So white guys “do the most with the least?”

Argentina has the largest population of Italians outside of Italy. Ginobili's one of them. Also he played in the Italian leagues. I don't know what Shaq said about Rubio but it's unrelated.

Manu Ginobili is from ARGENTINA...what´s that about italian??? It´s like shaq saying ricky rubio is from Italy too....please dudes, at least check a map before talking instead of show an horrible lack of studies

The NBA is an interesting case racially because people call it diverse even though most of the players are one race. You also see people stereotype players, and white players, even if they're actually very athletic like Chase Budinger, are usually automatically labelled unathletic. International players from countries where the ethnicity is homogenized, like Lithuania, can escape growing up with any stereotype. Ginobili is one of the most exciting and athletic players, but I wonder if he'd play any differently if he grew up here. I think it's very limiting to judge players based on race or background, obviously, because there are guys like Blake Griffin who defy stereotypes. I found the most "white" and black teams based on how many minutes each guy received (i.e. a weighted average) from last year's stats and some of the results are interesting. The percentage of black or white players didn't correlate at all with wins. http://ascreamingcomesacrossthecourt.blogspot.com/2012/01/nba-and-ethnicity-race-of-each-team.html I think I'll update the stats near the all-star break if people want that.

Darker skin color = more athleticism. Isn't sitting around getting a tan easier than going to the gym? #notatallsarcastic

Ummm... Andre Miller takes the cake. He constantly gets numbers despite not being able to jump, run or shoot.

Absolutely not.

@Ian Is it sick and depraved that I now desperately want to know Magic's wingspan?

Well you never specifically said he did, but you did put him in the conversation when you said he leaps lower than a young Troy Murphy and still manages to be magnificent. The same could apply to Magic Johnson too. He has freaky long arms, though I don't know the exact measurements.

Some of this seems straw-man to me. Birthplace aside, Ginobili is Italian and his move is probably dubbed that because he came to the NBA from the Italian leagues, if it really matters (regarding Scola). Of course the statement provided by your friend is ignorant beyond belief but I doubt that view is shared by anyone who seriously watches basketball. I also don't think a player's standing vertical measured at the combine is a very good measure of 'athleticism'-and I'm not convinced that's what the GMs were referring to. You could certainly argue Jefferson-Love but I think Durant is a stretch in that regard. For Nash I'd argue that he's a player who has repeatedly amplified teams and players performances-thus doing 'more with less'. Of course I'm sure that race does affect how players are perceived. Just look at Magic and Bird-both extremely cerebral players with prodigious physical talents (if not elite 'athleticism') who were labeled according to their racial stereotypes. I agree with your main point-that the perceived 'sorcery' of black athleticism (well put) is bullshit and at least a little racist. I do think the trend in GM voting is certainly curious and worth examining but I think it is explained by the ill-defined nature of the question and anecdotal differences between their selections rather than any systematic bias in how GMs evaluate players.

@Ian Where did I mention that Kevin Durant "does the most with the least"? And yes, Duran't span sure helps him.

What I like about this article is its written by a writer who just wrote about the importance of wingspan and then mentioned Kevin Durant as someone who does the most with the least. Sarcasm aside, there were actually a lot of valid points especially in this article. I think Nash has the best claim to most with the least though or maybe Luis Scola.

@Bobby G, I don't know what we can make out of these responses. Dwight Howard clearly isn't lacking athletic ability. I think some voters used Jake's criteria, while others considered natural talent.

@ Jake, From the survey: "Also receiving votes: J.J. Barea, Minnesota Andrea Bargnani, Toronto Brian Cardinal, Dallas Mike Conley, Memphis Glen Davis, Orlando Jared Dudley, Phoenix Raymond Felton, Portland Landry Fields, New York Dwight Howard, Orlando Paul Millsap, Utah Joakim Noah, Chicago Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Zach Randolph, Memphis" From that list you think it has to do with the rest of the team? How could Brian Cardinal and Dirk Nowitski make that same list of yours? Joakim Noah has an MVP on his team. No, the actual background of the voting parameters are unknown. To ESS's point, since it is an x-factor, it's curious that all these white guys show up all of a sudden, when the winners were Kevin Love, Scola, and Steve Nash.

Concur. And it obviously varies so much from player to player, what their schtick is, etc, that generalizing is hard. Re fan favorites: yes. Frankly, I'm worried about Hamed Haddadi's chances of ever starting an All-Star game if U.S.-Iran relations don't improve soon.

@Patrick J I think those questions are legit. It's just so hard to track how these biases impact decisions. Even if I believe they do, it feels irresponsible to say, "This guy is underrated/overrated because he's white," without evidence. Still, I don't think it's going out on a limb to say that white players often become fan favorites.

Great article. Probably the most level-headed takes on race in basketball I've seen in the last few years. Serious question: If we assume this set of observations is true and were to extrapolate from them, what are the implications for certain personnel decisions? Do white players get underpaid on the free agent market because they're expected not to perform as well as the equivalent black player? Or would we expect GMs figure in the "fan factor" and overpay white players because they'll be more popular? Maybe these dynamics would essentially cancel each other out. But there'd likely be implications for how teams draft, too.

How did you write this entire article without it occurring to you that "most with the least" pertains to what they accomplish despite how poorly built, old and/or generally inept the rest of their team is?