I'm behind McClung, but he is small, not that there haven't been small black players as well, but that's no excuse no matter the color. I saw a few highlights of the Mavericks game the other night and Cooper Flagg abused him pretty good. Blocked a couple of his shots and shot over him with ease.
One thing I didn't like was Flagg taunting McClung's size. Motioning with his hand how short Mac is. Flagg needs to be a little more humble as he was exposed a few nights earlier against Wemby!
McLung is an NBA player and can definitely carve himself a role with the right team that gives him a chance. As you mention, there are and have been small players in the league, both black and white. But you need to make up for that lack of height with other skills. He has the athletic ability, and can hopefully continue to develop the 3-point shot. I’m really glad he’s finally getting a legit opportunity.
But any thought that the league has blackballed him is nonsense. We are truly living in the golden age of the white players in the NBA. CS and Jimmy Chitwood, I’m guessing you’re around my demographic (I’m late 40s). I know there have been a lot of great white players during the 60s-80s, but my memories of the NBA start with the 90s when the league had already started to get much darker. Other than a handful of Euros and American-born role players, there was nothing else out there. It got so bad that I distinctly recall anti-white publications like USA Today and Sports Illustrated turning out articles about the “disappearance of the white American NBA player”.
Things began to slowly change in the early 2000s with an infusion of some great European players like Dirk Nowitzki, Manu Ginobili, the Gasol brothers, and a steady trickle of other quality white players from Spain, Argentina, Lithuania, Turkey and elsewhere. I truly believe those guys served as an inspiration to the current crop of white talent in the NBA today. I’m especially pleased with the noticeable increase of white American players with Cooper Flagg going #1 in this year‘s draft.
Every night you can count on witnessing something awesome, whether it’s 50 point games, triple doubles, game winners, poster dunks, you name it. It’s a good time to be following the NBA and it’s so much better than the NFL in one sense that there is no caste system or forbiden positions.
