PARIS (The Monday International Show) - I'm very excited by the excellent initiative of the NBA today, to celebrate the 21st Martin Luther King national holiday by showing a marathon of games in the U.S. and internationally to honor a great American who like Ghandi made non-violent protest for civil rights his credo!

The UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and France among others will honor King with several live games and special programming.

My channel, Sport Plus, will show a multiplex of the whole schedule running late into the night, with special attention given to games involving frenchmen Parker, Diaw and Pietrus.

The NBA's celebration of MLK Day is logical since four-fifths of the league's players are black and most of them have participated in the 205, 000 hours of volunteer service and the raising of 32 million dollars for charity thanks to the excellent NBA Cares social resposability initiative as they call it!

Remember that Shaq and Kobe reconciled their personal differences on national TV last year on MLK Day through the intervention of the great Bill Russell, who supported fervently Dr. King and was even present at his side for several famous and historic demonstrations!

I am very sensitive to King's legacy because my father, David, worked with him as a lifetime member of the NAACP, a courageous act for a white man in the south in the late fifties and early sixties!

My father had a physical handicap and was very supportive and understanding of those who combatted social handicaps!My mother tells me that I even shook King's hand after a speech in Talladega that we attended when I was three.

I remember tears swelling in our eyes at home as we listened to King's inspirational speaches on old LP records and the utter hopelessness and despair we felt the day of his assasination...

I even remember being called "nigger lover" at elementary school by some ignorant schoolmates because of my father's implication and my desire to play b-ball in the black neighborhood of my hometown of Winter Park, Florida where there still stands a community center, pool and gymnasium complex that my father helped convince the local government to build in the sixties.

For 21 years, I've been passionately trying to promote and popularize all types of basketball in France, a less noble cause than my father's but the two causes join nicely together with the NBA celebrating MLK Day!

I'm sure Dr. King would be happy to see the success of these NBA millionaires today but even moreso, pleased with their social consciousness and the progress in american society over the last 40 years concerning oppurtunities for african-americans even though there will always be more work to accomplish!

Just thinking that a black man, Colin Powell, probably would have been elected president a few years ago if he so desired shows an incredible evolution in the USA.

One last suggestion; if ever you are feeling a little down and blue, click on the Net and listen to King's famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington D.C. and I guarantee you'll feel alot better!

George Eddy