Pat Forde ESPN Article on White Stars

Colonel_Reb

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Some of this article is good, but other parts make me want to punch the guy through the computer screen.
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Updated: March 6, 2006, 1:20 PM ET
Is this crop of white stars a fluke or a trend?By Pat Forde
ESPN.com


You cannot argue with Jerry Bruckheimer's timing. Releasing "Glory Road" on the 40th anniversary of Texas Western's championship season added to the movie's tremendous box-office appeal and helped teach a valuable history lesson to young America.

But here's the ironic context for the film that celebrates the first all-black starting five to win a college basketball national championship: The year of "Glory Road" on the screen has coincided with a season in which the two best college players in the nation happen to be white.

In a startling spasm of inverse desegregation, this season has been dominated by Duke's J.J. Redick and Gonzaga's Adam Morrison. They don't come from overseas (such as last year's player of the year, Andrew Bogut) or north of the border (reigning NBA MVP Steve Nash). The two high-scoring upperclassmen are neck-and-neck for the national scoring title, they're the only realistic contenders for national player of the year honors, and their bicoastal competition has captured the country's imagination.


Beyond Morrison and Redick, players like Michigan State's Paul Davis are enjoying very good seasons.
This occurs at a time when today's college kids seem encouragingly unburdened by The Race Thing. There appears to be less obsessing over race, less distrust between races in today's youth, more melding of black and white music and dress and vernacular. That's societal progress.

Still, anyone who says they haven't noticed that Redick and Morrison are white hasn't been paying attention. And anyone who shrugs it off as nothing unusual hasn't checked the history books.

Last time two white guys stood atop college hoops? Try 1970, and even that's debatable. LSU's Pete Maravich won the player of the year awards, but you could have a healthy debate about who was second-best: white players Dan Issel of Kentucky and Rick Mount of Purdue, or black players Bob Lanier of St. Bonaventure and Calvin Murphy of Niagara. Prior to that, you have to go back to the early 1960s -- before Lew Alcindor and after Oscar Robertson -- to find a white tandem comparable to Redick and Morrison.

"I was with an NBA scout at the Maryland-Duke game and we started our NBA talk with two guys: Redick and Morrison," said Washington Post columnist and "PTI" co-host Michael Wilbon, one of America's most astute commentators on race and sports. "When is the last time two white kids led the NBA draft conversation? And the scout is black."

And this is not just a two-man production. Meet the supporting cast:

- There is a chance that the first-team consensus All-America team will be a majority-white affair for the first time in 36 years. Those who could join Redick and Morrison include North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough, West Virginia's Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle, Michigan State's Paul Davis and possibly Nevada's Nick Fazekas.

- Hansbrough is the prohibitive favorite to sweep national freshman of the year honors.

- The nation's No. 1 team, Duke, has started a majority-white lineup for the first time in a decade. Four other AP Top 25 teams start majority-white lineups as well (Gonzaga, West Virginia, North Carolina and Iowa). Last year, there were two teams in the final AP Top 25 with majority-white starting lineups. No team has won the national title starting three or more white players on championship Monday since Duke in 1991.

- In America's best league, the Big East, white players led the conference through mid-February in eight of 12 statistical categories (rebounding, field goal percentage, assists, free throw percentage, 3-point percentage, 3-pointers made, assist/turnover ratio and defensive rebounds).

- In America's second-best league, the Big Ten, white players led the conference in five categories (scoring, rebounding, assists, blocked shots and defensive rebounds). White players ranked third or better in 10 of 12 categories.

Some of the best white athletes can be found in Morgantown, W.Va. The Mountaineers' top four scorers are white, and at times they can see the skepticism on the faces of opponents and hear it in their voices. Before one game, point guard J.D. Collins, who is black, poked his head in the huddle and told his teammates about it.

"J.D. said in the huddle, 'These guys aren't giving my white boys any respect! They just think they can run over my white boys!' " guard Patrick Beilein said. "And he was probably right. ... We look like a high school team."

