Who's the whitest team in the NBA? (no, it's not the Celtics)

Funny, you have 10 black players on the roster and no one makes a peep. But 10 white players and there's an outcry?

 

Should have posted this earlier.
But this reminds me of a quote a co-worker got from a coach.

Early/mid 90s, private high school boys' basketball coach gave this quote to a co-worker after a loss "We're too white to win"
He obviously didn't use the quote in his gamer, but TWTW became a running joke in the sports department at the paper for the next few years.

 

Here's a pamphlet about famous Jewish athletes.

When about 75 percent of the league is composed of black players, and one team significantly deviates from the mean, people are going to take notice.

 

Now who's stereotyping?

 

If you don't get the Jewish athlete pamphlet reference, that's your deal.

 

Stoney,

You might want to check a little more of the Kahn history.

His draft picks:
Ricky Rubio
Jonny Flynn
Ty Lawson
Wayne Ellington
Nick Calathes
Henk Norel
Wesley Johnson
Lazar Hayward
Derrick Williams
Robbie Hummel

That's 10 guys -- 2 white Americans, 2 foreign players and six black dudes.

Kahn also traded for or signed these guys: Beasley, Anthony Randolph, Anthony Tolliver, Will Conroy, Brandon Roy, Dante Cunningham, Malcolm Lee and Martell Webster.

Now he's traded for or signed some white American guys as well: Greg Stiemsma, Luke Ridnour, Brad Miller, Kosta Koufos (somewhat American) and Budinger

I guess I don't see the conspiracy. If Portland doesn't match the Batum offer, AK 47 isn't there. The team is also much improved over a year ago.

 

Former USC basketball coach George Raveling once said (jokingly), "The administration told me to recruit more white players. So I brought in Lorenzo White, Rasheed White and Shaquille White."

 

You're forgetting Lou Amundson, who's American, and J.J. Barea, who is also an American, even if people don't seem to realize it. And what about the other foreign white guys he's recently traded for or signed, for example Alexey Shved, Andrei Kirilenko, Darko Milicic, Sasha Pavlovic, Oleksey Pechkarov, Nikola Pekovic, etc.--they don't count?

So for kicks, let's just recount the number of white guys (american or foreign) that've been signed, drafted or traded for by Kahn in only the three years that he's had that job: Luke Ridnour, Brad Miller, Kevin Love, Chase Budinger, Ricky Rubio, Alexey Shved, JJ Barea, Andrei Kirilenko, Lou Amundson, Darko Milicic, Sasha Pavlovic, Oleksey Pechkarov, Nikola Pekovic, Nick Calathes, Kostas Koufos, Henk Norel, Greg Stiemsma and Robbie Hummel (and Brian Cardinal was also on his first team, but I'm not sure if he was acquired by Kahn or his predecessor).

Sorry, but that is an unbelievable shitload of white guys acquired by one NBA GM in only a three year period. Nobody else in the league even comes remotely close to that number in this category. Also, can't help but notice how when he loses one white guy, he tends to replace him with another (For example, this offseason: Darko and Brad Miller out, replaced by Stiemsma and Amundson, failed to sign Hummel, so signs Shved instead).

Again, I don't know what intent, if any, is behind it. Perhaps it's sheer coincidence. But it is an odd enough anomaly to at least raise some suspicions otherwise.

 

Why? Because people can't wait to attach some racial significance to just about anything?

 

Kahn didn't acquire Love. That was McHale. Pekovic was also a McHale pick. And turns out two pretty damn good selections (he traded Mayo for Love).

And some of the ones you list are just way too much of stretch when looking for suspicious intent. For instance, to get Rubio they dealt Mike Miller -- not just a white guy, but a South Dakota white guy, who had a lot of white fans come to every home game to cheer on the Corn Palace Prince. Nick Calathes? Dealt on draft day to the Mavs. Kahn gave Minnesota whites very little chance to enjoy the Calathes era.

Reuse had a column a week ago about how the Timberwolves have never captured the full interest of Minnesota sports fans, no matter who's been on the team. They set attendance marks the first few seasons because they played in the dome but the futility of the franchise drained the fanbase and the poster boy for that incompetence was Christian Laettner. The first-round exits in the KG era similarly exasperated the fans. Then you had the debacle of the post-KG era.

So has Kahn been going white to finally lure fans back? I guess that'd be the argument. And last year those first few months did re-energize Target Center and was primarily due to one guy: Rubio. Were Minnesotans excited about this because of Rubio's skin or because he's already perhaps the most creative passer in the league, unbelievably fun to watch? When he got hurt fans again got bored with the team as their fortunes plummeted. They weren't swarming the arena to watch Love and Darko.

This year's team should be much better than last year. That, I'm hoping, was Kahn's motivation. Yet this team won't probably excite Minnesotans until Rubio comes back. I just don't get what the motivation would be.

The Timberwolves are a distant fourth among Minnesota pro sports fans, far behind the Vikings, Twins and Wild. I'd hope Kahn realizes that he could trot out the all-whites and it wouldn't get fans behind the team. But I've also not seen anything that even makes this year's actions suspicious, especially since he did make the team better.

 

If Barea can play against us in the Olympics, he's a furriner!

 

What's the upside Kahn to purposely make the team whiter? Attendance average was more than 17,000 last season. No NHL, so the T-Wolves can get the winter sports dollar.