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NBAThey Said What?

NBA GM Poll: White Players Make The Most Of “Limited Natural Ability”

by Dylan Murphy | 2:55 pm, October 22nd, 2012

NBA.com’s annual survey of NBA GMs came out today, and as always there were some rather interesting tidbits for us fan folk to gobble up. Zach Harper of Eye On Basketball notes that Nikola Pekovic, who led the NBA in offensive rebound rate last season, didn’t even receive a single vote for best offensive rebounder (his teammate, Kevin Love, won with 53.3% of the vote), and Chauncey Billups somehow got a vote for someone to take a shot with the game on the line.

But the piece of information most ripe for the picking was NBA GMs praising white players for making the most of their limited natural abilities. The question was as follows:

“Which player makes the most of limited natural ability?”

As we mentioned during last year’s look at those white guys defy expectations GM circle jerk, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that the three most chosen players are once again white (or at least half) – Kevin Love, Shane Battier and Marc Gasol. Since 2008, 17/21 players on this list have been fully or partially (Shane Battier!) white.

Of all players receiving votes in 2012, five out of the top six were fully white (Ryan Anderson, Matt Bonner and Nick Collison came in 4th, 5th and 6th respectively.). Here are the rest of the vote-getters: Roy Hibbert, Jared Dudley, Kevin Durant, Danny Green, Chuck Hayes, Kris Humphries, Paul Millsap, Steve Nash, Steve Novak, Luis Scola, Anderson Varejao.

Though this poll question is undoubtedly insulting and therefore hilarious, the answers seem rather backwards. “Natural ability” would appear to reference basketball talent. That is, shooting, dribbling, basketball IQ, etc. – things specifically natural to the sport of basketball. Yet often this is confused with natural athleticism. LeBron is both naturally athletic and naturally talented, whereas a player like Kevin Love is simply naturally talented. The argument can even be made that a player like Love is more talented, simply because he’s so effective in spite of an obvious athletic deficiency. If you were to swap LeBron James’ and Kevin Love’s athleticism, this hybrid Love would be far superior to hybrid LeBron.

On the flip side, Anderson Varejao is neither naturally talented nor particularly athletic – therefore, he would seem to be the one reasonable answer to the question posed to GMs.

Then again, the way GMs interpreted the question, the “Hey look athletically challenged white people!” way, is much funnier.

[NBA.com]

Photo via Getty



  • http://www.facebook.com/mario.Mescoto Mario Escoto

    pure BS , many black players are just awfull…there are 92 white players in the nba…and many are great players…issue is that black players are overrated and have more of a fame for the game…but whites are many more now that before….5 years ago only 50 whites were playing in the NBA to 92 now…

  • http://www.facebook.com/mario.Mescoto Mario Escoto

    the poll was probably answered by more black people. than whites why dont they have a poll about Baseball and hockey …even in Football , there are many more white players than 5 years ago…many of them starters….NHL is 99 % white, Baseball is 92 % between Anglos , Latins and Asians….to only 8 % black…..Even Football…is now like 60 % to 40 % white…in total..if you add the amounts in all 4 sports….Whites are a much bigger % than blacks…much bigger. in all 4 major sports….and if we go to boxing..we will be talking 70 % White/latin/asian to 30 % black.
    NBA 270 Blacks to 92 white 360 players
    NFL 1083 tpo 560 white 1590 players
    NHL 4 to 796 white 800 players
    Baseball 60 to 690 anglo/latin/asian 750 players
    1417 to 2138 white…the game that is more unbalance is hockey and it will stay like that forever…NBA has seeing more whites every year, so the NFL…and Baseball…its just a matter of Education and the leagues making sure the sport is more racially balance…but reality is reality…blacks are better in Basketball, while whites totally and completely dominate hockey and Baseball….while Football is a sport of positions…where you will find domination of whites in QB , Punters, kickers, TE and OL…while blacks dominate WR, RB, FB and CB, SF and DL….but if you go by starters…Racially the game is extremely balanced…i can say that is like 50/50 , i am talking about the starters…anyways…every country has its numbers…we are in the u.S where we are very mix and for a good reason it is…other countries do have issues with race, very serious issues with race….we as a country have advance a lot when it comes to mixing everything for the better of everything…every race has its talents…..but to say that one is beter than the other in one specific sport is not a correct answer…….its just that races play sports differently…but to say that whites have limitations to play basketball…is the most racist comment i ever heard….some of the greatest NBA players are white….like i said you can make a play and make it look more big than me but the result will be the same? hello……………is called hot dogging and showing off……..some people do it better, but it doesnt mean who ever does it is better….

  • http://www.facebook.com/honest.abe.56 Honest Abe

    You have no idea what you’re talking about.


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