A few nights ago, I watched as Luke Harangody dropped 31 points on a helpless G-Town team considered one of the best in the nation. Along those same lines, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina has been ripping up the NCAA for the past three years, freaky celebration dances included. And while their production in college has been staggering, (and it really has been unbelievable), how much stock can you actually put in all the numbers and accolades?
Year after year, NBA general managers fall in love with fundamentally sound, un-athletic big men and shooters who are more often than not complete busts in the L. Most surprising, however, is the constant support these guys have despite playing straight-out awful basketball. Yet a struggling black player (a la Sean Williams) faces a career-jeopardizing demotion to the d-league after a promising rookie season. C'mon people, is Adam Morrison really a better NBA player than a young shot blocking athlete with tons of upside. I don't think so.
Free Examples Anyone?
- Minnesota gave away the rightful rookie of the year in OJ Mayo for a dominant college player in Kevin Love who couldn't even out jump Eddie Murphy..........wearing the nutty professor fat-suit. Seriously?
- After Drafting Mike Dunleavy Jr. 3rd overall in 2002, the Warriors stuck by him for five years while he single handedly polluted the entire bay area with his foul play. After finally dumping him off to Indy, Golden State shot right into the playoffs and a first round upset of number one seed Dallas.
- Is J.J. Reddick even in the league anymore?
Continued.....
The List Goes On and On: (See Christian Laettner, Jason Williams, Adam Morrison, Nick Collison, etc., with Hansbrough and Harangody soon to appear.)
The list of superstars who aren't top notch athletes is even shorter than Love's vertical. Today's NBA is all about athleticism and just because a player dominates in college doesn't mean he can produce on the biggest stage; that should be obvious. It's like a WNBA team trying to compete with the Lakers; The NCAA plays a totally different game than the NBA. While Tyler Hansbrough is a good basketball player compared to most of the world, he can't even touch true NBA talent. And despite this fact, Psycho-T will be given a much longer leash than his African American counterparts because he is a white guy, just like most GM's themselves.
Also, I know that there are a lot of freakish athletes that have failed at the next level (i.e. The Kandi Man Olowokandi, Tyrus Thomas), but they face much harsher criticisms than pretty boys like Reddick. Duke's favorite son never received the kind of harassment that guys like Eddie Curry, Darius Miles, and Marvin Williams have had to endure. Just look at Golden State Rookie Anthony Morrow: He wasn't even drafted but has made more impact in the league already than JJ has in his whole career, dropping 37 in his first start as a pro.
Sooner or later, the NBA has to realize that true talent isn't just about putting up great numbers against college players who for the most part will never log one single minute as a pro. When will they finally understand that you don't play basketball to appeal to white mid-america, but as good old Herm once said, "You Play TO WIN the game." That should be all that matters.
What about Steve Nash?
Good read homie. Welcome to the squad!
Woody from the article it appears he is talking about Big Men. Steve Nash is a great guard, but being a guard is different from being a Small or Power forward
Hansborough is a goofy looking dude
psycho t and kevin love are trash, joe alexander from wvu will have a better career than both of them. he can jump out the building
Great, another self-hating white "man"!
I am tight
Nice article.
Perhaps you picked a poor example in Sean Williams though. Have you kept up with how he's been conducting himself since he's been in the D-League? It seems the man has no discipline.
Give me a break.
Yeah, Michael drafted Morrison because MJ is secretly a white racist who doesn't "play to win." Sean Williams is D-leaguing it because he's a head case whose production didn't justify the locker room baggage - same reason he slipped in the draft.
NBA coaches want to keep their jobs, so they play who they think will help get a W...might be 4 min, might be 34 min. I don't think Nate McMillan plays Przybilla to satisfy a slow white guy requirement. GMs want to keep their jobs, so they draft/sign/trade for players they think can help them get a W or cap space/draft picks that might get them a future W. Sometimes they blow it and draft Stromile Swift (athlete) when teams much later draft Przybilla or Turkoglu (unathletic, but better pros).
I don't get the Curry and Miles examples. They weren't criticized because they were unathletic big men (on the contrary, they were viewed as freakishly athletic for their positions). They were criticized because they were lazy underachievers who did not contribute to their teams' success up to their potential and fans naturally expect some relationship between production and a big, fat free agent contract.
Dunleavy? Dude was a 19pt 40+% 3PT guy last year and is a legit starter who has had a better career than the next five guys drafted after him (Nene is better this year, granted). Every one of those GMs was trying to win and should have taken Amare or Boozer. They didn't pass in order to be nice to the Suns or Cavs. Surely you can think of better examples(?).
Sometimes unathletic guys get drafted - especially bigs - because they can do SOMEthing that a coach might be able to use. If they can't, they take a big pay cut or are out of the league when their contract is up. Guys like Okur, Przybilla, Ilgauskus, Kaman, Jeff Foster (or in the past Mark Eaton and unathletic shooters like Steve Kerr, John Paxson) are in the league for the same reason that Dampier, Hibbert, Adonal Foyle, and Jerome James are: either they deserve to be, or were thought to until they signed their guaranteed contract.
The NBA is basically a highly competitive meritocracy (with guaranteed contracts causing some exceptions). Perhaps your blog title should be "Allow Me To Fabricate a Racial Issue Where None Exists."
Agree with Bulls fan. I'm sure that Dumars thought that Darko was a terrific prospect and a rare, skilled big that justified drafting ahead of Carmelo. Wrong, but not because Dumars prefers a white stiff. Sometimes GMs get fooled by Darko, Tskitishvili, or Morrison and sometimes they get robbed by Olowakandi, Kwame, Traylor, Fizer, Griffin, or Sweetney - all lottery busts. Sometimes overrated college players, sometimes overrated internationals, sometimes overrated high school prospects.
I don't see the conspiracy.
Odd that my domain is worth 50,982, yet another similar one (with a different proper name) is worth 106.
hey idiot the nba is totally unlike every other sport in that they are not diversifying. Just because international players have anglo tone does not make them white, and it's moron's like you who give white americans like me a bad name. We have skill but all you want is dunking or to go on being blind to what diverse is. fuck you
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