What's the conclusion? At minimum, this is a cultural trend break (however temporary), and a challenge to a widely accepted sports stereotype. Remember Sports Illustrated's 1997 cover question, "What ever happened to the white athlete?" Answer: He's alive and well and raining down jumpers in college hoops.

Peter Roby of the Center for the Study of Sport and Society at Northeastern University said that white players' success "doesn't surprise me at all. If you've been around basketball, you know kids can play no matter what they look like."

But he also brought up the whites-can't-play-basketball stereotype.

"You know the old comment, 'For a white boy, he can really play,'" Roby said. "It's unfortunate, but it has been [the case]. We've gotten too used to defining everything by race. Our position at the Center for the Study of Sport and Society is that sports brings people together and makes race irrelevant.

"I hope the way we'll get beyond that is by having these discussions. Things like this article can get us beyond the emotion involved with race. If you get past skin color and stereotypes, Redick and Morrison probably have a lot more in common with players than not."

African-Americans are still the dominant racial-cultural force at the high end of the college game, and Morrison and Redick don't necessarily represent a new trend. But if nothing else, this season can serve as a reminder that basketball is an inclusive sport. It can be played on a virtuoso level by kids with braids and buzz cuts. They can come from major metropolitan areas and from Midwestern cornfields, and they can come from places like Roanoke, Va., (Redick); Spokane, Wash., (Morrison); Martinsburg, W.Va., (Pittsnogle); and Poplar Bluff, Mo., (Hansbrough).

"I think it's healthy," Wilbon said. "The only way white parents and coaches and media people and mainstream culture at large are going to stop sending the message of, 'You can't possibly play because you're white,' is if folks see white kids play. It's the same kind of necessary reinforcement as black kids seeing a black man work as a scientist.

"My position on this, consistently, is that white folks talk white American kids out of wanting to play basketball, just like black folks talk black American kids out of pursuing science or technology or the law or literature. So I love this Morrison-Redick thing. And Pittsnogle, too, for that matter."

So now the natural question: How do you explain the Morrison-Redick phenomenon? There are various theories:

- It's a fluke, a demographic hiccup, a statistical blip that will correct itself when this group moves on to the pros. There is no definitive evidence that teenage America is teeming with future Morrisons or Redicks. This may just be cyclical and not a statistically valid sample from which to draw a conclusion.

- Early entry to the pros has been a largely black vehicle. And white players are the ones filling that vacuum.

If there were no early entry, for example, LeBron James would be a junior in college and Dwight Howard would be a sophomore. And Redick and Morrison would have just a little competition for player of the year honors. In many cases, players most likely to stay in college longer and develop their games are white. The list of recent white early entrants is short: Chris Mihm of Texas; Mike Miller, Jason Williams and Matt Walsh of Florida; Michael Bradley of Villanova; Troy Murphy of Notre Dame; Mike Dunleavy and Shavlik Randolph of Duke; Joel Przybilla of Minnesota; and Robert Swift, straight from high school.

Of the All-America candidates mentioned above, Redick, Gansey, Pittsnogle and Davis are seniors. Morrison and Fazekas are juniors. All but Gansey either considered going pro last year, or could have considered it. All stayed in school.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that Morrison and Redick are junior and senior," said Roby, the former basketball coach at Harvard. "J.J. Redick isn't anything now like he was as a freshman."

- Give the devil its due: the AAU/travel team circuit, rightfully blamed for so many of the problems in youth basketball, has a positive side. It's been a powerful integrating force.

Redick didn't spend his teenage years solely shooting jumpers on the gravel court outside of his rustic home near Roanoke. His family drove him across the state of Virginia to play with Boo Williams' highly acclaimed (and mostly black) AAU outfit out of Hampton Roads. The Memphis Grizzlies' Miller didn't stay home in Mitchell, S.D., either. He traveled the national circuit, playing with and against kids from every metropolis. Same with Hansbrough.

