Wednesday, February 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am  |  327 responses

Where Have all of the White NBA Players Gone?

by Marcel Mutoni

Inquiring minds on the Utah Jazz want to know, it seems.

No, seriously. For reasons not yet clear, someone on the Jazz approached Salt Lake Tribune hoops scribe Ross Siller and wanted him to figure out if the white American ballplayer was a “dying breed” in the Association.

Here are Siller’s findings:

There’s a perception that white American players are a dying breed, and this player was interested in whether that was the case. It took me a couple of days to go through all the rosters, but I don’t think the evidence necessarily supports the belief.

There are 46 white Americans out of 432 players on current NBA rosters. That’s 10.6 percent of the entire league and about 1.5 white guys on average per team. Only Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis and Washington have no white American players.

Another factor hurting the dying breed argument: Of those 46 white American players, 14 have played three or fewer years in the NBA. That group includes rookies Kevin Love and Joe Alexander, which suggests there are more players in the pipeline.

So, there you have it. Nothing to worry about, Utah: plenty of white guys to go around.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.

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  • Cp34mVP

    Yao Ming!

  • Dark

    Haha cosign baconator.

  • Heals

    Earlier this year in a blowout the LA Lakers came close to a “White Wash,” They had Farmar and Sasha in the back court, Mihm in the middle, Radmon doin Radmon, but for some unexplicable reason Luke was on the bench for Odom. C’mon Phil you could’ve made a statement for the cause…

  • http://idunkonthem.blogspot.com albie1kenobi

    The first half of comments was very entertaining, the second half not so much

  • drewstar

    David Lee is the baddest white American ballplayer in the L if imo.

  • The Last Kings Fan

    I miss the all white (not American, just pale) team the Kings used to field: Bibby, Christie, Peja, Scott Pollard (!) and Vlade Divac. And four of those guys were actually in the starting line-up for years. Hell, when Webb was injured we put Brad Miller in there. Probably the best all white starting line-up to ever actually exist.

  • wreklessINTENT

    Cherokee Parks all the way!

  • http://www.manutd.com Z

    Seriously, Ryan, eff Everton. We took Wazza like it was nothing.

  • cozza

    PG- Stockton
    SG-West
    SF- Bird
    PF- Mikan
    C- Walton

    Vs

    PG – Johnson
    SG – Jordan
    SF – James
    PF – Wilt
    C – Shaq

  • GeorgeBush hates Black people

    This is the best discussion I have ever read on the Internet

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    I used to want to be Christian Laettner.

  • Big Sia

    One youtube video will answer all your questions

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qyRYkvvSz4&feature=channel_page

  • http://www.hibachi20.blogspot.com Hursty

    @Onions- You wanna triple that number? You’d still be short by 50+, but you’d be closer…

  • Jolst

    Atlanta don’t got white players? What colour is Mike Bibby?

  • simoun

    they’re talking about white american players!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Pigott17

    PG-travis diener
    SG-brent barry
    sf-mike dunleavy
    pf-brian scalabrine
    c-joel pryzbilla

  • http://www.mynameinorange.blogspot.com Hisham

    mike bibby is beige

  • http://www.slamonline.com Ryan Jones

    We bought a lot of players with that nothing, Z. And Gerrard limped off like a b*tch last night, so you should really be more grateful. After all, we BOTH want you to win the league…

  • Benji James

    My conspiracy theory:
    The Nba wants to limit the amount of white players in the league, maybe because people don’t want to watch teams full of comparatively unathletic white guys. For as long as I can remember the NBA has been around 80% black. In the 80s and early 90s most of the white players were American. Since then a load of foreign white players have come in, but instead of add to the % of white guys, it’s stayed exactly the same. It almost as if the league reserves a certain amount of spots for white guys. I don’t think that there’s a smaller amount of talented white Americans now than there were 20 years ago, but because David Stern wants to popularise the NBA with every country on the planet, the foreign players are pushing them out. Just my theory.

  • Dee

    I hate when this topic is even brought up, because I’m 47 and in my early teens the quota for the # of black players was REAL and the black
    players KNEW IT WAS REAL, BUT UNSPOKEN. JOHN THOMPSON talked about it not long ago on TNT. Now what’s going on today is totally different, if a WHITE player is any good, He is worth BIG MONEY!!!! Just take what Chris Paul is doing, the triple doubles this year and last year he had his team 1 or two games behind the lakers. He had better numbers than GOLDEN BOY STEVE NASH had in BOTH of his MVP YEARS. LOOK AT THE HORNETS WITHOUT PAUL NOW! I DON’T THINK I’VE HEARD SPORTSCENTER TALK ABOUT THIS AT ALL. BUT THAT’S ALL THEY TALKED ABOUT WHEN NASH WAS HURT.

