As the NBA season starts up again, we are graced with another NBAPreseason survey featuring the opinions of NBA executives around the league. One actual category featured was the question of which player makes the most of limited natural ability?
Kevin Love came in first, with 24.1 percent of the vote. Marc Gasol came in second; Matt Bonner and Jared Dudley tied for third, and J.J. Barea rounded out the top five. In a league that is predominatly black, four of the five players on the list are white. Roy Hibbert was the only black player on the list who was given a vote from any executive.
Kevin Love made light of the vote with this tweet:
It's the "White Guy" award!! @APkrawczynski: Another from NBA GM survey: @kevinlove is player who makes most of 'limited natural ability.'
Racial coding has always been talked about in the NBA. It's easy to vote for white players which goes along with simple-minded guesses that black players are more naturally gifted athletes, while white players use their smarts to succeed.
Does it really make sense to vote for Kevin Love? Love is 6'10", has a sweet shooting stroke, is ridiculously strong leading him to rebound after rebound during his career. Actually voting for Roy Hibbert seems to be a more intriguing option considering his progression and work on his lack of mobility and stamina as well as his improved defense over the past few years.
[via Deadspin]
