APRIL 10 - 2008
Welcome to the White-Boy Report!
The White-Boy Report is going to be a recurring feature that keeps an eye on the progress of the American-born white basketball player. They are a dying breed, becoming less and less relevant in the NBA.
The reason why is anyone’s guess - and will remain that way because it is an issue too layered, potentially controversial, and almost impossible to tackle without sounding racist, that no major sports provider will touch it - and neither will I…at least not right now.
The reason for this feature is simple. I love basketball, and one of the things I love most about it is that it is as diverse as any sport - with players from about 70 different countries and Americans with backgrounds from all across the country - all bringing unique styles and culture to the game.
Well, right now, the part of the NBA puzzle that represents my demographic is sucking it up pretty badly. To the point that the best American-born white player ever, Larry Bird, has gone so far as to say “As far as playing, I didn’t care who guarded me -red, yellow, black. I just didn’t want a white guy guarding me, because it’s disrespect to my game.” Thanks Larry, Wally Szczerbiak and I appreciate it.
I am confidant that somewhere, there is someone who can bring some respect back to us, lead his team to a championship, win an MVP (Steve Nash is Canadian, folks) and put an end to the running punch-line that is the American-born white basketball player.
SO - this feature will follow, obviously, the players that are already in the NBA, but also, look over the horizon at the players in the college game, and the players being recruited out of high school. We will look at the success stories (Chris Kaman, I guess?), embarrassing failures (Nice work, Adam Morrison) and the up-and-comers (turn that fat into muscle, Kevin Love!).
And as a final note, to be perfectly clear, this is not about “taking the back the game” or anything horrendously, or even slightly, racist. It’s about giving young white boys hope that they can one day make the NBA, and not have to look like Ashton Kutcher, or play in Utah, to get attention.
NOTE: Since this is going to be a recurring feature, I would like to make a banner. Any suggestions as to who should be on it?
Coming Up in the White-Boy Report
- State of the White-Boy: From Jerry West to Mike Dunleavy Jr. The statistical decline currently in it’s 4th decade
- NBA Draft Previews: Kevin Love, Chase Budinger, Joe Alexander, Tyler Hansborough - what’s the upside? - and - is there anything TV Analysts like to do more than argue how white-boy’s games translate to the pros, without actually pointing out the guy is white?
The White Boy Report will also be featured over at Hoops State of Mind
If you want more sports coverage especially Sixers and Phillies, sign up for free email alerts or grab to the Recliner GM RSS feed. Thanks for reading.
7 comments ↓
Pete, I think you need to remember that Wally Szczerbiak isn’t actually American Born, to my knowledge he was actually born in Spain (according to wikipedia, his father was playing in Madrid at the time). So his status as your poster boy is in jeopardy. I too yearn for that not-so-long golden age of the white boy, what with John Stockton’s short shorts, Chris Mullin’s edgy crew cut, Jeff Hornacek’s near-pink skin, Kurt Rambis’ goggles and Karl Malone’s outspoken right wing political views.
Now Pete, I’m not going to say that you’re racist, but if you turned this around and had a column about the decrease in black players in baseball… well, I guess Gary Sheffield tackled that one adequately …. or the minimal number of black quarterbacks… well then I guess you’d pick up the majority of rush limbaugh viewers who were left without a guiding light when he went into rehab for, wait, what did he blame it on again? Is there rehab for racism? I think it might have been a vicodin addiction or something. Well I guess I can’t think of a good example. Keep up the good work.
Freakin’ awesome! I’ll be watching this report unfold. Chase Budinger wins “best hair” for the next 10 years!
You’re sitting on a gold mine of material here. How could you not include any pictures?
A posted picture of Kurt Rambis goggles and his 1 inch short shorts is really required at this point. Instant retching material.
I was going to play some b-ball last night, I lowered the rim to 7.5 feet and I can almost dunk it now, that’s gonna be sweet.
But I was on level 179 on World of Warcraft and really wanted to earn the Amulet of Everlasting Destiny on level 180 so I didn’t play.
You should know I can now beat the West All Stars on my Wii, so I’m gonna be a beast on the court.
Pete, it’s nice sweet that you preface with saying you’re not a racist. That’s something a racist would say. The fact of the matter is that you’re right. The Nash-Stoudemire pick and roll doesn’t have the same effect as Stockton and the Mailman. What happened to the cleanly shaven neckline and Malone’s look that says, “find me in the paint or I’m gonna drop by and see your wife tonight.” Nowadays they’ve all got shared high-fives and swap music on their iPods. There’s no respect for a Rambis tradition that everyone responding clearly treasures. Vicariously living dunkers now have to relay on freaks of nature like Bradley to throw down, when Tom Chambers and (yes) Hornacek used to attempt a dunk when ahead by twenty. The mediocrity is gone. You want to see more white bread in the game, extend the 3 point line to 25 feet and start recruiting. Players would rather concede the 3 than risk their triple-double by missing the possible rebound. You won’t see Lebron or McGrady out there playing D.
The fact is that the closest we’re gonna get to the NBA these days is as a flexible 19 year-old acrobat in a gorilla suit bouncing on a trampoline at half-time.
I think part of the problem has to do with the specialization of high quality athletes. There are barely any of the top-notch professional athletes that you can say were true two or even three-sport athletes like there once were (check out guys like Dave Winfield).
Occasionally, there are guys like Carl Crawford of the Tampa Bay (no longer Devil) Rays, who had a basketball scholarship to UCLA, a football scholarship to be an option QB at Nebraska, and was also a baseball draft pick. But those players are becoming more and more rare, because players are told they have the best opportunity in one sport or another, and therefore give up their other sports to focus and hone their skills on a particular sport.
And I say this because if a white athlete has the choice (and is good at multiple sports), he is more likely to choose the most profitable sport with the best average longevity, which is undoubtedly baseball.
Also, I think white parents are more likely to push their kids toward baseball (and by push I mean build a batting cage rather than put up a neighborhood hoop or allow them to go to the local blacktop playground)because they view basketball and football as sports more closely linked with the hip-hop culture, which to many white parents (not all but a whole heap of a lot) is akin to something evil.
So combine those and the kids that were once playing multiple sports growing up are now focusing on one with that one sport most often being baseball (or soccer, which isn’t a sport that has been adopted by many blacks in this country), and you end up with less white players in the NBA, at least I think that has something significant to do with it.
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