    I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THIS NONSENSE, WHEN HAS ANY 2 TIME MVP’S BEEN SUCH A WEAK DEFENDER AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF…NEVER WON A RING, BUT YET WIN 2 MVP AWARDS!!!! AND I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND EVERYONE THIS….THE WHITE OWNERS HAVE TALKED AND STILL DISCUSS THIS TOPIC….THEY TRY TO LOOK OUT FOR THE WHITE PLAYER, I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO THINK ABOUT WHY WOULD THE NBA CHANGE THE NO ZONE IN THE PRO GAME!!!!!!! BACK IN THE DAY IF THE ZONE WAS AROUND STEVE KERR WOULD HAVE BEEN AN ALL-STAR, BUT GUARDS LIKE ZEKE “I. THOMAS”, PAYTON, MAGIC, and on and on.
    SO WHAT HAPPENED….THEY CALL IT THE A.I. RULE, BUT IT REALLY WAS A WAY OF ENSURING THAT THE SLOW WHITE PLAYER IN COLLEGE HAD A CHANCE OF MAKING A NBA TEAM, AND WHEN THERE AREN’T ENOUGH AMERICAN PLAYERS….LET’S GO GET KUKOC AND SABONIS, NOW EUORPE PRODUCED DIRK AND THE RUSH WAS ON, THAT HASN’T WORKED OUT LIKE MANY PEOPLE EXPECTED, YEAH I KNOW GASOL..BUT JUST LOOK AT ALL OF THE RULE CHANGES THAT HAVE COME ABOUT SINCE THE EURO RUSH. THE EURO CAN’T PLAY DEFENSE SO WHAT DOES THE NBA DO…MAKE IT SO YOU CAN BARELY TOUCH A PLAYER!!! NASH WOULD NEVER BEEN MVP IF HE WAS PLAYING IN THE 80′S, HE COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN THE PUNISHMENT THAT THE GUARDS TOOK THEN, U COULD NOT DRIVE TO THE “HOLE” LIKE HE “USE” TO DO WITHOUT BEING PUT ON UR BUTT….AFTER BIRD THE LEAGUE WAS “DESPERATE”
    TO FIND THE NEXT “GREAT WHITE BIRD” THEY HAD TO WAIT A FEW YEARS FOR NASH AND DIRK, BUT OHHH DID THEY MAKE UP FOR LOST TIME WITH THE 2 MVP’S FOR NASH….AND I THINK THAT JUST LIKE OUR SOCIETY, THERE ARE SPORTS WRITERS THAT VOTE OR DON’T VOTE FOR SOMEONE BASED ON THEIR “SKIN” COLOR. I WAS IN THE NAVY IN THE 80′S AND THE SAYING WAS…WE ALL WEAR BLUE, IN BOOT CAMP THEY TELL U THAT THE NAVY DOESN’T SEE COLOR, BUT THAT WAS NOT TRUE, AND I THINK SPORTSWRITERS ARE NO DIFFERENT. CASE IN POINT TIM TEBOW….NEW GREAT WHITE HOPE!!!!

  • http://www.mynameinorange.blogspot.com Hisham

    cool theory, but it can’t work. The NBA is every team for itself, and the competition in trying to scout and bag young players is very thick. Which means if they think you can play (and aren’t a complete moron), you will play

  • Dee

    I got carried away, but the main point that I wanted to make about the ZONE DEFENSE being allowed in the NBA, is that NASH would be a bench player like he was earlier in his career. Before the zone era, if a player was UNABLE TO GUARD “THEIR OWN MAN”, they WOULD NOT be on the floor MOST of the time and the new rules have been put in place to HELP the WHITE PLAYER. It was the other way around when it came to black players, college took the dunk away to SLOW down the black players…..NOW THAT’S SOME REAL SH……….EET!!!!

  • donlaker

    c travis knight
    f bill bradley
    pf phil jackson
    sg steve kerr
    pg cousy and all the white players went to a strip club……. and a special shout out goes to kyle korver/ashton kusher where u at.

  • Wayne

    I’m just gonna throw this out there, Delonte West is white… I don’t care what he or anyone else thinks…

  • EC

    Mark Madsen, Tom Gugliotta, Matt Harpring, Joe Wolf and Bryant “BIG COUNTRY” Reeves. Thats the all white team. With Lenny Wilkens at headcoach. Bryant Gumble will do all commentating

  • EC

    Jeff Hornaceck (sp?) will be the 6th man

  • donlaker

    does ICE T count he looks white and he is a player.

