From Jack Johnson to Larry Bird, American sport has grappled with the racial myth of the Great White Hope. Now the Mavericks’ new phenom, 18-year-old Cooper Flagg, inherits the mantle – whether he wants it or notEvery time Jack Johnson’s big Black fists smashed into a white fighter’s face, he wasn’t just breaking the bones of his opponents, but the spirit of White America. Blow after blow after blow. Out of this shame, a mythos was born. One after another, white fighters propped up like scarecrows. One after another, collapsing. As cultural critic Gerald Early has argued, Johnson’s fights became less about sport and more about the drama of race in America, with every knockout symbolizing a direct challenge to white supremacy. For the next 100 years, across multiple sports, whites have tried to find the next champion to return them to glory. This myth-making even inspired Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer-winning play The Great White Hope.In basketball, figures like Jerry West and “Pistol” P...