It’s the “White Guy” award!! @APkrawczynski: Another from NBA GM survey: @kevinlove is player who makes most of ‘limited natural ability.’
— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) October 22, 2013
I admit, I hardly pay any attention to the NBA these days, save for a few days in June, if the Spurs are knocking on the door of championship. But it doesn’t really take more than a casual basketball observer to see what’s going on in this situation, when apparently all of the NBA teams’ general managers got together and conducted a little survey about their respective league and its players, and happened to have one particular query called:
With an overwhelming majority of 24% of the vote, Kevin Love was voted the guy who made the most of “limited natural ability.” Think about that phrase for a second; it’s almost like saying the “fastest paraplegic runner with no legs” or “most capable clinically dead person.” Okay, so maybe those are some exaggerated examples, but there’s no denying the fact that it’s a very backhanded compliment of an “achievement” for NBA general managers to slap onto a guy.
The thing is, I know who Kevin Love is, because in spite of his apparent ability to maximize his limited natural abilities, he’s actually a pretty popular basketball player. Partially due to his propensity to hit some buzzer beaters from time to time and that he’s a pretty good rebounder, but mostly because the obvious fact that Kevin Love is white. He’s a white guy in the NBA, and has a pretty colorful personality to boot, as humorously evident in his candor in blurting out the very obvious as it pertains to his “win” as the guy to best utilize his limited natural abilities.
But back to the point at hand, it’s embarrassing for the NBA that they even had such a category on such a pointless survey in the first place. The implications it creates, on top of the fact that it’s essentially naming guys in the league that are either white, not-black, and/or are considered to be inferior athletes.
The first three guys listed are white; it almost sucks to be Jared Dudley (black), and to some degree J.J. Barea (Puerto Rican), because they’re actually not white, and were in the running for The White Guy Award. But now, they’ve got to feel like shit in a way, because they know definitively that the brass of the NBA views them as guys that they feel are playing their hearts out to less than superstar results. I know that just because they ruled the world in the college ranks, doesn’t automatically translate into NBA success, but I remember Jared Dudley’s career while he was at Boston College, and he was a monster back then. Boston College hasn’t been relevant in the college ball scene since he left. Imagine if he tapped into some of that confidence and skill in the NBA? Suddenly, he might not be any longer in the running for the White Guy Award.
Contrarily, this also implies that the results that come out of the NBA’s elite are something natural, or come easy to all of them. To anyone that is remotely interested in basketball knows that Kobe Bryant’s training regimens are something of legend, citing 15+ hour days at the gym and court, working out and practicing basketball skills and drills obsessively and incessantly. In a way, The White Guy award is almost an insult to the elite players, because it discredits their own hard work and practice and assumes their talent to be simply unearned and natural.
It also doesn’t help that pretty much 100% of the guys that would be considered to be elite-level are all black guys. Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant. With occasional blips in the radar like Steve Nash, I guess The Black Guy Award would be the MVP?
Anyway, it’s all fun and games, and Kevin Love takes home The White Guy Award in good stride and endears himself to sports fans even more with his candor and humor. But it’s still embarrassing for the NBA to conduct such a pointless name-game in the first place.
Ironically, since apparently Kevin Love is a two(?)-time winner of this “award,” they may as well start calling it the Kevin Love Award as of next season.
But you know something, Kevin Love is the type of guy that added to any borderline pretender, instantly makes them a contender. Not bad for a guy with limited natural abilities.
