Mike Golic on European basketball players

Editor's Note: Johnny Hatchett fusses over a few words.

Frequently, comments informed by "common sense" & anecdotal data say a lot more than their speaker intends for them to say. Take Mike Golic's claim in THE network's January 1 edition of their magazine.

"... the fact that kids coming out of high school here are not as prepared as the Europeans. They're more polished over there. They can shoot and are extremely fundamental."

Let's ignore that Golic describes European players as fundamental and focus on his claim that European players are "more polished over there" and are more prepared than are high school players to play in the NBA. Golic offers little in the way of data to back his claim, just that European players "can shoot." This, I suspect, Golic has learned from watching a few NBA players - say, Dallas' Dirk or OK City's Peja - and believing that the perimeter games of these two are pretty standard for European ballers.

But, as of today, of the NBA's top-twenty three point shooters (by percentage) only Mehmet Okur was born abroad. Several high school to NBA players make this list : Boston's Gerald Green, the Pacer's Al Harrington, and Portland's Martell Webster.

So much for that.

Are European players "more prepared" than high school players to make an immediate impact in the NBA? While I don't have the statistical data - say, the numbers put up over the first three years by both group of players - my hunch is that Dwight Howard's, LBJ's, and Amare's immediate achievements give the high school players the statistical edge over Euro ballers.

Golic's claim is convincing because it appeals to what many of us believe about European basketball - it emphasizes fundamentals, passing, and shooting - while American-born players are schooled to play recklessly & with more stylistic skill than "fundamental" skill. This is why, we're told, the American teams sent to compete abroad consistently underachieve.

But Golic's claim also speaks a second language. It is a language that Tommy Craggs hears in sport culture's worship of John Wooden.

"He is their reminder of a time that never really was, a Hummel figurine of the hardwood. "[S]ometimes," Rick Reilly wrote in Sports Illustrated, "when the Madness of March gets to be too much—too many players trying to make SportsCenter, too few players trying to make assists, too many coaches trying to be homeys, too few coaches willing to be mentors, too many freshmen with out-of-wedlock kids, too few freshmen who will stay in school long enough to become men—I like to go see Coach Wooden." You don't exactly need a decoder pin to get his drift."

It is the language that convinces Michael Wilbon that the NBA ought punish African-American players in order to ameliorate white America's anxieties.

It's a langauge that blends paternalism with moralism and stereotypes and allows the NBA to enact dress code and age limits on some of America's most well-paid and highly-visible employees.

& It's a language that has William C. Rhoden worrying that the NBA is phasing out its black athletes.

In other words, it's a language that uses common-sense stereotypes to justify critiques of African-American athlete's performances and cultures & to support league policies & actions that restrict their rights.

peace love gap,
Johnny Hatchett