brother or a Cornhead brother and is he down with the cause?’ The answer according to Wise’s column is YES to both questions.

First, ESPN suspended Rob Parker for 30 days before waiting two weeks into his suspension before firing him.
Wise, I am sure can relate to Rob Parker’s fate at ESPN he was recently fired from his sports talk show at 107 FM “The Fan” in DC which I am sure he thought was unfair (welcome to the black side of town).

We must remember as we move forward (or backwards depending on where you are sitting) professional sports in America are still the highest form of exploitation. The plantation mentality is alive and well (a media press room is a close second).

Whether Mike Wise wanted to or not he cleared Rob Parker’s name with the blessings of the Washington Post! He revealed RG III’s real identity!

I have not forgotten when Wise invited me to be a guest on his radio talk show the “Fan” after my blog on the Bleacher Report titled “Will the Real John Thompson Stand Up For Jayson Whitlock” went viral with over 30, 000 hits in three days.

http://bleacherreport.com/users/121596-harold-bell / See Jason Whitlock loud and wrong on John Thompson

Wise and his cheer leading co-host tried to ambush me by defending John Thompson against my allegations of him being a corrupt college basketball coach and a worthless human being. The show burned up the air waves and former City Paper columnist Dave McKenna gave me high marks for sticking to my guns as it related to Thompson. I am always going to get high marks—you cannot go wrong when you tell the truth.

John Thompson, Jr. continues to be the worthless human being I said he was. Recently he refuses to allow his son Georgetown basketball coach John Thompson III to be his own man. This past season Big John stormed into a press conference being conducted by his son. He demanded that his son stop answering questions and when he continue to answer the questions, he told him to “Shut the F—K up!”

It gets worst, last month Bob Grier once one of his best friends and assistant coach for the Georgetown basketball team died. Bob along with Sandy Freeman use to keep me off of John’s sorry ass on the DC NE playgrounds, he was as soft as cotton. Big John attended the funeral with his girlfriend and former mistress Mary Ann Finley (academic coach for the team). Finley was once engaged to marry Bob Grier until John stole her away and fired Bob.

James Wiggins was Big John’s “Bag Man.” Wiggins ran the Urban Coalition Summer Basketball League for Big John until the gate receipts came up missing.

He said, “I sat right next to him at Bob’s funeral and he would not even speak to me.” I forgot to tell Wiggins, ‘John was just being John, he wanted you to show him the money!’

In one of his e-mail responses, Wise said, “Harold you belong in the Hall of Fame, but you have probably pissed all the judges off!” Mike Wise, ‘You might be on to something!’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfKQOH5_iiw / the Original Inside Sports

The benefactors who came through Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports before their 15 minutes of fame speaks volumes; Dave Aldridge (TNT) James Brown (CBS) Dave Bing (NBA) Tim Baylor (NFL) Kevin Blackistone (ESPN) Jamie Foster Brown (Sister 2 Sister) Adrian Branch (NBA) Adrian Dantley (NBA) Larry Fitzgerald, Sr. (Minn. Spokesman) Bobby Gardner (NFL) Glenn Harris (WHUR) Darryl Hill (ACC) Jo Jo Hunter (NBA) Cathy Hughes (Radio and TV One) Dave Jacobs (Boxing) Jair Lynch (Olympian) Sugar Ray Leonard (Boxing) Tony Paige (NFL) Butch McAdams (Radio One) Vasti McKinzie (AME Church) Oden Polyniece (NBA) Aaron Pryor (Boxing) Bill Rhoden (NY Times) Chris Thomas (BET) John Thompson, Jr. (Georgetown) Cecil Turner (NFL) Omar Tyree (author) Michael Wilbon (ESPN) Michelle Wright (Radio One). Liabilities and benefactors after the fact; Jim Brown (NFL) Don King (Boxing) Earl Lloyd (NBA) Doug Williams (NFL) Willie Wood (NFL)

If Wilbon thinks because there is a black President, Barack Obama, one media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, and one NBA owner, Michael Jordan, if they are his best examples of black progress in America, he is dead wrong.

We just got through celebrating Brown vs Board of Education’s landmark decision on April 16, 1954 banishing school segregation in America. Would you believe sixty-two years later in Cleveland, Mississippi blacks are still not allowed to attend schools with whites. Alabama leads the nation (200+) when it comes to Civil Rights cases on the court docket. Racism is alive and well and thriving in America.

On May 27, 2016 Judge Debra M. Brown ordered the town of Cleveland, Mississippi to confront its segregated past, insisting the town had been violating children’s civil rights, and that it is the school district’s duty “to ensure that not one more student suffers under this burden.” Analytics had nothing to do with this kind of racism.

In 1954 my Spingarn high school basketball teammate Spotswood Bolling was the lead plaintiff for the DC Public Schools (Bolling vs DC Board of Education) and I lived through that landmark decision. I was a freshman student/athlete at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC in 1960 when students from North Carolina A and T University kicked off the first ever sit-in at the segregated Woolworth lunch counter stores. The sit-ins spread 30 miles up the road to Winston-Salem and me and student/athletes Al Mayor (DC), Luther Wiley (Lynchburg, Va.) and Barney Hood (Decatur, Illinois) against the wishes of our coach, Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines join the boycott. The historical March on Washington in 1963 led by the Rev. Martin Luther King I was there.

In 1968 I was standing on the corner of 9th and U Streets aka Black Broadway when riots broke out after the shooting death of Rev. Martin Luther King in Memphis. I was working for the DC recreation Department as a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force). On that April 4th bright sun shiny day, my co-worker Green Bay Packer safety, Willie Wood was standing with me. During the riots Willie and I were joined on the U Street corridor by Luke C. Moore, the first black modern day U. S. Marshall in-charge in America, appointed by the President of the United States. The three of us walked arm in arm in the streets while buildings burned around us.