If you're going to be somebody in basketball these days, you must play on a traveling team -- no matter where you're from. To do that, you must travel to bigger cities to play on better teams and against better teams.

"Don't underestimate the influence of the AAU programs here," said author Charles P. Pierce, who has written frequently and insightfully on race and basketball. "Even white kids from white suburbs, segregated most of the time by the invisible barriers of class, have to play, travel and live with black kids from harder circumstances."

Hip-hop. Don't underestimate its impact on basketball. Or on white America.

Redick has said that he likes the lyrics of Nas and Tupac, and much of his publicized poetry is written in a hip-hop cadence. It's a chicken-and-egg debate as to which came first for many young white players -- immersion in hoops or immersion in hip-hop -- but there is a synergy between the two.

"What we are seeing now coming through the college basketball pipeline are the white children of the hip-hop culture," Pierce said. "These are the kids who took the music and the style back to their suburban homes the way the kids of the '50s brought jazz to the upper West Side and, pretty soon, you had white musicians sitting in with the best of them.

"These are the crossover kids, who have defined their game within the black cultural forces at work in music and, especially, in basketball. ... Redick is a classic trash-talker, and he didn't learn that from Chris Collins or Wojo [Duke assistant coaches Collins and Steve Wojciechowski]."

On this point, Roby disagrees, saying, "Last time I checked, basketball was here before hip-hop. We've had interracial teams since the '50s. ... When a white kid walks into a group of black folks and shoots the lights out? He gets accepted a lot easier than if he likes hip-hop."

- The kids who kept playing basketball through the white flight from the sport are made of sterner stuff. They had to be to survive and thrive in an era when the repeated message what that white men can't jump, can't play and don't belong.

"I think, or hope, what we're seeing is that the white kids we're talking about were simply too strong of mind to be talked out of playing basketball," Wilbon said. "And that takes guts. It really does."

Said Pierce: "I think, but cannot prove, that the change that came over basketball in the 1980s and 1990s scared off a great number of white kids, made them feel alien within the culture of the sport. The brave ones stayed, and I think you're seeing the results of that today."

The result is a cultural curiosity, as Morrison and Redick lead a group of white players trying to rejoin their black colleagues on the Glory Road paved 40 years ago.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com
 

guest301

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I liked about 75% of it and the article represents progress..it's all you can hope for at the moment. Texasheat referenced this in a earlier thread but thanks for posting it.
 

KG2422

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He had to throw in the things we didn't like so he can keep his job. It's much better than normal though.
 

JD074

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Pat Forde said:
- Early entry to the pros has been a largely black vehicle. And white players are the ones filling that vacuum.

If there were no early entry, for example, LeBron James would be a junior in college and Dwight Howard would be a sophomore.

That's absolutely correct. The college basketball landscape would look a lot different with James, Howard, Stoudemire, and others. Redick and Morrison would be respected, but they wouldn't be the primary focus.

Pat Forde said:
Redick has said that he likes the lyrics of Nas and Tupac, and much of his publicized poetry is written in a hip-hop cadence.

Ugh. It's depressing to hear about all these white kids who love hip hop. It's such a terrible thing.

Edited by: JD074
 

guest301

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That's all they hear in the locker rooms. Blacks are very expressive about what kind of music is played around them. I don't think Trace Adkins and Kenny Chesney will be played in too many basketball locker rooms.
 

Colonel_Reb

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What they should do is ban music in the locker rooms, and just let the guys use headphones if they want music. The hip hop, black, rap, gansta culture has taken over this country. It's everywhere and while I do not claim to know why so many whites like it, it is something that cannot be dismissed.
 

JoeV

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Colonel_Reb said:
What they should do is ban music in the locker rooms, and just let the guys use headphones if they want music. The hip hop, black, rap, gansta culture has taken over this country. It's everywhere and while I do not claim to know why so many whites like it, it is something that cannot be dismissed.