  • donlaker

    BIBBY is not white
    but vince carter is

  • Diesel

    @ Dee …so the zone defense was put in place to help out white people? You’re an idiot. And for you’re information, the Suns barely ever play zone. And if they did, it wouldn’t be to help nash, it would be to help Shaq’s slow fat @ss. NO NEED FOR CAPITAL LETTERS EITHER.

  • Phelpsrandy

    Hey guys, It’s Michael Phelps. I was wondering if any of you guys can hook me up with some dope. Thanks

  • http://www.ravingblacklunatic.blogspot.com Allenp

    “Oh where, oh where have all my little whitey’s gone, oh where, oh where could they beeeeee/In corporate boardrooms, ruling the world, oh that’s where all the whitey’s will be.”
    I am Allenp, and I approve this message.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com/ TADOne

    Dee, your caps lock key appears to be broke.

  • http://www.shawn-kemps-offspring.blogspot.com Eboy

    Allen’s song choice is tight.

  • http://fdklf.com Jukai

    Haha, I was going to point out that the Suns never play any zone, but Diesel beat me to it.

  • http://www.hbo.com/thewire/ jsmoove

    this results from this article are great. it’s really cool to hear people debate about race and racism. i’m happy that people are getting educated.

  • Diesel

    Jsmoove – I agree. SLAM needs to get together 20 or so of the posters that are always posting on these race issues and host a discussion in person. Tape the whole thing and post it on the sight. I’d be interested to see what people have to say when they can’t hide behind the security of their computer screens and they need to look people in the eye when they make some of their comments. I also think it would get more accomplished to sit and listen than skim through 300 posts.

  • Quail

    Joe Alexander was born in China. but he is still an American citizen. Steve Nash was born in Johannesburg, Africa, but everyone knows he’s canadian.

  • Lan

    DEE…I think it’s amazing how just within the last 60 years, what used to be an all white league, is now a DIVERSE league. Sure, most players are black, but if you look at it from a heritage or cultural standpoint rather than a color standpoint-as the people in the article does-now you have people from Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Puerto Rico, places like Belize, Panama, Kenya, Zair, and so on. As for the white American guys in the leaque; they’re in because they deserve to be. As for the others, they just flat-out can’t cut the mustard. What makes the NBA one of the greatest sports organizations in the world is that it reflects the ends to the means; if you work your but off and are truely gifted, you get there.

  • Myung

    If there were an in your face Hockey publication called Puck, and they had a site called puckonline, and there was a discussion on where all the black hockey players have gone and these sort of comments were being thrown out there (all in the name of good fun), I wonder how long it would be before the NAACP and the Rainbow Coalition would get puckonline shut down. Sort of a double standard, methinks (this, coming from a non-white nor non-black point of view).

  • Fleezy

    once again…ADAM MORRISON!

  • Lan

    Myung…I don’t think that’ll happen because even the most nick-picky special interest person wouldn’t mess up a good sports argument for political gain. C’mon. Besides (and no disrespect to Hockey fans), in a America, a hockey magazine with a general tag like PUCK wouldn’t sell enough units to create a buzz.

  • Orlando Woolridge

    No mention of the White Panther?!?! If you don’t know Aaron Gray, you don’t know good basketball.

  • http://web.mac.com/roaringred bbaby

    hey, eboy, j.j. BAREA is from Puerto Rico.

    Just saying…

  • wreklessINTENT

    watch baseball if you wanna see white guys

  • Lan

    WOW…it’s amazing that TYLER HANSBOROUGH hasn’t beeb thrown out there or NICK CALATHUS

  • BostonBaller

    Premier ish, p.60 short but funny article. The only players mentioned in that ish that are still playing are Shaq, Kidd & Pierce (Mourning just retired) The Shaq vs Zo pic is classic since they won a chip together and Pierce is the only “kid” in the ish to actually make it. The can’t miss guys in it that missed were Rhodes, Prickett & Felipe Lopez…Chuck was chasin’ a dream then and hookers now. lol House Party 3, wow and in May of 1994 Shaq was carrying a Pepsi machine and now he is the size of one and still doing his thing. T. Crook

  • BostonBaller

    Isn’t Tyler still in college?

  • http://www.ravingblacklunatic.blogspot.com Allenp

    Myung
    Have you ever heard of Stormfront?
    I’d check it out. The NAACP and Rainbow Coalition have had some problems getting it shut down, but maybe you have the secret.
    And tha’ts coming from a black person.

  • Lan

    Stormfront? The name itself is risky. What’s the magazine about?

  • Lan

    BostonBaller…Tyler is still in college. I brought’m up to make the point that white guys are still ballin’, will be ballin’, so long as they know how to ball.

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