The web site claims, “The Undefeated is the premier platform for exploring the intersections of race, sports and culture. We enlighten and entertain with innovative storytelling, original reporting and provocative commentary.” My question, how can you be ORIGINAL when there is no-one on staff ORIGINAL when comes to black history? They can only tell stories from he say, she say, there is nothing ORIGINAL about that! The Undefeated will be similar to The Bleacher Report (own by CBS), it will be about control—been there and done that.

For example; there can never be an ORIGINAL INSIDE SPORTS, copied but never duplicated!

How many of us remember when our parents had to decide when it was the proper time and age to teach us about the Birds and the Bees? Today our kids can teach us about the Birds and the Bees and everything else they can GOOGLE on the internet, AKA The Undefeated.

In 2016 we have to teach them about the Cops and the Thugs, who sometimes are one of the same. Police shootings of unarmed black men in America are off the charts.

I have spent five decades working in the DC streets with youth gangs and at-risk children. I have seen the Good, Bad and Ugly of law-enforcement up close and personal.

I am not anti-cop; two of my three brothers were law-enforcement officers encouraged by me to join the force to try to make a difference. I am anti-bully cop. There are some good cops, but they are overrun by the bullies and cowards on the force controlled by the KKK known as the Fraternity Order of Police.

The KKK infiltrated police departments all over this country in the 1800s with strict orders to keep “Niggers in their place by any means necessary”! Some now sit in courtrooms in robes all over America, several in black face. The fix is on in Baltimore!

In 2016 those KKK members now run the Fraternity Order of Police and are Chief of Police in departments all over this country. The 1800s’ mentality is alive and well.

When was the last time you heard a President of the Fraternity Order of Police admit, “That was a bad shooting”? Let me tell you when—never.

All shootings “Are Good” as long as the victim is black.

Now the Fraternity Order of Police want to boycott Beyounce’s Concert in Philadelphia claiming she is anti-cop. The reason; her Super Bowl performance celebrating Malcomb X and the Black Panthers. The real problem, she didn’t ask for their permission—they had no control. The Undefeated, I bet was found on the same mentality.

My brothers Earl (DC Cop) and Alfred (U. S. Marshall) experienced “The Thin Blue Line and Code of Silence” while trying to be Good Cops.

The first modern day U. S. Marshall in Charge and DC Superior Court Judge, the late Luke C. Moore stepped in to save Alfred’s job and a black DC Assistant Chief Isaac Fullwood sold my brother Earl out by honoring and condoning the Code of Silence and Thin Blue Line. Earl turned in a white and black cop who targeted and brutally abused black prisoners only in their cells on the weekends.

The problem, there are too many making excuses as it relates to how dangerous it is for policemen on the streets of America. We forget this is an occupation that they signed up for—they had a choice and were not drafted into the job.

On the flip said of the coin—we were born black and had no choice. As long as the 1% control the politicians and they force us to live in these Section 8 Housing/Ghettos all over America with no-way out, black on black murder will continue to spiral out of control.

Our problem, we don’t know our history and when you don’t know your history you are bound to repeat it.

How can we claim progress or success when we leave our brothers and sisters behind in Mississippi and Alabama or in any inner-city neighborhood? We travel to Third World countries to help them solve their problems before solving our very own!

I understand I am a tough act to follow in sports talk radio and in the community; The Original Inside Sports was Outside the Lines before ESPN and Real Sports on HBO. The Original Inside Sports cared long before the NBA, NHL, MLB and the NFL when it comes to community service.

NFL Films (CBS) videotaped the first ever NFL promo for national television at the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in DC in 1972. Washington NFL players RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton were shown teaching inner-city children water safety. Dave Bing (NBA) and Willie Wood (NFL) were the first pro athletes to give back to the community (via Kids In Trouble, Inc.)

How many sports talk show host are responsible for successfully campaigning and getting pro athletes into the Hall of Fame? Meet Willie Wood, he was one of the greatest defensive back to ever play in the NFL and Earl Lloyd was the first black to play in the NBA, they both were ignored despite their contributions. Willie was finally inducted in 1989 (via Dick Heller) and Earl in 2003 (via Red Auerbach) thanks to my media blitz campaigns for them.

Ask me how many athletes have I gotten out of jail using my political contacts and media outlets; the first was DC’s playground basketball legend, Spingarn High School’s Bernard Levi, the next was a man considered to be the greatest NFL player of all-time, Jim Brown (NFL Captain of Domestic Abuse) and Jo Jo Hunter rated in my top 5 when you mention DC playground basketball legends (Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing, Willie Jones, Adrian Dantley and Jo Jo Hunter). Jo Jo is a former confidant and salesman for: James Brown (CBS), Eddie Jordan (NBA) and the list goes on and on—stay tune.

I am the only man on the planet who has broken bread with two of the most controversial personalities in American History, President Richard M. Nixon and the Greatest, Muhammad Ali.

This new websites like “The Undefeated” is another ploy to use black folks like Wilbon, Smith and Whitlock. They keep falling for just anything and not standing for something. The Undefeated and similar websites will be the blind leading the blind. There is nothing analytical about racism in America.

Note Worthy: Horace Balmer died last year and my sincere condolences go out to his family. I remember at the NBA All-Star game in Houston in the 80s and NBA legend Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe was without a ticket to get in, but too proud to let anyone know. I told Horace of Earl’s problem and he got him in through a side door. Horace was a good guy away from the NBA office (RIP).