Reply With QuoteBlack and white untruth
Scott Kaplan / Special to FOXSports.com
msn.foxsports.com/story/2851610
White Man's Disease.
What is it? In modern English, White Man's Disease is accepted as a slang term indicating that Caucasians are not as athletic as African Americans. To be more specific, whites are unable to dunk a basketball.
It is socially acceptable to use the phrase White Man's Disease. Certainly no one is offended by it. Just as no one was offended by the le of the movie White Men Can't Jump.
We laugh at it. We acknowledge it. We use it. We agree with it. White men can't jump as high, or dunk as well. And, if a white man does have skills that are more comparable with one of his black peers, white America celebrates it.
When Brent Barry won the slam-dunk contest in 1996, white America loved it. Finally, one guy disproved the theory that white men can't jump, for an entire race.
Read a scouting report on a white player versus a black player. The white guy is always fundamentally sound. The black player is always athletic. The white player is smart. The black player can jump through the gym.
White guys are always characterized by less athleticism and more smarts. Often times, the black guys are characterized by the opposite. Neither side likes the stereotype.
When Larry Bird said the NBA is a black man's game, white people and black people agreed. Neither side was offended; statistically Larry was stating a fact. What shocked people, was how Bird talked about being surprised when a white player tried to defend him, because white guys just weren't up to the challenge.
What Larry Bird failed to recognize, was that while the NBA game is dominated by the more athletic black player, the international game is not.
Never was it more obvious than watching the medal ceremony at the Olympics. While the U.S. squad, comprised entirely of African-American players, was being awarded the bronze medal, the silver medallist Italians, and gold-medal winning Argentines had no black players.
What does this tell us? It tells us that USA Basketball didn't think there was one white American player worthy of being on this team. There was no Larry Bird, no Chris Mullin, no John Stockton, no Christian Laettner. Not one white guy worthy of playing on this Olympic team.
Now, take black and white out of the entire equation, because race is really not the issue. The issue is the perception problem we Americans have with basketball.
We have convinced a generation of kids, black and white, that white players are unable to compete with the more athletically gifted black players. The Olympics should dispel the brainwashing that we are all guilty of.
I'm hardly suggesting that a couple of white players would have been the difference between gold and bronze, what I am saying is that the racial part of basketball is not accepted outside of the U.S., and therefore the rest of the world plays a different brand of basketball.
The NBA game is all about individual stars. The guys who shoot the most, score the most, dunk the most, these are the guys the league promotes. These are the guys who get the shoe deals. These are the guys the kids aspire to be.
The NBA celebrates individualism in the name of money, certainly not in the name of winning.
Allen Iverson seemed most disturbed by the bronze medal, I suppose he thinks he will shoulder the bulk of the blame for this year's failure. Face it, Iverson is the poster boy for what white America thinks is the "problem" with NBA players. He is perceived as being a selfish player, the tattoos would have people believe he is all street, and his run ins with the law scream gangster to a generation of kids that look up to him.
But this is hardly Iverson's fault.
Iverson is just one small part of the overall problem.
The bigger problem is, that we as Americans have lost the game of basketball to our desire for highlights. We love a 360 dunk, a behind-the-back pass, a crossover dribble. We love to see running and gunning, we want high flying rather than good fundamentals.
The NBA, the media, the fans, the players ... we are all to blame for this culture that we created.
I go back to the NBA Finals, when it was proven that a better team beats bigger stars.
So why would USA Basketball be so arrogant to think it could use pure individual stars, guys who dunk and shoot all day, put them together with Tim Duncan, the most fundamental and understated star of the league, and think it's enough?
Because we have yet to understand that pure athleticism and/or star power will never overcome teamwork and desire.
It is time for USA Basketball, clearly a group unable to put together a team, a group only able to compile NBA stars, to be gutted and rebuilt by scouts looking for team players capable of representing the U.S. in international compe ion.
We now know the game is different. The rest of the world does not play by the rules of the NBA. USA basketball must accept this and resolve the problem. Ultimately the best players are still in the U.S., but an All Star team of NBA players is no longer a guarantee.
