Arkansas obsessed with a basketball soap opera; black couch out, says racism a factor

Friday, March 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(LITTLE ROCK) - From the daily domination of the front pages to the live television updates and constant chatter on radio talk shows, only one thing in Arkansas seems to matter: Will he stay or will he go?

For nearly a month, this state has been obsessed with the ongoing soap opera of University of Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson, who has refused to acknowledge his firing and declared himself the de facto coach.

It's part ``Days of Our Lives,'' part ``Do the Right Thing.'' And while people wait to see how the story ends, they've been taking sides in a debate that goes far beyond basketball.

``People who don't even know about sports are calling about this,'' said Joe Booker, a disc jockey at black-oriented KIPR in Little Rock. ``It is almost like the O.J. thing _ all the black folks are saying one thing and the white folks are saying another thing.''

Richardson began the drama himself last month when he neared the end of a disappointing season by lashing out at the media and fans, saying he was treated differently from others in the athletic department because he is black.

He later told reporters _ twice _ that he would walk away from the job if the university would only buy out his $1.03 million-a-year contract.

But after the university did just that _ giving him $500,000 per year for the next six years _ Richardson said he never requested a buyout, never wanted to leave and that he still considered himself the head coach. He also said he was being unfairly penalized for speaking his mind.

The latest turn came Thursday when university President B. Alan Sugg _ in a letter read live on statewide television _ upheld Richardson's dismissal as legal and fair.

But that was hardly the end. Richardson's lawyer left open the possibility that the coach could take legal action to keep his job.

Heating up the controversy were comments Richardson allegedly made to university officials as he argued to keep his job before the buyout.

According to university Chancellor John White, in excerpts released to the media, Richardson threatened protests that would rival the desegregation demonstrations outside Little Rock's Central High School in 1957, when Gov. Orval Faubus refused to let nine black students enter classes.

``You'll have to have tanks in the parking lots,'' White said Richardson told him.

Richardson's lawyer said Friday that White got it wrong.

``We've always contradicted that. That was self-serving and after the fact, directed by counsel to put Mr. Richardson in a bad light,'' lawyer John Walker said. ''(Richardson) said he wanted to avoid that kind of thing.''

At Gill's Farm Supply in McGehee _ across the state from the Fayetteville campus _ many feel it is time for Richardson to just bow out gracefully.

``People feel more strongly about it now than they did in the beginning,'' said owner F.H. Gill. ``They start talking about it every morning and keep talking about it all day long.''

In Hot Springs, Richardson is also a big topic among customers at Jernigan's, a black-owned Southern food restaurant.

``It's a slap in the face of Arkansas and it proves a stereotype of the South _ that when a black guy speaks his opinion, someone comes in and makes an irrational decision about it,'' said Emanuel Jernigan, an employee and son of the restaurant's owner. ``It looks bad. It says that when you are a strong black man in the South, society frowns on that and tries to cover it up.''

Booker said many of his listeners feel the same way.

``There is a lot of love for Nolan. You really don't understand if you are not black,'' he said.

Chuck Barrett, host of a sports radio talk show broadcast throughout the state on the Arkansas Radio Network, agreed opinion has been split along racial lines.

``I would say there are more blacks than whites right now who feel like Nolan was justified in what he said,'' Barrett said.

Other callers, most of them white, express ``flat out disappointment and hurt feelings that their coach would say some of the things that he said. ... A lot have turned against him in massive numbers.''