Posted on 10/29/2012 7:19:32 PM PDT by TurboZamboni
When Wolves offseason moves built a squad that's glaringly white, skeptics chimed in about motives.
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share email Email shareyour name your email recipients email + add a comment add a comment . Dante Cunningham noticed when he reported for work in Minnesota this fall that his new Timberwolves team is unlike any for which he has ever played.
"Day One, we were all in the elevator and I kind of looked up," he said about a crowded ride with many of his new teammates, "and I was just like, 'Where is everybody?' "
Everybody, in this case, being black teammates. Come opening night on Friday, Cunningham will be one of five black players on a 15-man Wolves team that has reversed the National Basketball Association's historical racial percentages with a roster that is the league's whitest since the Boston Celtics teams of the 1980s.
Raised in Washington, D.C., and educated at Villanova, Cunningham played his first four professional seasons for three different teams in a league where American-born black players constituted 78 percent of roster spots last season and have been at least 75 percent since 1991-92.
Twin Cities black leaders have noticed, suggesting the franchise strategically has rolled back the calendar by decades in a league that long has been at the forefront of diversity among America's professional sports leagues.
"How did we get a roster that resembles the 1955 Lakers?" asked Tyrone Terrell, chairman of St. Paul's African American leadership council. "I think everything is a strategy. Nothing happens by happenstance."
That strategy, Terrell and others in the black community believe, is to sell tickets to the Wolves' fan base, which is overwhelmingly white.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
White boys probably work cheaper.
But white men can’t jump...hopefully they are good at shooting 3-pointers. Speaking for the 1980s Celtic teams, my favorite player was “Long Range” Danny Ainge. King of the 3-pointers.
I won’t be satisfied until the NBA implements an Affirmative Action plan that leads to more Asians and Hispanics on every team. /s
December 26, 1964:
Bill Russell
Tom “Satch” Sanders
Willie Naulls
KC Jones
Sam Jones
Naulls, acquired in the off season, replaced Tom Heinsohn, who suffered an injured fascia.
After a 27-7 start, including their first 11, this new line-up ran off 12 straight wins.
They won the title that year, of course...
CA....
Players can no longer get by on just athletic ability. It takes intelligence and an understanding of team concepts; along with having excellent fundamental skills. Once the NBA started to allow zone defenses, no team with only 2-3 superstars could win.
Two years ago, the Miami heat were far more talented than Dallas, yet Dallas won in six games. Even last year, Boston took Miami to 7 games in the conference finals.
BFD. It’s time for blacks to grow up and quit being so damned hypersensitive about all things color. I don’t give a rat’s dingleberries what color someone’s skin is. Deal with it. I don’t bitch and moan because of all the blacks on the other teams. So are we equal or what?
You cannot have too many egos on one team, it generally won’t work.
Ainge couldn't defend a tree stump. On two separate occasions he left his man wide open at the 3-point line end of seventh games of playoffs when his team was up by two points in order to 'help out' on players inside the line. Once when he was with the Trail Blazers and once with the suns. In both instances, it was Mario Elie who knocked down the three point shots.
The last great college basketball “Team”, were the Florida Gators “04s”. Nobody thought they were the most talented team, but every player had a role and played it perfectly, it was beautiful to watch, and I’m not saying that because I’m a Gator homer.
Nowadays it’s just about putting together the most talented “one and done” players, and the quality of the college game has nosedived ever since, to the point that college basketball is unwatchable.
The informal unwritten rule in the ‘60s was, “Three when at home, four when on the road, and five when behind.”
Ainge was at the end of his career by then. His legs were gone....just saying.
There are a lot more Black athletes than White athletes who combine height, speed, and jumping ability, which all lend themselves to basketball. But the emphasis on these natural athletic attributes has led to the erosion of shooting skills, teamwork, and yes, “heads up” smart basketball.
White basketball players, with Larry Bird being the prime example, have to make up for their lack of natural athleticism with superior shooting, passing, and yes, basketball smarts. It’s not that White players are naturally smarter players, they just have to be smarter by necessity in order to compete at a high level with superior Black athletes.
Frankly, I’m sick of Black players like Richard Jefferson, who are great athletes and fine physical specimens, yet have no natural feel for the game. I’m not saying that Jefferson is representative of most Black players, but it seems like too many NBA scouts focus on “well, is he quick enough, big enough, and strong enough to guard opposing players?”.
I admire the way that International teams have risen to such a level that they can compete against American teams in a way they were never able to decades ago. And the fact is, these International teams do have better shooters and better teamwork than many NBA teams.
The main question that I’ve been asking is why none of these International coaches have been offered contracts with NBA teams? As a life long B ball fan, it seems to me that these International coaches seem to know a thing or two about old school style play.
It’s no coincidence that we’ve never seen a guy like Pete Maravich come along until the likes of Ricky Rubio. Maravich’s father was a legendary college coach. I remember as a kid, reading about how Pistol Pete would bring his basketball to the movie theater when he was a boy, and sit on the aisle bouncing the ball as he watched the movie (that must have gone over well with the other patrons). These International coaches seem to put an emphasis on these kind of skills, so it’s no surprise that a player with Rubio’s unique talents would come from an International team.
So I guess you can call me a racist because I prefer this style of play. And as a huge Beach Boys fan, how can I not root for Kevin Love, who is the nephew of Mike Love and 2nd cousin of Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson? His Dad, Stan Love, played the with Bullets, who used to be my favorite team, back when they were still the Baltimore Bullets.
Danny Ainge was king of the flop. White .men can jump, that’s just bs media propaganda. Sabonas would have been one of the best centers in the NBA except he entered the league in his thirties.
How many championship rings do Danny Ainge, Larry Bird and Kevin McHale have?
A lot
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