What price the greatness of Muhammad Ali?
Reports that Muhammad Ali’s tour of this country is proceeding against a backcloth of agent squabbling should be more than usually depressing but the truth is that money was never high in the great man’s calculations. He knew his value but not always in terms of hard cash. The promoter Don King once paid him off with a fraction of his due simply by wrapping a pile of $100 notes in some brown paper. It was enough that life could proceed along enjoyable lines for the foreseeable future. There has always been someone to claim a piece of Muhammad Ali’s greatness. Yet even as a shell of his former self, he still has the power to spread the joy of his existence. It is, he knows, something the world will always want, and he has always placed that above the terms of his latest contract.
