As I watch the NBA Finals, I root hard for my team and by now you know they are my Lakers. Win or lose they will still be my Lakers.
Having said that, I got to wondering. Clevon Little of Blazing Saddles fame once uttered the memorable words, “Where all the white women at”? I did a little addition and subtraction with the question and posed one that works here.
Where are all the white American players in the NBA? If you pay close attention, there is only one in uniform for both teams. Luke Walton is it.
Adam Morrison and Brian Skalabinie are on the teams, but neither was activated for the finals. Injuries? How can you get hurt if you don’t play? Now before those of you say, “There he goes, talkin’ race,” follow me here.
If white owners, white general managers (and in some cases white coaches) have elected to take a pass on their own and play players who are from other countries, is it racist? Or do they no longer think that white Americans can play in the NBA?
Let’s start with the other side of this coin first. Too many times in the past teams at various levels would carry if not stack teams with white players over their African-American counterparts. Nice try, but it eventually failed; hence teams loaded up with some brothers if they wanted to win.
Some fans said, “No thank you,” which is why the Atlanta Hawks are no longer the St. Louis Hawks. “White Flight” I think is what they called it.
The teams who were more concerned about a winning record than their image found a way to have both black and white players, and all of a sudden you say hello to the Boston Celtics and later the Los Angeles Lakers, for starters.
Now white players in America has been excluded from the best league in the world. Or have they?
I do not buy the notion that they cannot play at this level. My bone of contention is that the white American decision makers ( owner, GM, coach) have turned their back on their own. And like the cases before now, it’s wrong.
I think Pao Gasol is a terrific player, but when the going gets tough and if you want to play the color/country card here, give me David Lee of the New York Knicks. Unlike Gasol, have you ever heard anyone question Lee’s toughness when the game is on the line? Remember how Gasol got punked out the last time the Lakers and Celtic met in the finals?
I have to think that there are white American players who can make a legitimate contribution to the NBA, like the now nearly forgotten African-American player in Major League Baseball.
The story there was the African-American player was no longer playing baseball. Can the same be said about the white player for basketball? I think not. There are more specialty camps, private instruction and select teams for white players to participate in than ever before, so why are the decision makers turning their back on their own? it’s easier for them to shop at home but they elect not to because someone thinks that the Euro player is superior to the white American player.
The subject of coaching comes into play as well. In the U.S. some players have options, whether it’s playing at another school or engineering a coach getting fired. The American coach is saddled with more social issues such as classes, broken homes and all the other temptations that exist in this American culture. The good coaches spend a lot of time on things other than teaching the game the right way and coaching. It has become a real problem, and unfortunately in this case the toothpaste may be out of the tube.
Now come the question: is the white European player more fundamentally sound that his white American counterpart? Hard to imagine, when most Euros seven feet and under want to stand on the perimeter and shoot threes. There is a price to pay to play in the painted area, and some choose to stay in a safer area.
I am not here to say that there should be more white Americans playing in the NBA solely because they are white. That is how coaches and GMs get fired when you load up for the wrong reason. I am saying that with all the coaching minds and opportunities to excel, something is missing.
I am just trying to figure out how the European player who never had the chance to be coached by the likes of Wooden, Knight, Kryshewski, Smith, Thompson and other greats all of sudden become the desired taste of the decision makers. To say these players from abroad are not skilled would be untrue. They can play, but so can David Lee and others like him, if given the chance.
We have seen this scenario before, only this time the color is all the same. Now that this is happening in your own backyard, perhaps some can see what many of us already knew.
