By Mike Bianchi-Orlando Sentinel
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.
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TorontoArgos here is one more article if you still need to argue. Don this one might be good to post a link to on the homepage.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/stories/MYSA010408.Chanif esto.en.24cc3a6.html
Another quality article by a mainstream sports journalist. This is a good read.
The Chanifesto: Running back a star and -- get this -- he's white
Web Posted: 01/03/2008 09:54 PM CST
Lorne Chan
San Antonio Express-News
Sam McGuffie is 18 years old and already established as the YouTube hero, U.S. Army All-American running back and one of the most hyped high school players in the country.
And he may be the only one who isn't afraid to talk about the white elephant in the room.
That McGuffie is a white running back.
McGuffie, who has committed to Michigan, has drawn a ton of attention from YouTube after he hurdled a defender during his junior season at Cypress-Fairbanks last year.
With YouTube videos, there are bound to be a slew of anonymous comments from viewers. Many point to the color of his skin.
"I've seen them," McGuffie said. "They all say the same thing  'But he's small. But he's white.'"
He isn't that small, at 6-foot and 194 pounds. That makes him five inches taller than West teammate and Express-News Offensive Player of the Year Marcus Wright.
But he's at a position where the only white player of note in the NFL is Brian Leonard of the St. Louis Rams.
McGuffie said he's seen the comparisons on recruiting message boards, and it's never Barry Sanders. Instead, it's Wes Welker.
Most of the nicknames McGuffie gets don't even have anything to do with football players.
"I get called K-Fed or Eminem the most," he said.
That's Kevin Federline, Britney Spears' ex-husband and self-proclaimed rapper, and Eminem, the most successful white rapper ever. McGuffie even admitted he looks a little like K-Fed and has even grown accustomed to Eminem because of their similarities.
Both came from humble beginnings. McGuffie plans on making good in Michigan as Eminem did, and they're skilled in areas where white men are the minority.
During a recent interview with the Express-News, McGuffie was wearing a shirt by Shady, Ltd., Eminem's brand.
"It doesn't matter if I run for a billion, trillion touchdowns," McGuffie said. "To the doubters, I'm still that white running back."
It doesn't matter if McGuffie rushed for 43 TDs as a junior and almost 6,000 career yards. Rivals.com rated him as the No. 10 all-purpose back, giving him four stars  an honor for most, but that put McGuffie behind three Houston-area backs. He wasn't even in the "Rivals100," the top 100 recruits in the nation. It prompted Michigan blog Logic Times to ask if recruiting services couldn't get over profiling.
"The answer is simple," Logic Times wrote. "Sam McGuffie is a victim of racism."
One place he isn't profiled? On the field among his All-American Bowl teammates.
The highlight of the week leading up to Saturday's game has been McGuffie doing a front flip over another player. Both teams went crazy.
They've all noted the same thing: Like that 1990s song goes, McGuffie is "Pretty Fly for a White Guy."
McGuffie truly is a rare breed: a player with a 4.28-second 40-yard dash and a 45-inch vertical.
Maybe even the next Barry Sanders.
Edited by: ToughJ.Riggins 
