![]() On the other hand, he wants to be one of those guys." In fact, there's little evidence in social-science literature that children actually adopt the behavior of athletes they adore. "I don't expect my son to do those things because he's heard they do them. "They're womanizers, they're gamblers.they spit," says Carol Lorente, a Bolingbrook, Ill., magazine editor who has conflicting feelings about her 9-year-old son Paul's dreams of becoming a major-league player. Yet as press coverage of sports becomes less and less worshipful, these fantasy figures begin to look less than ideal. They represent an impossible dream, perhaps, but something to grow on. Star athletes and other celebrities-the Muhammad Alis and Babe Ruths, the Jordans and Barkleys-are the models in daydreams. Parents and teachers are the guiding lights for everyday reality. Role models operate on more than one level. Without that, there's not much hope for them." "Kids need to have someone they can idealize in order to aspire to become better themselves. Robert Burton, a Northwestern University psychiatrist who specializes in treating athletes. "What does it say to the kid who doesn't really have anybody?" asks Dr. But that smugly assumes an intact and caring set of parents to do the job. It may be well and good to point out, as most child psychologists do, that parents are the main role models in a child's life. Like it or not, they have a power of influence on worshipful young fans multiplied by the huge factor of television-perhaps even more so among the minority poor, who have few other avatars of success to excite their hopes. Celebrities like Barkley may decline the honor, but their high visibility obliges them to behave with at least an awareness that they are being watched by millions. "It was just something he did for fun, not anything to harm anything," says 12-year-old Genny Sonday, of Lincoln, Neb., speaking for many of her peers.īut that doesn't quite get the ball jocks off the hook. For one thing, unlike Pete Rose, he hasn't been reckless enough to bet on his own sport. Says sociologist Charles Payne, professor of African-American and urban studies at Northwestern University: "If you were to go through baseball's or football's Hall of Fame, you're not going to come up with a bunch of choirboys." Most fans, in any case, seem perfectly willing to overlook Jordan's gambling caper. The debate itself has undergone a transformation the Pollyanna premises of old have given way to the latter-day realpolitik of tarnished celebrity. Our only choice is whether to be a good role model or a bad one." ![]() ![]() We don't choose to be role models, we are chosen. And fellow hoopster Karl Malone, in a column written for Sports Illustrated, chided Barkley directly : "Charles.I don't think it's your decision to make. "Funny, how big shots accept all the trappings of role modeldom-especially the residual commercial cash-before they renounce their broader responsibilities to society," scolded New York Post sports watchdog Phil Mushnick. That doesn't necessarily mean he ought to be a model as a father or husband." But others saw the remark as merely rationalizing Barkley's own uncourtly deportment. "If you want to emulate what he does on court, you've got a wonderful model there. "In essence Barkley is correct," says Boston College sociologist Michael Malec, former editor of the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. I'm paid to wreak havoc on the basketball court." That observation, immortalized in a widely seen television commercial, has stirred up roughly equal measures of support and dissent. In the brusquely forthright words of Barkley: "I'm not paid to be a role model. Presidents can raise taxes and wage war but did Bill Clinton-or Hillary ever pump in 55 points in a playoff game?Īccordingly, the revelation that the slam-dunking Jordan has been running up scores in Atlantic City casinos, too, has rekindled some sharp debate about the obligation of sports figures to set examples for the young. Across the country, from West Hollywood to Miami Beach, mall rats are flaunting the leaping likenesses of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley on their chests. If kids can be said to vote with their T shirts these days, it's sports stardom over politics by a landslide. Well, as any casual visit to the haunts of the young and unfamous will show, the aspirations of youth have undergone a change. ![]() It's hard to believe now, but there war, supposedly, a time when every pink-faced, pug-nosed American youngster wanted more than anything to grow up to be president. The exploits of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley have stirred a debate about what pro athletes owe their fans. ![]()
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