I have been predicting this for almost 11 years now, but this Hip-Hop craze will fizzle soon I am sure. How many times can you put the same beat to different words and call it a new song? Songs that NWA and Public Enemy did in the late '80s (with recycled beats) are having these same recycled beats recycled again into current "hits." Call it "sampled music" if you want, but I am sick of the same four beats being used on every song. Why can't hair metal just come back? If Guns N' Roses ever decided to reunite, it could happen. Don't even say country, because I debate sometimes which I hate worse, country or rap.
 

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The reason hair metal or alternative rock isn't doing as well right now is because it gets about zero airtime on Sumner Redstone's MTV. It's also a little too hard for pop radio. Another factor is labels have quit putting as much money into White bands like that because Whites who listen to that type of music have been burning it off of the internet, while rap has continued to sell. I guess rap fans aren't as computer literate. The tide is starting to though, at least in my area.
 

guest301

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You don't like country music JoeV..you don't know what you are missing. Don't even mention it in the same breath with rap. I like alternative rock and a little heavy metal too. Very few rap or hip hop songs have I ever liked. It seems most of those late night rap videos are all the same...some black girl with a big butt..shaking it at some club. Show some imagination.
 

Colonel_Reb

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I wish classic style rock would come back. Thats what I grew up listening to, that and oldies, both pop and country. Anything is better than rap/hip hop/ current r and b.
 

whiteCB

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Sorry guest301 I'll have to side with Joe V in that I dispise country music. I hate(in no particular order) Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Trace Adkins, and all the rest of those hillbillies. I like rap alot more than country. Altough that is not to say rap is my favorite music. I enjoy classic rock the most with bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers, Ted Nugent, Lynyrd Skynrd, and .38 Special leading the way.
 

white tornado

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I don't see hip hop going out soon. I prefer bluegrass to modern country. Metal is going to come back in a big way in the next few years.
 

KG2422

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Rap is for morons. All of the lyrics are about the same things, either how tough they are, how much "bling" they have, or how many "hoes" they have. It's utter stupidity. Country is the White man's soul music. I don't care for the new country as much because much of it has become feminized like the rest of our culture, like that whiny crap Tim McGraw puts out. But it has infinitely more substance in comparison to rap. I think that it's easier to understand country music when you are from the South. I didn't like it that much as a kid ,but it get's in your blood. Northerners sometimes get this elitist attitude towards Southerners that is obvious in their disdain for country music. We talk slow ,but that doesn't mean we are slow.
 

guest301

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Colonel Reb..classic rock is the best as long as you think the 80's groups belong in the mix like Journey, Van Halen,Def Leppard and 38 Special. I like Metallica alot now too. But I can also mellow out with some Simon and Garfunkel and Enya I love..soulful Irish music. Country is a form of "white man's soul music" and it is arguably the nation's most popular music. Every once in a while a hip hop somg will come out that I like but it's few and far between. I also like Creed and Josh Groban but please don't skewer me for it! Montgomery Gentry is great.
 

Colonel_Reb

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I also like folk, bluegrass (I actually get into this music more than any other secular music), and some newer country, but most new country to me is so watered down it ain't country no more. My favorites though are gospel (for those of you in Rio Linda, that means The Good News) hymns! The old stuff there too, although there is some contemporary Christian music I like.

Yeah 301, I'd include .38, Journey, and Van Halen. I never listened to Def so I don't know about them. Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair-Canticle is one of the coolest sounding songs I have ever heard, even though it doesn't send the best message. On the other hand, The Boxer was made as an ode to Cassius Clay, so there are only certain songs of theirs I will listen to, they are kind of like U2 in that respect with me.
 

guest301

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I forgot about U2(I like most of their music) and I wish you had not told me the Boxer was about Ali. You have ruined that song for me! I also like some Christian contemporary and rock as well.
 

