Can an NBA team be too white?
 

http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/dish...lves-too-white



Are Minnesota Timberwolves Too White?


Minnesota Timberwolves fans may notice something different about their team this year. In a league in which American-born black players made up 75 percent of roster spots in 2011, the Timberwolves will have an opening-day roster comprising just 33 percent black players (five out of 15).

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, this year's squad will be the league's whitest since the 1980s Boston Celtics.


Is that a problem?

Some civil rights leaders in Minneapolis think so. Tyrone Terrell, chairman of St. Paul's African American leadership council, told the Star-Tribune that he thinks the unbalanced roster could be seen as a ploy by the ownership to sell the team to a majority-white fan base.

"How did we get a roster that resembles the 1955 Lakers?" Terrell said to the Star-Tribune. "I think everything is a strategy. Nothing happens by happenstance."

Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn called the allegations "patently false."

Indeed, while the team lacks as many African-American players as most other squads, the Timberwolves are still quite diverse. Five of their ten white players were born outside of the United States.

Brandon Roy, projected to be the team's only black starter, says the color of his teammates doesn't faze him.

"It's just basketball," Roy said. "I never really had to feel like I'm the only black guy out here. I've played on teams that maybe had all black guys and the feeling is just the same when I'm out there on the floor playing with these guys."

Ron Edwards, a longtime Minneapolis civil rights advocate, told the Star-Tribune that it was "somewhat disturbing" when he saw a game last season in which Wes Johnson was the only black player on the floor for the Timberwolves. The composition of this season's roster has prompted Edwards to react even stronger.

"It raises some real questions to me about what's really intended," Edwards said. "I think, personally, that it was calculated. Is this an attempt to get fans back in the stands? Minnesota, after all, is a pretty white state.''

Edwards added that the Timberwolves' roster decisions are a "nullification of diversity and a reversal of history."

Kahn said the Timberwolves targeted two black players as free agents during the summer. But Portland matched Minnesota's offer to Nicolas Batum, and Jordan Hill opted to re-sign with the Lakers at less money for a better chance to win a championship.

"What if Batum and Hill were here?" Kahn said.

Tyrone Terrell, kindly go **** yourself. People like you are part of the problem.

If they don't want to suck then yes.

Tyrone Terrell seems like a bigot.

So it's a strategy to make the majority of the league black, and not happenstance? Because as Mr. Terrell points out, nothing happens by happenstance (which, if true, makes one wonder what strategy led to the creation of the word 'happenstance').

Methinks there are bigger battles for these gentlemen to fight beyond the fact that black players are merely significantly overrepresented on the roster and not drastically overrepresented.

Tyrone is so full of fail. He indirectly labeled the entire state racists by claiming that the fan base will respond to an all white team.

It seems like he forgot that some of the biggest and most idolized stars that state has had in the last 10 years have been black.

Guess they need to trade Love and Rubio.
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:facepalm:

Exactly.

Wes Johnson was our starting 2 last year, and sometimes played the 3. He sucked ****ing shit. That's why we got rid of him and signed Andrei Kirilenko, who will be much better.

Also, this Tyrone Terrell guy apparently lives in Minneapolis, but doesn't realize that the city isn't any more white than any other midwestern metropolitan city like Indianapolis, Chicago, Milwaukee, etc.

The Star Tribune article by Terrell is utter bullshit. I'm glad everybody is blasting this asshole.

I remember when Culpepper would throw to Moss and the stadium would be dead silent, and then they'd all start cheering when Gus Frerotte threw it to Jim Kleinsasser.

Only if you're cheering for them...

Also, you can search my posts from around the NBA draft and find me lamenting the whiteness of my T Wolves. That was mostly in response to us burning a 1st round pick in a trade to land Chase freakin' Budinger. My entire argument has always been that the Wolves lack players who can create their own shot. Last year the only guy on the team who could do that was Love. Thankfully we had Rubio who could find a dildo in a haystack with the basketball, but when he got injured our team crumbled simply because nobody could get off their man on O.

Now we have a (gimped up, but still healthy) Brandon Roy, Kirilenko, and Kevin Love when he comes back. If Rubio gets back to his normal self by the end of the year, our white guys will be just fine.

I know this is a joke, but this brings up an interesting point.

Why do Packer fans yell "KUUUHHHN" everytime he catches a 2 yard dumpoff and waddles for 3 yards? That's not racism, but they clearly like the guy because he's big, fat, and white just like them.

If you ain't black youz racist! I always hated to watch my favorite player George Gervin because he was black...oh wait no i didn't.. carry on.

or when Chief fans cheered for Boomer Grigsby

The only "white" guys on the team are Love (one of the best PFs in the league) Budinger (Huge upside) and Ridnour (Roster fill in). The rest are Euro trash

So someone has the nerve to call out a time in a sport that is dominated by black players for being too white?

Yeah, that didn't work out so well for Boston.

Anyone that truly advocates the civil rights movement should denounce these two clowns for demeaning the cause with this feeble attempt for publicity.

Also, if any of you have seen Pekovic play, he's got the physique of a ****ing Adonis. I'm pretty sure he's gotta have a black ancestor or something like that. Dude might have white skin, but he absolutely swings a chocolate penis.

