Recently the roster 18 man roster for USA men's basketball team that will play at the 2012 Olympics in London was released. Here is the breakdown by position:
Guards: Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Eric Gordon and Stephen Curry.
Forwards: LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kevin Love, Chris Bosh, Carmelo Anthony, Andre Iguodala, Rudy Gay and Griffin.
Centers: Dwight Howard and Tyson Chandler.
Seems like a pretty awesome team, right? There is no doubt that America has the greatest basketball talent pool on the planet, and since we invented the sport, we should be dominating the world competition and besides the embarrassing bronze-metal showing at the 2004 games, we always have.
If you look a little closer at the roster, you may notice something interesting about its makeup...there is one white player on the team. Kevin Love, the star forward for the Minnesota Timberwolves is the sole white representative.
While no one who watches the NBA or follows American sports is probably surprised by this, if an alien came down and saw the make up of the United States and then saw the basketball roster, he/she would probably be very confused.
According to the latest census, 63.7% of American are Caucasian while 12.2% are African-American, and 16.3% are Hispanic. Conversely, 99.5% of the US Men's Basketball team is African-American, leaving only .5% Caucasion (Love) and 0% Hispanic.
This doesn't seem possible, does it? One might say that there are a greater number of great black players because the game is popular in the inner city, where many lower class african-americans live, but don't a large number of whites and hispanics also live in these areas?
I do not know the reason for this statistical anomaly, but it is certainly fascinating.
- Andrew Emmer
Andrew, I understand where you're coming from. I agree with the fact that outsiders would be confused seeing the population of white people and the representation of whites on the US Olympic Team.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting to see the changes in basketball over the years. Basketball went from an all-white sport, to now about 75% black (in the NBA). Like Andrew said, people say that there are more African Americans in the NBA because of where they grow up. Because they most likely grow up in poorer areas, they resort more often to basketball because it is an inexpensive sport. It is simple to put together a basketball hoop and get any ball (even a soccer ball), so for the poorer people (African Americans), it was a simple sport to get into.
Because more African Americans probably grew up playing the sport, they have more practice, which in turn makes them better at the sport.