Colonel_Reb

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Sorry if I ruined it for you, Aragorn, but I figure its best people know the truth rather than live without it. I hated to hear it as well. The good news is that there are plenty of other songs that don't glorify blacks. Some of the late great Johnny Horton's songs pay tribute to a lot of great white men, now that is some music!
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JD074

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Has anybody heard Merle Haggard's new song, "America First?" I think that's the title. It's so good. Great lyrics.Music today is so devoid of meaning, and it's so refreshing to hear a singer actually say something.

I also love bluegrass. The Del McCoury Band is fantastic. Of course *ssholes who don't like "hillbillies" and "rednecks" and other types of politically incorrect white people wouldn't like it. But to me it's beautiful white music. Then again, I don't like much of the contemporary "country" either, if you can call it that. In what way is Keith Urban or Shania Twain "country?" I don't see it.
 

guest301

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I like Keith Urban, but I am sure it's not the kind of country music you grew up with JD074. I'll listen to "hillbilly" and "redneck" music anyday. I also have a appreciation for bluegrass and folk music. I think anybody who limits their musical tastes to classic rock, pop or just country or whatever..then that person is missing out. Like Merle Haggard..Montgomery Gentry actually says something in their songs too.
 

Kaptain

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JD, I love Merle Haggard. I have not heard that new song yet. I'll have to check it out. He has a lot of meaningful songs - you're definetely right about music being devoid of meaning these day.
 

whiteCB

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KG2422 said:
Rap is for morons. All of the lyrics are about the same things, either how tough they are, how much "bling" they have, or how many "hoes" they have. It's utter stupidity. Country is the White man's soul music. I don't care for the new country as much because much of it has become feminized like the rest of our culture, like that whiny crap Tim McGraw puts out. But it has infinitely more substance in comparison to rap. I think that it's easier to understand country music when you are from the South. I didn't like it that much as a kid ,but it get's in your blood. Northerners sometimes get this elitist attitude towards Southerners that is obvious in their disdain for country music. We talk slow ,but that doesn't mean we are slow.

I think I'll admit some guilt for that whole northern people looking down on country music. Though I really just don't like country music it just doesn't have a good beat to move to or is too slow for my tastes. If you guys want to hear a current rock band listen to some Incubus. They are really good.
 

white tornado

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Heres my playlist

Classical Music
Blugrass
Classic Rock
Metal
Mettalica-greatist band ever if you argue your already dead.
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Here are a few good new bands

Avenged Sevenfold
As I Lay Dying
Trivium
Killswith Engage
Atreyu
Bleeding Through
Bullet For My Valintine
It Dies Today
A Life once Lost
Disterbed
God Forbid-Ther mostly black but you can't tell form hearing them play
 

jaxvid

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I think modern country music could be called rock and roll for adult white people. They sing about things that are important to me. Wife, family, work etc.

I just read an interview with a guy that wrote a lot of AM hits in the 1960/70's and he says that modern country music is the exact same thing except the singers have a country accent and there is a twangy guitar mixed in with the rock guitars. Otherwise the music has catchy melodies, interesting lyrics and I believe a great beat.

I used to love classic rock but how many thousands of times can you listed to "Boston" or "Bad Company"?

Some of the new music is good but teen girl angst gets old after a few songs too. And yeah it's great to be madly in love but try that with a mortage, two car payments, and kids growing up in post-white America.
 

KG2422

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I defended country music with my last post ,but my favorite band is Rammstein. Metal (or industrial) is best in German. I really like the way German sounds when sung whether it be by male or female, fast or slow. I don't really care for the "romance" languages. I like Nine Inch Nails as well and alternative rock in general, emphasis on the rock.
 

speedster

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Yeah,Journey is my all-time favourite band, I've got all their CD's with Steve Perry that is although I did have the first release,Arrival,with their current singer Steve Augeri,but I recently gave it away to a girl who was surprised Perry was no longer in the band.It's funny how so many people don't know that Perry is gone.Edited by: speedster
 
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