Only if they want to win

i'd say yes because white men cant jump.

This...

Derrick Williams starts now for Love so their argument is void lol

My theory is that people like to yell names with an 'oo' sound. (Is that a soft u or a hard u, by the way?)

You go to a Springsteen concert and the fans yell, "Bruuuuuuuuuce". REM fans don't yell, "Michaeeeeeeeeee".

You watch a Giants game and when Cruz catches a pass they yell "Cruuuuuuuuz". They don't yell, "Niiiiiiiiick" when Hakeem catches a pass.

Packers? "Kuuuuuuuuuuhn", not "Staaaaaaarks".

When Elvis Dumervil makes a sack, Broncos fans yell, "Elway!" because they're stupid, so that doesn't really count, but they should be yelling "Duuuuuuuum".

If Matt Cassel's name was Stu, he would be popular, because fans would want to yell, "Stuuuuuuuuu."

Seriously, if you want your child to become a popular entertainer, you would be well served by naming him or her something with an 'ooooo' sound.

The T-Wolves don't have the luxury of being too selective. I bet a lot of it is just them taking what they can get. Not too many guys are interested in going there anyway.

I've heard people yell for Marc Castle, but it's more like, "Looooooooooser".
Is that close enough?

The crowd already has a perfect yell for Kasl, it's...


Booooooooooooooo!

810 is talking about this and Danny(dipshit) thinks there is racism involved here.

I like Danny and all, but sometimes he says some of the dumbest shit.

I agree. Half the time it seems like he just likes going, "Ehhhh, I don't know....." in response to someone, but he doesn't have much else after that.
It's like that one commercial from Honda where the guy goes, "Ehhhh, I don't know about that...." but makes no actual point.

It's crazy, he makes Carrington, who I swear is a Nick Wright clone, sound like a genius.

Can an NBA team be too black?

We all know how bad those Celtics teams were.

Are the Calgary Flames too black? They have two black players.

Negro please.

I'm surprised Whitlock hasn't posted in here yet.

Really? This is the N B A we are talking about.

white folks can ball now days. There are some really really damned good ones.
If you can play, then play

Out of all of the jokes about black people and all of the racism geared towards black people it's funny to see some in here get upset about this.

:deevee:

I don't think anybody's really upset. We're content to call the original author an idiot and move on.

The Timberwolves are actually in a position to make the playoffs this year, largely because they have a center who can score, one of the most versatile PFs in the game, an super-talented passer at PG, and now they've done a good job to fill out the rest of their starting lineup with smart veterans who know how to play in the league. Yes, outside of Roy, they're all white guys. And no, it's not a problem because they can all ball hard.

I dont get the context of this...what does the N stand for?

I saw some article a couple of years ago that I thought was really interesting.

It mentioned the NBA as an example of cultural bias, and linked it to lower school test scores among minorities.

There are a fair number of white NBA players, but the vast majority are non-American. At the time of the article, I think it said there was only one white American in the league (or one white American starter, something like that). However, there were a fair number of foreign white people.

The article made the comment that white Americans are culturally infused with the notion that blacks are better at basketball, so they give up easily and don't have the persistence to succeed at an elite level, because they feel that they have an inherent disadvantage. White foreigners don't have the same issue, so they soldier on and do just fine.

The article then said something like, "Do you see the parallel between this and lower standardized test scores for blacks and Hispanics?"

I thought it was an interesting observation in how people internalize societal expectations.

Something tells me Calcountry won't explain his joke if asked to

You know exactly what it stands for.



Nubian

:facepalm:

Black people are probably the most racism group in the U.S.

imo Japanese lead the world in racism but Blacks hate whites,puerto ricans,gays,jewish. Hell they even hate light vs dark skin african americans.
Come to think about it i'm not sure they don't hate just about anyone that's not black.

Sort of ironic that every other second african american cry racism about just about anything when they are racist as hell.

This is ****ing stupid. Ignorant stupid shit. People that seriously look at this as a problem need to ****in die.

And if someone said a hockey team was too black, all hell would break loose.

Love how you just label all blacks as the most racist. Not all blacks worship at the altar of Al and Jesse, regardless of what the media wants you to believe.

I doubt even sharpton is ridiculous enough to back these two "leaders" views.

That is interesting.. We were talking about it today at the gym playing bball.. About kids growing up from the 80s to 90s thinking black people are better athletes in bball/fball because of color.. Everyone agreed, even the black guys that a lot of people are that way..

It is slowly chipping away..

can anybody give a **** about the NBA until February?

14-11 Just beat the Thunder

Just barely beat the Thunder when Kevin Martin wasn't playing. Reggie Jackson was good as his replacement.... not.

I'll take it, but this white team needs to learn how to play smarter basketball. When we're 100% healthy we'll see if anything changes, but so far I doubt it.

I'm predicting playoffs as a 6/7/8 seed for Minnesota like I did at the beginning of the season. This is going to be one of those "Maybe next year" kind of seasons to see if they can improve to really swing the vanilla penis around in the western conference.

You'll have your vanilla and chocolate Peni. Your ying and yang.