Dateline: INDIANAPOLIS
Alex English opened his mail and $5 fell out. He read the enclosed letter, printed neatly in a novice hand. “I want to help the people in Ethiopia,” it said.
“Chills went through me,” English said. “It was like she was in tune with me.
“She was 6 years old. How much does $5 mean to someone who is 6?”
How much does $2,500 mean to the winner of Sunday’s National Basketball Association All-Star game? Or $1,500 to the loser?
To the wealthy warriors of America’s climate-controlled arenas, probably less than to the generous child English had touched when he first went public with his concern for unfortunate humans a half-world away.
But added up, 12 winners and 12 losers, the total is $48,000, and with a supplement from the NBA, it will mean that $100,000 will be sent to the pained citizens of Ethiopia, though none may know English, the man or the language.
“For what they need,” said English, “it’s still not much.”
You’ve seen the pictures, the heart-stabbing pictures of skeletons that are still children, of mothers crying over dead babies and the raw, unforgiving African land that has dried up and stolen the future.
English saw them, too, after a full meal last October in his generous home in Denver, where he works as a shooting forward for the Nuggets basketball team.
“I wanted to do something,” English said.
English is a sincere and sensitive man, a published poet, if the truth be known.
He grew up poor in South Carolina.
“Nothing like the people of Ethiopia are going through,” he said.
For the last five years, English has sent $150 a month to fight world hunger, his private contribution to anonymous bellies, but Ethiopia was real, in nearly living color on his television set, and English felt its cruelty.
“It was the kids,” English said. “I have kids of my own. The kids I saw starving wouldn’t make it through the day. I knew I had to do something.” What English did was call Larry Fleischer, who runs the pro basketball players’ union, of which English is a vice president. English suggested that this year’s All-Stars donate their pay, even though he did not know who the All-Stars would be or even if he would be one.
“These are the same people who are thought of as harsh, stingy and selfish,” English said. “I’m just one guy. It took all these others to be willing, and I commend them on the gesture. I’m proud to be in the NBA just because of this.”
Pro basketball is not the first sport to embrace charity. Having a social conscience is an established and foolproof image-booster.
But basketball may be the first pro sport in which the athletes actually took money from their own pockets, or didn’t put it in, as the case may be.
“Okay,” English conceded, “this doesn’t hurt our image, but that’s not why we did it. We weren’t out to prove anything to anybody. This wasn’t for purposes of publicity; it was just a way to get people involved doing something about a serious situation.
“There are millions of starving people over there. This goes beyond color or religion or politics. It is more important than race or where it is.”
Pat Riley, coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and the West All-Stars, said the coaches’ association was considering a contribution also.
“What a magnificent thing this is,” Riley said. “Nobody forced the players to do this. It is from the heart.”
“I guess this shows that today’s athletes aren’t just bottom-liners,” said Bob Cousy, the legendary Celtic here for the old-timers’ game Saturday.
“The players of the NBA are truly capturing the spirit of America by demonstrating their whole-hearted support for the people trapped by the crisis in Ethiopia,” said NBA commissioner David Stern, who made sure a press release with his endorsement was handy.
Whatever motives are behind the effort will make little difference to the famine victims it will help.
“We’re hoping to do more,” English said. “We may run some all-star games this summer to raise more money.”
English hopes to go to Ethiopia and film a TV documentary about the problem.
“We would really like to see it snowball,” he said. “The important thing is to get others to join in, to make the general population more conscious of the situation.
“We should all be ready to reach back and help people. One person can’t do much, but if you can get the masses together, anything can be done.
“Maybe the hockey or baseball or football players could do the same thing with their All-Star games.”
Has English spoken to them about it?
“I don’t know any baseball or football players,” he said.
That’s their loss.
Keywords: ALEX ENGLISH BIOGRAPHY
The last name of Larry Fleisher is mispelled in this story. The Tribune regrets the error.