While researching (barely) a different yet-to-be-posted entry, I came across another example of something that has bothered me for some time. I watched the NFL draft last month, and while I was flipping through on Saturday, I saw Riley Cooper, the 6-3 receiver from Florida get drafted. Cooper is obviously a big target and he has good hands, but scouts have questioned his speed and quickness. If you’re a draft analyst looking for a current NFL player to use as a comparison to describe Cooper’s skillset, who would you pick? I’m not a draft analyst, so I can’t tell you off the top of my head who the best comp would be. But I can tell you who it wouldn’t be: the short but lightning quick Wes Welker. But that’s who this analyst (I can’t remember which one, but I laughed out loud when it happened) chose. What do these players have in common? Well, they’re white. That’s all.
It happens in football all the time, for sure. (Cooper was next compared to Matt Jones, another big white receiver, but Jones was a freak athlete with no hands and, it turns out, a drug problem, basically the opposite of Cooper.) But basketball is a worse offender. College basketball and NBA draft analysts refuse to compare players of one race to players of another. All season and tournament, anyone referencing Gordon Hayward’s pro potential name checked Mike Dunleavy Jr. This completely ignores huge aspects of Hayward’s game. He’s not as quick as Dunleavy, but he’s as good or better a shooter, and a much better defender. But that’s not what I’m referring to. Hayward is a fantastic athlete. Commentators all season would be surprised to see him take off and dunk with ease over taller defenders. He’s also a great rebounder, and a skilled offensive facilitator, neither of which would be used to describe Dunleavy, but all of which are extremely important when it comes to Hayward’s ability to succeed at the next level. Why isn’t he Carmelo Anthony? Good outside shooter, can post up, finish with authority, runs the floor, good rebounder. Where’s the difference, right down to the national title game appearance? In fact, the only real difference is scouts have seen his ability to guard in a man-to-man defense against high-level opposition, and they know what Hayward can do on that end, which is more than they could say about Anthony after his season in the Jim Boeheim scheme. (This is an underrated flaw in Syracuse’s philosophy, and has to hit them when Jimmy’s trying to sell recruits on being developed for the league. Anyone who goes to Syracuse will only practice and play in a defensive scheme that will be of no use to them in the NBA. It’s wasted developmental time.) Moreover, though I love Butler’s team and Hayward’s surrounding teammates, Dunleavy’s Duke teams had 5 other potential pros for the defense to worry about. Open shots were plentiful. Hayward’s efficiency should go up at the next level. (This isn’t to say he should go now, if he comes back he’d be a top-5 pick next season, but he’s a smart guy, he’ll make the best choice.) And then there’s my last measure, what I like to call the Dane Fife test. Fife was 6-4, generously. And he was one of the best perimeter defenders in the country, and routinely shut down opposing guards for the Indiana team that went to the championship game in 2002. And on that run, they played Duke, and Fife held Dunleavy to 17 points on 5-16 shooting. That’s a bit misleading, since Dunleavy was 3-8 on three pointers, and therefore 2-8 on two-point field goals. He had no interior game to punish his smaller defender, and had to play to Fife’s strength on the perimeter. If Hayward had Fife on him, he’d take him inside and punish him on the block. He’s far more versatile offensive player than the Dunleavy comparison gives him credit for being.
So why is that the default comparison? Well, they’re both white. There you go. It’s a never-ending story, really. Go to nbadraft.net and take a look at their mock-draft lottery for 2010. There are 3 white players on the board. If you check their comparable players by clicking their names, it comes back as white as an Augusta National board meeting. (That joke courtesy Rick Reilly’s Greatest Hits Ltd, all rights reserved.) We’ve covered Hayward (I'm not even going to respect the fact that along with Dunleavy, Hayward is compared to Luke Jackson, a smaller, much less athletic player with less shooting ability. But hey, he's white and within 6 inches in height! Close enough!), but what of Cole Aldrich? Surely a 6-11 shot-blocker/rebounder with the ability to run the floor and an effective offensive game would garner comparisons to players like Dale Davis, maybe? Try Joel Pryzbilla/Eric Montross. Both back to the basket centers who never flashed Aldrich’s athleticism, or offensive ability. And, of course, both white. The third white player is European, which stereotypes him differently. His name is Donatas Motiejunas and I’m not going to repeat that, but he’s a 7 ft power forward with a mostly back to the basket game, the ability to run, and shoot a little. His comparable? Andrea Bargnani, the first overall pick of the Raptors a few years ago. Also a white European. Donatas’s review goes on to say that if he works hard he may get his game to the level of Pau Gasol or Dirk Nowitzki.
That statement alone is doubly offensive; Gasol and Nowitzki are also white Europeans, but more importantly their games couldn’t be any more different. Gasol is a post-up center who makes his living in the lane, Nowitzki a forward who also happens to be one of the best outside shooters in the league. Donatas could develop into one of the NBA's best players and he still wouldn't be similar to both Dirk and Gasol, because they're not compatible! How does this make any sense to anyone? And this is a website that devotes its entire mission to comparing basketball players and projecting how they’ll perform in the NBA. It’s offensive, but I haven’t covered it all. (Sorry if you were really hoping I was done.)
