Throughout last summer while Chris Webber called games for Turner in the Bubble, basketball fans became familiar with Webber’s impassioned calls for action against institutional racism and his support for players like those on the Milwaukee Bucks who took a stand while the country was thrown into uprising in response to police violence.
Now, Webber is turning his sights on education. The Michigan great and five-time All-NBA forward is teaching a course at Morehouse College, an HBCU in Atlanta, on activism in sports and culture. The course will also be available through Coursera, the digital education company, where sports fans or young activists can take the class online.
In an interview with Michael Lee of The Washington Post this week, Webber referenced leaders like Nelson Mandela, Medgar Evers, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar among those who inspired him to take this on.
“I get to honor those that make sacrifices for humanity,” Webber told Lee. “I get to honor them, make sure they stay relevant, hopefully introduce them to a whole new community of people and have it be inclusive. Have it galvanize people and not be polarizing.”
Webber told Lee that he comes to education in part through his mother, who was a teacher while he was growing up, in addition to more philosophical teachers like Malcolm X or the other aforementioned Black social leaders. Webber also previously taught a class on sport, race, and society at Wake Forest. The NBA lifer hopes that offering a recognizable and familiar face as the teacher of this new class at Morehouse will bridge the generational gap and help young people realize the potential of sport to be a force for good in society.