Posted on 08/18/2004 2:05:55 PM PDT by gopwinsin04
Once the black game moved indoors and became more organized, the pressure to establish bona fides increases.
If you're not scoring beaucoup points, if your picture isn't in the papers, if you don't have a trophy (right away) then you ain't the man, and you ain't nothing.
Being second best in the black community is just as bad as being last. And if a teammate hits nine shots in a row, the black attitude is...'Screw him, Now it's my turn to get it on.'
If young black players usually cherish untrammeled creativity, white hooplings mostly value team oriented concepts. 'White basketball means passing the heck out of the ball,' says Dawkins.
White guys are willing to do something when someone else has the ball--setting picks, boxing out, cutting in to clear a space for a teammate, making the pass that leads to an assist pass.
In white basketball, there is more a sense of dicipline, of running set plays, and only taking wide open shots. If a guy gets hot, he will get the ball until he cools off.
Why is white basketball so structured and team oriented?
'Because the white culture places more of a premium on winning,' Dawkins believes, 'and less on self-indulgent preening and cheast beating.'
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.foxsports.com ...
Pa. sports ping
When men compete for girls they stop being friends. It's pure Darwin. Alpha males competing for mates.
I think we may be seeing a repeat of what happened in the NBA in the decade of the 70s. In the early 70s, there were notable white superstars like Jerry West, Jerry Lucas, Rick Barry, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere...and other well-known players just a notch below superstar status, like the van Arsdales, Billy Cunningham, Don Nelson, etc. As that decade progressed, the number of white stars lessened, while the number of well-known black players increased (leading to the NY Knicks, once the cornerstone of the NBA, being called--forgive me for using the term--the "N*ggerbockers.")
NBA ratings and popularity plummeted during the late 70s (it did not help that expansion teams like the Sonics, Trailblazers, and Warriors won titles during that time). But why? Because the gate for the NBA was almost exclusively white at that time. As much as we may think it taboo to say, people tend to root for those whom they identify with. Selling an almost all-black NBA to an almost all-white audience was very difficult.
Things changed in the 80s, thanks to the arrival of Magic and Bird (forever linked, those two). I have no problem with saying that Larry Bird was always my favorite player. Why? Well, besides the fact that he could play like a demon, he, well, looked like me. That's not racist, as I see it, that simply is. I rooted aginst the Lakers and Sixers during that time, but I always enjoyed watching Magic and Dr. J. play ball. My favorite player today is Dirk Nowitzki, followed closely by Paul Pierce.
There was a resurgence of AMERICAN white players during the 80s and early 90s. You could make up an all-star team of white American players from that era--Bird, Kevin McHale, Danny Ainge, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Mark Price, Bill Laimbeer, Dan Majerle, Tom Chambers, Bobby Jones, Scott Wedman, etc. The white audience returned. Bird and Magic (and later, Jordan) lead the league to new hieghts of popularity--Jordan being an example of an athlete whose popularity crosses racial lines.
And I still don't think it's racist to say that whites tend to like white players better, and so on. And it's not purely a racial thing. The NBA is VERY popular in China, and who is the most favorite NBA player there? Yao Ming. Is he the BEST player? Nope, but he's Chinese. Is Ichiro Suzuki the best player in MLB? No, but he's the most popular in Japan (or maybe Kaz Matsui) because he is Japanese.
If you ask any knowledgeable basketball fan who the best white player in the NBA is today, you're likely to hear Dirk Nowitzki or maybe Peja Stojakovic. But neither one are American. Who is the best American white player in the league today? Jason Williams? Troy Murphy? Mike Dunleavy? Luke Walton? Quite a comedown from the 80s. The 1992 Dream Team had four white players--Bird, Mullin, Stockton, and Laettner. Today, none.
I think Bird was right that the league does need more American white stars; not for some sort of diversoty thing, but because it would definitely help the league's overall popularity. I think until another white player like Bird breaks through, the overall popularity of the league will decline for the forseeable future.
Just my thoughts. Would be interested to see what you all think.
Go Pistons!
Hell I would just like to see the NBA make them dribble the ball the way the rule is written
I will remind you that the following year the Trailblazers were on a terrific tear and were destroying teams until Walton got hurt. Then it was over.
If we could've coaxed Steve Kerr out of retirement, we would win the Gold. Never saw an NBA player that could just drain 3's like he could.
Spoiled individual me-cultists vs. teams.
Don't you mean "World B. Free?" :-)
Daryl Dawkins took a swing at Bobby Gross in that playoff series with Portland. I saw it. He was a spoiled brat then and I don't know that he has changed all that much.
My beef with the NBA is that it has turned into another professional wrestling league in its phoniness. Call me a purist, but, these guys aren't playing basketball. It's a choreographed ballet for crying out loud! I'm now passively intrested, keeping my eye on LeBron of my Cavs.
I get more enjoyment out of March Madness than I do the NBA Finals.
In a white gym, you get to pass and set picks and know that if your open you will get the ball. Even if there are some black guys in the game, the flow of the game usually remains "white basketball". If a white guy comes in and gets too selfish with the ball, shoots everytime he touches the ball, misses wide open passes in order to shoot, he will be shunned from the game.
Thats always been my experience anyway.
ditto that. I haven't been able to watch the Sixers since Barkley.
Steve Nash is one of my favorite players for the same reasons..
the folks in Afganistan and in Iraq are learning that winning is differnet from having a bunch of cowboys riding into town on Saturday night.
I understand. But I must be honest here. Even though I'm a 6' 6" black dude, basketball was never my favorite sport.
I'll still take a jaw-jarring sack or firing a fastball past the batter for strike three over a dunk any day.
Basketball just kept me in shape between football and baseball. I never started one game of b-ball.
Defensive Sixth-Man is all.
Basketball IMO started getting really bad when Bird and Magic left. The reason is the NBA began allowing the refs to give Jordan a pass or call phantom fouls simply because he was Jordan. Hell Barkley has even said this. Now its common for an anouncer to say " Oh, don't expect to get that call when (insert superstar) has five fouls." Or another favorite " (insert superstar) is gonna get that call every time".
I would watch NBA more if I knew my Mavs would get a fair shake by the refs, even if they were playing the Lakers or whatever big market team the NBA and Stern want to see in the finals.
I don't think so. IIRC Gus Johnson did it before Chocolate Thunder.
You think things are that bad that white people can't enjoy something with a lot of black people in it? It may not be racist but you have to wonder.
You are right, sir -- Gus "Honeycomb" Johnson -- thanks for reminding us. From the Bullets days of Wes Unseld and Jack Marin and Earl Monroe -- wasn't Gene Shue their coach back then? Who else was on that team?
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