Percentage of White Americans in NBA

[Amonkey]

The thing that I question about the theory is why would the farmers want to do that in the first place?  Why is there a need for stronger more athletic slaves?  If you are on the field, work efficiency is important, but they are still slaves.  It doesn't mean they'll work harder and would a stronger slave really improve the farming system?  I would think that numbers rather then strength would be a more important factor on the efficiency scale.  Besides, by having stronger slaves, wouldn't that just be worse since they could start rebellions?  I think it would just make it harder to stop a rebellion.  Can you imagine an Albert Haynesworth rebelling!

[GreenFaith1819]

I just don't know about the theory of slavery, in reference to the athleticism of African Americans in the NBA right now. Reason I say this is because I can name three players right now that dominated the NBA back in the 80's: Larry Bird, Kevin Mchale, and Bill Walton. Yes I named Bill, because when he was healthy he was dominant in Portland and led them to a title if I'm not mistaken. And he was dominant in helping us to a title in 86.

I just named those three off the bat, but if I did a little more research I could probably name quite a few more from the 80's and 90's.

Kevin Love shows a lot of promise as well if he can stay healthy. I see him being All-Star good in a few years.

Good discussion, though.

Just wanted to add a few more players to the list above. I pulled from my memory of dominant players----Chris Mullin, Mark Eaton, Jack Sikma, Tom Chambers, Mark Price, Christian Laetner, John Stockton, Danny Ainge..I'm sure there are more.

Again..just my take on it. I'm just not so sure that Genetics plays into the thread, IMO.

[Roy Hobbs]

I just don't know about the theory of slavery, in reference to the athleticism of African Americans in the NBA right now. Reason I say this is because I can name three players right now that dominated the NBA back in the 80's: Larry Bird, Kevin Mchale, and Bill Walton. Yes I named Bill, because when he was healthy he was dominant in Portland and led them to a title if I'm not mistaken. And he was dominant in helping us to a title in 86.

I just named those three off the bat, but if I did a little more research I could probably name quite a few more from the 80's and 90's.

Kevin Love shows a lot of promise as well if he can stay healthy. I see him being All-Star good in a few years.

Good discussion, though.

Just wanted to add a few more players to the list above. I pulled from my memory of dominant players----Chris Mullin, Mark Eaton, Jack Sikma, Tom Chambers, Mark Price, Christian Laetner, John Stockton, Danny Ainge..I'm sure there are more.

Again..just my take on it. I'm just not so sure that Genetics plays into the thread, IMO.

There's no doubt that there have been great white players.  I think the question is, why do African-Americans make up around 10% - 12.5% of the population of the United States, but account for something like 70% - 80% of the players in the NBA.

Is it a matter of socio-economics?  Genetics?  Exposure?  I'm not sure exactly, but *something* accounts for the percentage gap.

[nickagneta]

I just don't know about the theory of slavery, in reference to the athleticism of African Americans in the NBA right now. Reason I say this is because I can name three players right now that dominated the NBA back in the 80's: Larry Bird, Kevin Mchale, and Bill Walton. Yes I named Bill, because when he was healthy he was dominant in Portland and led them to a title if I'm not mistaken. And he was dominant in helping us to a title in 86.

I just named those three off the bat, but if I did a little more research I could probably name quite a few more from the 80's and 90's.

Kevin Love shows a lot of promise as well if he can stay healthy. I see him being All-Star good in a few years.

Good discussion, though.

Just wanted to add a few more players to the list above. I pulled from my memory of dominant players----Chris Mullin, Mark Eaton, Jack Sikma, Tom Chambers, Mark Price, Christian Laetner, John Stockton, Danny Ainge..I'm sure there are more.

Again..just my take on it. I'm just not so sure that Genetics plays into the thread, IMO.

There's no doubt that there have been great white players.  I think the question is, why do African-Americans make up around 10% - 12.5% of the population of the United States, but account for something like 70% - 80% of the players in the NBA.

