Dying breed?
Before Saturday's game in Portland, one of the Jazz's players had a question for me. Specifically, he wanted to know if I could figure out the number of white American players in today's NBA. He stressed American players, not European.
There's a perception that white American players are a dying breed, and this player was interested in whether that was the case. It took me a couple of days to go through all the rosters, but I don't think the evidence necessarily supports the belief.
There are 46 white Americans out of 432 players on current NBA rosters. That's 10.6 percent of the entire league and about 1.5 white guys on average per team. Only Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis and Washington have no white American players.
Indiana has a league-high five players - - Travis Diener, Mike Dunleavy, Jeff Foster, Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy - - while Minnesota and Portland each have four.
The complete list: Brian Scalabrine (Boston), Adam Morrison (Charlotte), Aaron Gray (Chicago), Kirk Hinrich (Chicago), Wally Szczerbiak (Cleveland), Matt Carroll (Dallas), Chris Andersen (Denver), Rob Kurz (Golden State), Brent Barry (Houston), Murphy (Indiana), Diener (Indiana), Dunleavy (Indiana), McRoberts (Indiana) and Foster (Indiana).
Chris Kaman (L.A. Clippers), Steve Novak (L.A. Clippers), Chris Mihm (L.A. Lakers), Luke Walton (L.A. Lakers), Chris Quinn (Miami), Joe Alexander (Milwaukee), Luke Ridnour (Milwaukee), Brian Cardinal (Minnesota), Mark Madsen (Minnesota), Kevin Love (Minnesota), Mike Miller (Minnesota), Ryan Anderson (New Jersey), Ryan Bowen (New Orleans), David Lee (New York), Nick Collison (Oklahoma City) and Robert Swift (Oklahoma City).
J.J. Redick (Orlando), Jason Smith (Philadelphia), Louis Amundson (Phoenix), Steve Blake (Portland), Joel Przybilla (Portland), Raef LaFrentz (Portland), Shavlik Randolph (Portland), Brad Miller (Sacramento), Spencer Hawes (Sacramento), Matt Bonner (San Antonio), Kris Humphries (Toronto), Jason Kapono (Toronto), Jake Voskuhl (Toronto), Matt Harpring (Utah), Kyle Korver (Utah) and Kosta Koufos (Utah).
Another factor hurting the dying breed argument: Of those 46 white American players, 14 have played three or fewer years in the NBA. That group includes rookies Kevin Love and Joe Alexander, which suggests there are more players in the pipeline.
--Ross Siler
There's a perception that white American players are a dying breed, and this player was interested in whether that was the case. It took me a couple of days to go through all the rosters, but I don't think the evidence necessarily supports the belief.
There are 46 white Americans out of 432 players on current NBA rosters. That's 10.6 percent of the entire league and about 1.5 white guys on average per team. Only Atlanta, Detroit, Memphis and Washington have no white American players.
Indiana has a league-high five players - - Travis Diener, Mike Dunleavy, Jeff Foster, Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy - - while Minnesota and Portland each have four.
The complete list: Brian Scalabrine (Boston), Adam Morrison (Charlotte), Aaron Gray (Chicago), Kirk Hinrich (Chicago), Wally Szczerbiak (Cleveland), Matt Carroll (Dallas), Chris Andersen (Denver), Rob Kurz (Golden State), Brent Barry (Houston), Murphy (Indiana), Diener (Indiana), Dunleavy (Indiana), McRoberts (Indiana) and Foster (Indiana).
Chris Kaman (L.A. Clippers), Steve Novak (L.A. Clippers), Chris Mihm (L.A. Lakers), Luke Walton (L.A. Lakers), Chris Quinn (Miami), Joe Alexander (Milwaukee), Luke Ridnour (Milwaukee), Brian Cardinal (Minnesota), Mark Madsen (Minnesota), Kevin Love (Minnesota), Mike Miller (Minnesota), Ryan Anderson (New Jersey), Ryan Bowen (New Orleans), David Lee (New York), Nick Collison (Oklahoma City) and Robert Swift (Oklahoma City).
J.J. Redick (Orlando), Jason Smith (Philadelphia), Louis Amundson (Phoenix), Steve Blake (Portland), Joel Przybilla (Portland), Raef LaFrentz (Portland), Shavlik Randolph (Portland), Brad Miller (Sacramento), Spencer Hawes (Sacramento), Matt Bonner (San Antonio), Kris Humphries (Toronto), Jason Kapono (Toronto), Jake Voskuhl (Toronto), Matt Harpring (Utah), Kyle Korver (Utah) and Kosta Koufos (Utah).
Another factor hurting the dying breed argument: Of those 46 white American players, 14 have played three or fewer years in the NBA. That group includes rookies Kevin Love and Joe Alexander, which suggests there are more players in the pipeline.
--Ross Siler
4:29 PM
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12 Comments:
Wally Szczerbiak was actually born in Spain while his father was playing pro ball over there. So technically, that makes him a foreign-born player, even though he is an American citizen and I would imagine that he identifies himself as American.
Isn't Kris Humphries half-white?
what about white, non-American, non-European players, like Steve Nash? Andrew Bogut is an Australian. Both played college basketball in the US, unlike most of the Europeans. The next step in trying to determine some sort of trend would be to factor in height/position, and see if the 10% holds across the entire population of players.
American white guys have been pretty much reduced to lucky charms. It sure worked for the Celtics.
Also, what about mixed race players? Deron Williams, Tony Parker, Jason Kidd, and others are all half-white? Why don't they get considered "white"?
lol because they are mixed....and NOT white.....
The only way to really find out about this, is to compare today's numbers to those of 10, 20 and 30 years ago. You're not making a comparison of any kind, so how can you know if the perception is true?
Joe Alexander is half-Taiwanese. Under your definition, he doesn't count as "white," he's "mixed."
wtf?? how do those numbers support the fact that white Americans arent a dying breed? 1.5 white Americans per team with four teams with none at all? what were those numbers 10 years ago? 20 years ago? i guarantee you that trend is downward. 14 white american players who have three years or less? how the hell is that at all correlated to more being in the pipeline?? all that proves is that joe alexander, adam morrison, and j.j. redick still havent been kicked out yet. are you coming to a conclusion based on logic or making up logic to fulfill a pre-conceived conclusion?
I know this was at the behest of a player, but I still find this entire topic to be bizarre... People commenting about what a certain guy "is", etc., it's just weird. Players are players. Speaking just for myself, I don't especially care what race/color/whatever a player is. I care about whether or not he's good at basketball.
@ken
Joe Alexander is not mixed-race. He's 100% Caucasian, was just born in Taiwan as an expat.
Kosta Koufos is Greek right???
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