Why are there hardly any good White American NBA players?

So would it be fair to say that regardless of race or color, if someone had the right training, skills for their position, with the right physical attributes and a hunger to succeed, they have an equal chance as anyone else?

 

They'd still need opportunity. It wouldn't do any good if they are stuck in Madagascar.

 

if scouts could find hakeem in nigeria and dirk in würzburg then i'm sure they would be able to find a white american basketball prodigy in oregon.

 

My untested guess is that Asians have had more stable civilizations with written culture than elsewhere. Part of the reason why some Asians get beet red with so little alcohol is that their ancestors never needed to drink beer as a substitute for drinking contaminated **** water. There are athletic Asians across the north. Heck, the Mongolians had one of the largest known empires in human history. Maybe it's because the Mongolians moved around, intermixed (by force) and didn't have a rooted culture that they could do what they did.

With more civilization comes more domestication...Weather and location also plays into this as for some reason colder weather promotes taller people. (How that explains tall black people is beyond my guesses)

As for the slavery question, keep in mind a lot of Africans died along the journey across the Atlantic. I forgot estimated percentages but it was noticeable. That's an extreme bottleneck that isn't determined by humans.

That alone doesn't make African Americans more athletic but it does make them tougher than the estimated 40 million native Americans that died from imperialistic wars, slave labor and diseases. They were the original colonial slaves.

Just my half baked thoughts. Not much science in this but feel free to poke holes.

 

I don't think this is a question of white v. black so much as white American v. white Euro or South American. Spain is a country with like 1/5 the population of the U.S. yet their national team can compete with our national team and they turn out a higher level of quality (white) talent that the U.S. does. It has to do with CULTURE. Look also at Argentina. God, I didn't even know that Prigioni was Argentinian. There are probably as many Argentina (white) players in the NBA as there are American white players.

The parallel carries over to other sports also. How many European (England, France, Germany) baseball players are there? Maybe, none. Does that mean that white people can't play baseball? On the other hand look at how many pro baseball players are from Puerto Rico, which has lesser population than Connecticut. Puerto Rican kids live, and breath, baseball from their youth because they know it is for them probably the only way for them out of poverty. Similar situation in basketball. When I was growing up I played sports and played with guys who were all-state, etc., and for those guys it wasn't the end of the world for them if they didn't get drafted into the bigs. They went to college, and got degrees. Baseball was just a luxury. It wasn't their whole life and their entire hope. However for some kids growing up on the streets basketball is sometimes the only way out. They put their entire focus and efforts into becoming a pro. Also, black people are probably genetically more suited to the game of basketball.

 

Regarding Asians, I'd have to throw my hat in to say it's cultural rather than DNA related as well.

Many Asians are taught to succeed in academics. We've all ehard of the tiger mums right? Tough love to make their kids smarter with paid tutoring etc etc. While non-Asians focus on driving their kids to sport on the weekend, the Asian parents are driving their kids to tutoring on the weekends.

There is less opportunity for Asians to learn how to play sport. There's less opportunity for them to run or go to the gym if their parents have instilled a strong studying culture into them.

 

dna plays a part.

a lot of asians are short and are just not physically able to play basketball at the nba level. even the asians that are above 6-1, are not quick and agile enough to play pg, sg, or sf, pf.

i'm not the biggest jeremy lin fan but he's a physical freak for an asian. 6-3, 200 lbs, with qickness. you don't see that combination in asians normally.

 

In order to read through all of the posts in this thread, you have to first keep an open mind and genuinely believe that no ill-intentions were used in the replies!

My goodness though...I can't believe some of the things I'm reading. They don't come across as offensive, though. The broad spectrum of beliefs about "White," "American" players is shocking. Like another poster wrote, this could easily be D&D material, but I'm glad no one took it there.

Good thread.

 

Great, now do one with internship and corporate job interviews.

 

So when is the last white guy or Asian to win a 100 meter gold medal in the olympic?

Yes this is NBA not as simple as a 100 M dash, but the facts are pretty clear.

 

Well this is just correct.

China for example is a pretty strong power in Olympic in the recent years.

They are not just strong on certain traditional "skillful" sports like badminton and ping pong or diving. But they are catching up on swimming and gymnastics ect.

But still, when it come down to certain sports which really about testing the physical abilities and about pushing human limits, there aren't much they can do.

Like track and field, like boxing.

It's easier to train a good black ping pong ball player that to train a fast and successful Asian sprinter.

 

Cause they can't jump

 

But by the same standards when was the last African American to win a swimming gold medal or gymnastics gold - or another event where arms and arm strength is used?
Arms are used a lot in basketball. And a basketball court is only about 30m, not 100.

But I get what you're saying.
I would've thought it was more about development regardless of race. Europe and even Australia spend more time on development than making it just about winning.

 

It is interesting that many people have an inclination to say blacks are better because they're more athletic presumably due to genetics rather than just giving them credit for playing more and working harder.

 

No. The average asian is not less athletic than the average white or black person. People in the far east which I suppose you are reffering to them, or their diaspora when you use the generic term Asian, dont' even play much sports because it is against their modern culture. A young boy in Japan or S.Korea has to study from morning to night and sports are very very rarely considered a potential future carreer and that's if he's a bad student. The culture is completely different to the west.
I mean in China they pick young boys to teach them basketball only based on height and that determines their position. Does that mean that they are inherently incapable of becoming good bball players? NO. It just means that the chinese basketball system is godawful.

Also when it comes to genetics generic words as race are not very helpful. As someone before posted an african from west africa is more genetically diverse than an african from the Ethiopia than a Northern European from an Eskimoo. We describe race based only on a few phenotypical characteristics that are not even the tip of the iceberg. At the same token an asian from the far east is a lot different genetically than a person from the Phillipines.
When you say African American it doesn't mean much in the world of genetics. Where from Africa where his ancestors (what Tribe?).

But what I will say is that there are some isolated populations that have genes that could potentially give them an advance in certain sport activities. For example a Thibetan or a Peruvian from the Andes is more likely to be able to handle low oxygen levels and maintain good muscle perfomance than a European because they have adapted to living in extremely high altitudes in the course of millenia. But those population rarely get the opportunity to become professional sportsmen anyway.

 

OHMSS, how is Spanoulis doing?

 

Perhaps their top 10 can compete with the U.S. top 10 in any given game, but over the course of a series or a season, the U.S. would dominate. Also, it would be no contest between the U.S. players ranked 40-50 over their players ranked 40-50.

 

american youth basketball development is geared towards african americans and athleticism because the success rates will be much higher. Also, you transition to different stages, high school/aau, then college, then pros, all that have no relationship to each other so each step is only interested in their own success, whereas european teams keep you through the whole thing then sell your player rights, so maximizing a 13 yo's development for when he's an adult is the norm there.

 

I don't get that impression at all. I think people acknowledge that anyone who makes it to the professional level has played the game a lot and worked plenty hard. The question is why certain sports are disproportionately represented by people of certain racial backgrounds.