GreatLakeState
Mentor
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2005
- Messages
- 1,057
A truth that the brainwashed JJ has denied in the past ..
Hill has theory why everybody dislikes Redick
Published October 4, 2006
Why does everybody hate J.J. Redick so much?
Is it because he's good and knows it?
Or is it because he's a hot dog who's been known to do the shimmy after burying a 3?
Or is it that he's a cocky kid who once hit a shot in college and asked the opposing fans sitting in the front row, "Man, am I good or what?"
Or is it because he played college ball at hoity-toity, high-and-mighty Duke, the stuck-up private school of the privileged and powerful?
Or maybe Grant Hill, struggling and searching for an explanation as to why his Magic teammate and fellow Duke alumnus is the most hated college basketball player in history, stumbled upon the real reason for Redick's infamy.
"Maybe," Hill said of the Magic's No. 1 draft pick, "it's because he's white."
Voila!
Leave it to a Duke grad to have the insight and intellectual honesty to unearth one of the great mysteries of modern-day basketball:
The Plight of the White.
In a sport where about 80 percent of NBA players and 60 percent of college players are black, it's become accepted practice to hate the white guy. Think of the most despised players in recent basketball history, and chances are it'll be someone of the Caucasian persuasion.
The most hated NBA player of the past 20 years is undoubtedly former Detroit Pistons white center Bill Laimbeer, the elbow-throwing, foul-feigning flopper whom his own fans nicknamed "His Heinous." Some might argue that Dennis Rodman was more hated, but I disagree. Rodman was an amusing freak show; Laimbeer was an appalling bad guy.
By most accounts, the two most-despised college players of the past 20 years are Duke's fair-skinned antiheroes -- Redick and Christian Laettner. Cracks Hill, who was Laettner's college teammate, "It wasn't just the opposing fans that hated Laettner, we hated him, too."
Locally, too, there's nothing that incites like the sight of white. Since the University of Florida basketball program emerged into the national limelight a decade ago, two white players -- fiery point guard Teddy Dupay and floppy-haired shooting guard Matt Walsh -- clearly have been the most universally disdained by opposing fans.
At Florida State, former white star Bob Sura was singled out for fan ridicule and resentment more than any other Seminole I can remember. Sura was so reviled, a former UF assistant coach shoved him after Sura dove for a loose ball and landed on the Gators' bench.
What is it about white that makes us see red? Is there some sort of weird, whacked-out reverse racism on the basketball floor? Is it because we've become so accustomed to a sport being dominated by sweet-shooting blacks that we look at whites as cheap sugar substitutes?
Even the most renowned white player of all time -- Larry Bird -- was dissed not so much by fans, but by his own peers. Remember when Rodman called Bird "overrated"? Remember when Isiah Thomas said that if Bird were black, he'd be viewed as just another player? Translation: No way should a white guy ever be considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Not that any of this racial rubbish matters to Redick. He admits that he sort of likes being booed. He admits that he's fueled by the haters and plays "with a chip on my shoulder."
As for the Magic, they certainly can use some of this swagger and braggadocio.
J.J. Redick has a kaleidoscopic charisma that spans the spectrum.
A white hope and a black sheep all rolled into one.
Mike Bianchi can be reached at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com.
Hill has theory why everybody dislikes Redick
Published October 4, 2006
Why does everybody hate J.J. Redick so much?
Is it because he's good and knows it?
Or is it because he's a hot dog who's been known to do the shimmy after burying a 3?
Or is it that he's a cocky kid who once hit a shot in college and asked the opposing fans sitting in the front row, "Man, am I good or what?"
Or is it because he played college ball at hoity-toity, high-and-mighty Duke, the stuck-up private school of the privileged and powerful?
Or maybe Grant Hill, struggling and searching for an explanation as to why his Magic teammate and fellow Duke alumnus is the most hated college basketball player in history, stumbled upon the real reason for Redick's infamy.
"Maybe," Hill said of the Magic's No. 1 draft pick, "it's because he's white."
Voila!
Leave it to a Duke grad to have the insight and intellectual honesty to unearth one of the great mysteries of modern-day basketball:
The Plight of the White.
In a sport where about 80 percent of NBA players and 60 percent of college players are black, it's become accepted practice to hate the white guy. Think of the most despised players in recent basketball history, and chances are it'll be someone of the Caucasian persuasion.
The most hated NBA player of the past 20 years is undoubtedly former Detroit Pistons white center Bill Laimbeer, the elbow-throwing, foul-feigning flopper whom his own fans nicknamed "His Heinous." Some might argue that Dennis Rodman was more hated, but I disagree. Rodman was an amusing freak show; Laimbeer was an appalling bad guy.
By most accounts, the two most-despised college players of the past 20 years are Duke's fair-skinned antiheroes -- Redick and Christian Laettner. Cracks Hill, who was Laettner's college teammate, "It wasn't just the opposing fans that hated Laettner, we hated him, too."
Locally, too, there's nothing that incites like the sight of white. Since the University of Florida basketball program emerged into the national limelight a decade ago, two white players -- fiery point guard Teddy Dupay and floppy-haired shooting guard Matt Walsh -- clearly have been the most universally disdained by opposing fans.
At Florida State, former white star Bob Sura was singled out for fan ridicule and resentment more than any other Seminole I can remember. Sura was so reviled, a former UF assistant coach shoved him after Sura dove for a loose ball and landed on the Gators' bench.
What is it about white that makes us see red? Is there some sort of weird, whacked-out reverse racism on the basketball floor? Is it because we've become so accustomed to a sport being dominated by sweet-shooting blacks that we look at whites as cheap sugar substitutes?
Even the most renowned white player of all time -- Larry Bird -- was dissed not so much by fans, but by his own peers. Remember when Rodman called Bird "overrated"? Remember when Isiah Thomas said that if Bird were black, he'd be viewed as just another player? Translation: No way should a white guy ever be considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Not that any of this racial rubbish matters to Redick. He admits that he sort of likes being booed. He admits that he's fueled by the haters and plays "with a chip on my shoulder."
As for the Magic, they certainly can use some of this swagger and braggadocio.
J.J. Redick has a kaleidoscopic charisma that spans the spectrum.
A white hope and a black sheep all rolled into one.
Mike Bianchi can be reached at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com.
