I’ve been laying on the self-righteous criticism of sex-tourists pretty thick lately, so I’m gonna take a break with another hoops post. If you’re not interested just scroll down, or click here for the previously posted part II of, Ukraine is not a brothel.
It looks like we can all breathe a sigh of relief that Devean George won’t see a minute of action for the Toronto Raptors this season as the Raps sent George to the GS Warriors in exchange for Italian combo guard Sylvester Stallone Marco Belinelli.
I’m not going to go on about stats, there are plenty of places for that, but rather a conversation I had with my dad on skype. After the Rasho signing he remarked that the Dinos are now the whitest team in the NBA. He didn’t sound excited about this. Now that Belinelli has joined the club, things would appear to be even whiter.
Today the Raps roster has 6 white players on board for the 09 season. They are also the only team that could trot out an all white starting lineup and still have a chance to win.
- Calderon
- Belinelli
- Turkoglu
- Bargnani
- Nesterovic
If you live in Indiana, you might want to raise an eyebrow or two. Indiana also has 6 white players under contract. There is some speculation that Larry Bird is revamping his roster with white guys in response to the Malice at the Palace, where three black players beat the snot out of a bunch of white fans in the stands in Detroit.
That brawl was probably the worst in North American sports and it’s effects have spread far and wide through the sports world. The NBA leaned hard on Youtube to remove all video evidence of the brawl, and replace the videos with NBA commissioner David 
Stern’s response to the dust-up. In fact it’s now damn hard to find video evidence of the fight anywhere online. The Malice at the Palace is also the reason basketball fans can’t buy large beers at the Air Canada Centre, while hockey fans, who watch dudes knock each others teeth out all night, can.
Obviously any basketball fan understands that a player’s race has nothing to do with how successful they are. But what is interesting is that that perennially successful Pacers, 
while white, did not have a single foreign born player on their roster. Neither did the ’08 championship Celtics, or the ’06 championship Heat. Even the core of the 2004 Pistons were American. All four teams were considered “intense” and “tough.”
The Raptors? All six white players on the roster were born outside the US. Is this something we should be concerned with? Do you have to be American-tough to win in the NBA? I used to think that foreign-born players just didn’t have that from the cradle desire to win an NBA championship. I thought that a world championship or Olympic medal was the real prize. I took a closer look at championships of the past decade and winning rosters included names like, Parker, Gasol, Ginoblli, Okur, Oberto and Ukraine’s own Slava Medvedenko. Even the teams that lost in the finals featured guys like, Big Z, Dirk Nowitzki, Varajeo, Vujajic, Turkoglu, Gortat, Pietrus.
So really, I guess my conclusion is, if I’ve even made a point!?!. Is that the Euro-non Euro, white, non-white argument is pretty much a wash and if the Raps add Delfino, Kleiza, or Nachbar (check out his monster drunk over Elton Brand), let’s not freak out. After all, more Euro-white guys doesn’t hurt our chances at a championship and at the very least means more awesome commercials like this one:
[...] Make It Rain In Ukraine The Raptors? All six white players on the roster were born outside the US. Is this something we should be concerned with? Do you have to be American-tough to win in the NBA? I used to think that foreign-born players just didn’t have that from the cradle desire to win an NBA championship. I thought that a world championship or Olympic medal was the real prize. I took a closer look at championships of the past decade and winning rosters included names like, Parker, Gasol, Ginoblli, Okur, Oberto and Ukraine’s own Slava Medvedenko. Even the teams that lost in the finals featured guys like, Big Z, Dirk Nowitzki, Varajeo, Vujajic, Turkoglu, Gortat, Pietrus. [...]