There’s another side to the equation. Black players are never compared to white players. Every one of the eleven black players on the mock draft lottery I sent you to earlier is compared to a black player for reference. Now, for all I know, that’s the most accurate description for these players. I haven’t seen them play enough to be able to disprove the comparisons. But fortunately for me, they left their archives up, and last year’s draft also featured their pro comparisons. I stuck with the lottery because I didn’t want to give this site the page views they would have received from more research (and because I’m lazy.) Only one white American player was taken (Tyler Hansbrough) and true to form he was compared to Mark Madsen, another white player, despite the fact that Hansbrough is known for his relentless effort and drive and Madsen was known for dancing at Lakers championship celebrations. I’ll say this, though. Hansbrough was also compared to Eduardo Najera, who’s Hispanic. It’s a start, I suppose, and when I discovered James Harden, who’s black, compared not only to Brandon Roy but to Manu Ginobili, I thought maybe I was going to have to rewrite this whole thing. But that was the end of the breakthrough. Digging further, every other player was black but one, and every black player had a black comparable in his profile. The other non-black player was Spain’s Ricky Rubio, a player known for his ball handling, playmaking, and ability to run offense and run the fast-break. However, he can’t shoot. He really can’t shoot. Not at all. I’m confident I could beat him at a three-point contest, although I’m from Indiana so it wouldn’t really be a fair fight. Anyway. Taking into account his skills, who would be a good comparison? Derrick Rose comes to mind, although Rubio isn’t the freak athlete Rose is. Chris Paul maybe? That may be a slight on Paul’s shooting, but it’s not a bad comparison. Who’d nbadraft.net pick? Steve Nash. Steve freaking Nash. One of the best shooters, if not the best shooter, of the past ten years. Nash shot 47 percent from three point range in the playoffs, and over 90 percent from the free throw line. What’s the similarity? Well, Nash is a foreign white player (Canadian, but still.) The site also lists Jose Calderon, another Spanish point guard who shoots better than Rubio, but hey, he’s European right? They’re all the same.
As before, there’s another side to the equation. Let’s look at Stephen Curry. The website lists his best pro comparison as, and I’m not making this up, you can see it for yourselves, Mahmoud Abdul –Rauf. Seriously. Stephen Curry, a great ball handler and offensive facilitator, and more importantly one of the best college shooters of the past ten years, who went on to have a fantastic rookie season in the NBA. Abdul-Rauf’s career three-point percentage? 35 percent. Curry’s rookie season percentage? 43 percent. Abdul Rauf’s career points per game? 14.6. Curry’s rookie numbers? 17.3. It’s the same across the board, and Curry’s rebound/assist numbers (4.5/5.9 per game, respectively) are especially impressive, and easily eclipse Abdul-Rauf’s career line of 1.9/3.5. It seems to me the only real similarity between the two is their skin tone.
And, actually, you know who the perfect comparison for Steph Curry was? Steve Nash. Even I knew that at the time, although no one will believe me now, I’m sure. They’re both listed around 6-3, 180, so the physical aspects are there. Neither is lightning fast, but they’re both quick on their first step, both adept at getting into the lane, and both are amazingly quick to get their shots off, from anywhere on the floor, against any defender. And how’d the stats from last season compare?
Steve Nash
Points per game: 16.5
Assists per game: 11.0
Rebounds per game: 3.3
Steals per game: 0.2
Field Goal%: 50%
3 Point%: 43%
Free Throw%: 90%
Stephen Curry
PPG: 17.5
APG: 5.9
RPG: 4.5
SPG: 1.9
FG%: 46%
3P%: 44%
FT%: 89%
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| The numbers sure are similar. Nearly identical three-point and free throw percentage, while Nash’s ridiculous field goal percentage only eclipses Curry by four percent. Nash definitely plays more of a pure point position, and his assist numbers back that up. But Curry is a better defender (his 1.9 steals per game was third in the NBA) and rebounder. So their strengths are similar, and their weaknesses (if you want to call them that) offset. And if I could see the comparison when Curry was coming out of college, why couldn’t anyone else get past the idea that a black player and a white player can have similar games? In fact, I still haven't heard anyone make this comparison, even after a year of watching them play the same game. I'm just a guy who doesn't even like the NBA that much, and I can break down the obvious similarities. But if you watch draft coverage for the NFL or NBA, listen for the number of times a black player’s game is compared to a white players, and vice versa. And if it happens at all let me know, because I’d love to hear it for the first time. |
(As an afterthought, why was Tim Tebow never compared to Vince Young? Everyone acted as if a big, athletic, winning, legendary college QB with delivery and release point issues who hadn’t played in a pro-style offense and made a lot of plays with his legs had never tried to make it in the NFL before. It’s too much of a stretch to imagine the differences in how the debate was framed had Vince Young been white, or Tebow black, but it’s fact that that comparison wasn’t brought up nearly enough considering the obviousness of it. Even if an analyst were to bring it up and tell me why it wasn’t true. That never happened. Why? I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.)
(Hint: it's race. Have I taught you nothing?)
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