Black vs White in the NBA
NBA basketball is an exciting sport. The NBA features such star players as, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Keith Vanhorn, and John Stockton. You could ramble on all day about Pro basketball. And two big questions always come up when talking about pro basketball. Why are 2/3 of the NBA players black? And do black and white players have two different techniques for playing the game of basketball? Jeff Greenfield cites in his essay "The Black and White Truth about Basketball" theories from the book Foul by David Wolf. In today's modern game of NBA basketball, over 2/3 of the players are black. Greenfield also cites that over the last two decades, no more than three white players have been among the ten starting players on the NBA All-Star team (Greenfield 209). David Wolf claims this dominance of blacks in the NBA is due to a natural inheritance. Wolf says basketball is a pastime of the urban poor since the fact most of them don't have finances to access equipment for hockey, baseball, football, or other fairly expensive sports. And basketball is something they can feel pride about (Greenfield 210-211). Most of the urban poor are the black. And black star Penny Hardaway is a prime example of this.
When coaches see a white boy who can jump or who moves with extraordinary quickness, they say, "He should have been born black, he's that good. It seems a far-fetched from the pickup games played by the blacks in the inner city. Iverson, MacGrady, and Carter are players that can be double teamed by the best defends in the NBA and they still can find ways to twist and contort their bodies around the defenders and throw or dunk the ball into the basket. Most of the legendary jumpers in the NBA were black. Back in the beginnings of basketball ethnic names like Red Holzmans, Red Auerbach, and the McGuire Brothers were etched as stars of the NBA (Greenfield 210). They played hard from the tip-off to the final buzzer. Eight white boys suited up for a pick-up game of basketball. Basketball was an activity that kept Penny out of trouble (Fox Sports Net: "Beyond the Glory"). They didn't run with enormous speed, they didn't have the moves stymie defenses. But Greenfield does try to make it a little more clear blacks and whites do seem to have two distinct styles when playing basketball. Stories like these prove the point that a white player uses a very plain approach to the game of pro basketball. But neither of them did it with flash or style. White players Bill Laimbeer and Dan Majerle had very successful careers in the NBA. Like many other black players in the NBA, Penny took pride in honing his skills on those playground courts in the slum.
Common topics in this essay:
MacGrady Carter,
David Wolf,
Jeff Greenfield,
Greenfield Wolf,
Bill Laimbeer,
Game Stories,
Dan Majerle,
Allen Iverson,
Wilt Chamberlain,
John Stockton,
pro basketball,
allen iverson,
razzle-dazzle moves,
white players,
jeff greenfield,
urban poor,
agree greenfield,
dan majerle,
michael jordan,
game basketball,
due natural inheritance,
laimbeer dan majerle,
wolf's idea basketball,
today's modern game,
nba due natural,
|
Acceptance Essays