Is it a matter of socio-economics?  Genetics?  Exposure?  I'm not sure exactly, but *something* accounts for the percentage gap.

For me it's socio-economic. Most African Americans live in the bigger cities. In the inner cities there is very little room for hockey rinks, baseball fields, and football fields but every neighborhood has a school with a basketball hoop in it. Most smaller parks in the inner city are also large enough to support a basketball court but not football and baseball fields or ice rinks.

Now couple that with the fact that if you want to play a competitive game of basketball with 2 people, basketball is the easiest and probably cheapest to play. What's a basketball cost as compared to football equipment, hockey equipment or baseball equipment. How many more people do you have to gather at the very least to play a competitive game of any of the other. Also, basketball can be played indoor or outdoor and are on a regular basis, more so than any of the other sports.

When you bring all those factors into play, to me it shows that African-Americans are much, much more likely due to accessibility to play the game, cost to play the game, and ability to find a place to play the game than white people because the best white athletes can really choose from any of the 4 major sports due to, again, the same socio-economic factors but only in reverse. They are exposed to more sports, have the money to play more sports, and they have the land to build places to play the other sports.

To me its socio-economic and diversity of exposure and accessibility because of the socio-economic factors.

[Fafnir]

I think its a combination of genetics and socio-economic factors. I mean you can see how socio-economics play into things by the decreasing number of black players in MLB. But that doesn't explain why the greater number of black athletes across the board in so many sports

[TitleMaster]

I am not a fan of the whole "proud to be Irish-American", "proud to be Italian-American" nonsense. I stick with the human identity. I'm not into building group walls. Being proud of one's ethnicity makes no sense to me since I it seems to similar to being proud to not be a member of other ethnic groups.

Well in reality, like let's say when one leaves ethnic neighborhoods like the North End or South Boston and then travels around the country, these divisions end quickly. The white American identity is a blend of numerous ethnicities: Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Mediterranean, Slavic, etc, so that being proud of one thing means nothing to the average mainstream American where let's say one parent is a mix of British & Russian and the other, a mix of Irish & German. That's why the USA has little in common with Europe, since subnationalities mean so little, however, as we all know, the color line is kinda where the melting pot idea halts... the white ethnicities have intermarried for over two centuries, esp the 20th century, w/o including the African-Americans. And part of why we see so much internal schism about Obama is that he's not from a eastern-western European blend (which is actually what people want) but across the color divide which mainstream whites don't want to accept as becoming mainstream.

[GreenFaith1819]

I am not a fan of the whole "proud to be Irish-American", "proud to be Italian-American" nonsense. I stick with the human identity. I'm not into building group walls. Being proud of one's ethnicity makes no sense to me since I it seems to similar to being proud to not be a member of other ethnic groups.

Well in reality, like let's say when one leaves ethnic neighborhoods like the North End or South Boston and then travels around the country, these divisions end quickly. The white American identity is a blend of numerous ethnicities: Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Mediterranean, Slavic, etc, so that being proud of one thing means nothing to the average mainstream American where let's say one parent is a mix of British & Russian and the other, a mix of Irish & German. That's why the USA has little in common with Europe, since subnationalities mean so little, however, as we all know, the color line is kinda where the melting pot idea halts... the white ethnicities have intermarried for over two centuries, esp the 20th century, w/o including the African-Americans. And part of why we see so much internal schism about Obama is that he's not from a eastern-western European blend (which is actually what people want) but across the color divide which mainstream whites don't want to accept as becoming mainstream.

And don't forget that President Obama's mom was caucasian..to me he actually favors his mom in the face more than his dad.

At the heart of it all, to me, we are all human. But we do still fit into categories, which were already established. I'm African American, but I'm about 15 percent Portugese, 20 Percent Mohawk Indian as well.

When I walk down the street, though..I'm a 6'3" African American.