“I would be insulted if a white boy was sent out to guard me.” Michael Jordan


Ever since 1970 the NBA has been primarily black. While the Blacks are having a really easy time gaining respect and being dubbed as athletic. While Whites usually have to work twice has hard, not to make the team, but to gain respect and surpass all the stereotypes in basketball and the NBA. Even between white Europeans and white Americans there are still stereotypes aimed at the white American NBA players. All of these racist stereotypes need to stop being mention because it is ruining the NBA and it is ruining the game of basketball.
When you are white it doesn’t matter how tall you are, fast you are, strong you are, or how quick you are you will always have an assumption about you that you can’t run, ball, or the most common one, jump. It is unfair to have names such as hopless, nohop, flightless, or steel legs. It is not right that whites don’t get picked in basketball because the assumption is they can’t ball. Also as a white player you have very few chances to prove yourself. Not only that but usually if you make one mistake you won’t get to play basketball with those same guys again. It makes me mad when a white boy goes into a basketball game and everyone assumes he is a shooter. This leads back to the assumption that since he is white he is not athletic enough to do anything else but shoot. This is the kind of stuff that makes me incredibly angry, not at the game, but at the people who play it and watch it.
The reason the white boy stereotype is still active is due to the fact of the amount of white players in the NBA. Only 21% of players in the NBA are white. And out of that 21%, only 6% are white Americans. These numbers lead to stereotypes against white Americans, not white Europeans. While there is no way to control these numbers, there is a way we can control our sayings. These numbers also show that NBA teams want Blacks on their team because they think that Whites are not good enough to play in the NBA.
People think it’s funny to say these stereotypes, but deep down it really bites. The racial tension still stands for some people and this just makes matters worse. The natural assumption made by people is that Blacks are more athletic than Whites. Not only that Blacks seem to gain respect easier and get more opportunities. And though it might be hard to break these assumptions, it is necessary to do it for the good of basketball.
White stereotypes in the game of basketball require Whites to work twice as hard to gain respect. If people truly love the game they should stop saying White stereotypes. Also if you are a true fan you should not automatically judge someone by their skin color or race, but by the way they play the game.