blog of basketball

A few weeks ago I wrote about how a few weeks before that I pitched this story idea to several editors and was soundly rejected.

The story idea was that I wanted to write about the tremendous popularity of basketball in Asia (and worldwide...bball's got more appeal over the world than any other sport. North America* will NEVER, EVER give a flying shit about soccer or rugby and no one in Asia* will ever care about US Football or baseball). That's the main angle--how bball is blowing up here, how the average HK youth will care about Kobe more than any other US/European celebrity, and how Jordan will always, always rule the sneaker streets in Mongkok.

An interesting side angle I wanted to tackle is that through the popular of the NBA-a league that is 80% black--kids are being exposed to black culture without really trying to learn as well.

Anyway, I was reading Bill Simmons' 700 page book on all things basketball and he mentioned that as a kid, he loved basketball and the NBA so much he wanted to be black, even dubbing himself Jabaal Abdul Simmons.

I knew I had a point with the angle. I knew I wasn't the only one who felt that way. Simmons has long felt that way only he could never write about this for his day job because of all the stupid overly PC stuff. But everyone who's a genuine fan of basketball probably feels this. There are so many kids, who inadvertently pick up the mannerisms and swagger of a brotha due to love of basketball.

But yeah. I wanna get into the issue of race in the NBA now. Simmons' book touches on this alot and I fucking love the guy for telling it like it is. He's absolutely the most important sports writer in the world

right now, bar none.

One of the sections of Simmons book is he looks back at every MVP winner in league history and dissect that year's MVP race and decide if the winner deserved it or if it was a robbery (like Kobe winning it in 08).

In the early days of the league (from thr 50s to 60s), the league MVP was decided by peer voting--meaning the players vote for who the MVP is. Because the league was mostly white and black professional athletes were still rare and racial discrimination was still a huge part of the US in the 50s, there were some head scratching votes. For example, there are some seasons when Bill Russell was clearly the best player on the best team, yet he wouldn't win the award by a landslide (or not win at all) because some votes inexplicably went to a white player who averaged less impressive stats on a far less successful team. It makes no sense. Russell would average 17-20-5 on a 63 win team but some votes went to a white player averaging 18-5-4 on a 39 win team. There is no reason for that other than the voters didn't want to vote for the black guy.

I know what you thinking now:

Okay now, but we've progressed so much as a nation! that doesn't happen anymore. And black people are considered as cool anyways, right?

Yes. That's true. But this new mentality has led to a new form of racism. The reverse racist.

Steve Nash is the most hated, most dissed MVP of this generation by hardcore basketball fans. Why? Because people assume he won only because of his skin color. People can't fathom Steve Nash winning the MVP award in a league when Kobe Bryant and Lebron James are in their prime.

And on the surface--it does look ridiculous. 20 years from now when we think back to basketball in the 2000s, everyone will remember Shaq/Kobe in the early decade, then the Kobe/Lebron/Wade GREATNESS trio, followed by Lebron ripping the heart out of Ohio in the final year of the decade. That'll be the things people remember. Not Steve Nash and Dirk, who combined owned the MVP trophies for three straight years that decade.

Does that make sense? A white guy won the MVP award three straight years in a decade defined by Kobe/Shaq, Kobe/Lebron, KG/Duncan.

That's the thought going through everyone's head and that's why everyone is dissing Nash and his MVPs to this day (it doesn't help that Nelly Furtado namedropped Nash in her song Promiscuous: "Are you for real or are you talking trash? Is your game MVP like Steve Nash?"Seriously, nothing kills your streetcred more than being namedropped in a Nelly Futado song. I'm like  a bird I just wanna fly away PUKE)

BUT the thing is, if you think about it, Nash won those MVPs because he was the most logical choice. In 2005, he turned a 20 win Suns team into a 60 something win juggernaunt that ran every team off the floor. Nash was the motor that made that team go. In 2006, the Suns lost TWO starters from the 05 team and everyone wrote them off--yet Nash led that team to 52 wins with a slightly above average supporting cast and went to the WCF.

And the players who are better than Nash just didn't qualify for the award during those two years because their team was mediocre. Lebron and Kobe were not on contenders and were no threats to win the title.

Yes, Nash won them awards due to a perfect storm of events that favored him, but hey, that's life. You can't make a case that anyone was significantly more deserving of those awards during those two years.

But he's hated because people assume he won the awards due to his skin color.  40 some years after Bill Russell was robbed of several MVP awards because he's Black, Steve Nash is getting eyerolls and wristflicked at his MVP awards because he's White.

But you know what, it's okay. Hate all you want. Steve Nash showed up every Spring in 05, 06  and 07 and destroyed everyone in his path. He was like Denzel in Training Day, with that crazy "KING KONG AINT GOT SHIT ON ME" stare.

Vengeance.