Americans were introduced to a new professional basketball league last week called the All-American Basketball Alliance. The league is scheduled to tip off in June with franchises in 12 Southeastern U.S. cities. But the AABA offers a slight twist. Only players who are ‘natural-born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league,’ according to last week’s press release. Ironically, the announcement came the Sunday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day and precisely a decade after Shaquille O’Neal’s stunning defeat at the hands of 12-year-old pop sensation Aaron Carter. Don ‘Moose’ Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, insists the motive behind the league’s roster restrictions is not racism but equality. ‘There’s nothing hateful about what we’re doing,’ Lewis said. ‘I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now.’ Lewis says he wants to emphasize ‘strategic, fundamental basketball’ instead of ‘street ball’ played by ‘people of color.’ As LSU basketball fans know, nothing says ‘strategic, fundamental basketball’ quite like Ben Voogd and John Brady. Lewis specifically cited recent incidents in the NBA, including former Indiana Pacer Ron Artest’s infamous ‘malice in the Palace’ brawl in 2004 and Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas’ indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the team locker room, as examples of unacceptable thuggery. ‘Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?’ Lewis said. ‘That’s the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction.’ So far the proposal has received its fair share of heated objections. Several cities have already rejected the league’s proposal Dikembe Mutombo-style. Lewis said he has already received legal threats from people offended by the roster restrictions. He certainly deserves a heavy dose of criticism for denying people the right to play in league based purely on their ethnic or racial heritage. In today’s age, it’s simply inexcusable to draw sweeping stereotypes based on what are essentially irrational dirt fetishes and random genetic tanning mutations. That said, though Lewis’s motives and reasoning should rightly be disparaged, minorities – and Americans, in general – should support his right to start the league. The rationale behind this plan is simple: Let the league fail. Lewis is perfectly within his rights to start his own league allowing only white players. But the fact that Lewis should have the legal right to run his business however he likes doesn’t mean his old-school bigotry is actually right or economically profitable. Who knows? The AABA’s lack of revenue and publicity could serve as a telling barometer of our nation’s true racial progress. This particular controversy also gives us a unique opportunity to settle racial disputes on the basketball court, not the Supreme Court. If Lewis really believes Caucasian athletes would put on a superior show, he needs to put his mouth where his money is. I’m sure Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Dwight Howard and Air Bud would be happy to oblige him. Even if Lewis refuses to take on the black-versus-white challenge, so be it. We don’t need to waste our time and energy battling irrational racists. We don’t even need to take political action to artificially create ‘level playing fields.’ It’s the 21st century. We can simply sit back and let racism fail on its own by subjecting it to the ultimate level playing field – the free market. Lewis might only choose to see things in black and white. But AABA’s financers will only judge his league by one color – green. And boom goes the dynamite. Scott Burns is a 20-year-old economics junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_sburns. – – – – Contact Scott Burns at [email protected]