Deadspin, Looking for Hits, "Analyzes" Duke Basketball and Race

[tommy]

Not intending to get into PP territory here, and the ground has been plowed some over the years, but not exactly like this. With this new piece up on Deadspin (http://deadspin.com/how-black-is-duke-basketball-1477222481?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitte r&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow) (actually a couple of days ago) I thought I'd post a link to it. To me, not even considering the simple factual errors in the piece, the fact that Deadspin would even post this tripe is appalling. Others may not see it as a big deal, and see it as actually complimentary to Duke's program. Have at it, guys.

[the_grad_student]

If we ignore the racist undertones of the article, lets just think for a second about what an awful article this. What are they even saying? The article meanders through anecdotes about certain players on certain teams and never really reach a conclusion other than this:

Duke has teams with various mixtures of white and black players which have produced various levels of success.

[RockLobster]

If we ignore the racist undertones of the article, lets just think for a second about what an awful article this. What are they even saying? The article meanders through anecdotes about certain players on certain teams and never really reach a conclusion other than this:

Duke has teams with various mixtures of white and black players which have produced various levels of success.

The entire Gawker network, with the possible exception of their tech- and gaming-related sites, is based around the idea of dressing up inflammatory tripe in a psuedo-intellectual package to get pageviews and social media chatter in the 18-35 demo. There's a reason half of reddit has blocked links from Gawker affiliates. (Jezebel is particularly bad, but that's another discussion for another time.)

The article wasn't meant to be insightful, it was to advance their narrative of "Hey, Duke has lots of white guys, meaning they're a bunch of rich punks who hate black people! And it's OK to make jokes about their white players, because that is in no way racist!"

Amazing how many fans have bought into it.

[brevity]

Amazing how many fans have bought into it.

Generally, yes, but so far most of the commenters on that page -- from a group that traditionally joins in on a lively Duke-bashing -- are having none of it. Some are offended, many are disappointed, and the rest are trying to frame it as satire but can't even convince themselves.

I can understand why the folks at Deadspin would want to explore this subject numerically, but the entire approach is just nonsensical, and their followers are calling them on it.

If you're on the fence about clicking the link, don't bother. Most of DBR has already made up their mind about Deadspin. I tend to characterize the fans here as being overly delicate, but in this case, there's no need to spoil your day with some poorly devised antagonism. And if you're like me and don't mind opposing viewpoints, you will be sorely disappointed with what might be described as academic trolling.

[Edouble]

I got bored by the poor writing about halfway through and stopped.

[Double DD]

The article to me seems clearly tongue in cheek and isn't meant to be taken seriously. Unfortunately for the author, it's just not well-written or funny and can be misperceived easily.

[bob blue devil]

Not intending to get into PP territory here, and the ground has been plowed some over the years, but not exactly like this. With this new piece up on Deadspin (http://deadspin.com/how-black-is-duke-basketball-1477222481?utm_campaign=socialflow_deadspin_twitte r&utm_source=deadspin_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow) (actually a couple of days ago) I thought I'd post a link to it. To me, not even considering the simple factual errors in the piece, the fact that Deadspin would even post this tripe is appalling. Others may not see it as a big deal, and see it as actually complimentary to Duke's program. Have at it, guys.

if you don't support what they've done, how about including some key excerpts illustrating your point? without having read the piece i don't have a view, but, trusting your opinion, i haven't followed your link so as not to feed the troll. thanks.

[Indoor66]

Gee, this has been a useless, wasted three minutes of my life. :mad:

[sagegrouse]

Gee, this has been a useless, wasted three minutes of my life. :mad:

The solution? Speed reading?

[Skitzle]

The solution? Speed reading?

The solution = Not reading.

It's not even worth the 1 min of speed reading...

[BD80]

The article to me seems clearly tongue in cheek and isn't meant to be taken seriously. Unfortunately for the author, it's just not well-written or funny and can be misperceived easily.

I swear I didn't write it!

You may, however, want to save your comment for any one of my posts

[flyingdutchdevil]

Clicked on the link, didn't read the article (just saw the chart and started laughing). But I came across this gem: http://deadspin.com/coack-ks-goofy-west-point-yearbook-photo-from-1969-1462981922

A few amazing things about the yearbook:

1) Name spelling of both the first and last names are classic
2) I am so confused reading the biography (Sesumarongi, phone booth, etc)
3) The picture is...well...classic maybe an understatement

Great find. I think it's harmless and hilarious.

[FerryFor50]

Clicked on the link, didn't read the article (just saw the chart and started laughing). But I came across this gem: http://deadspin.com/coack-ks-goofy-west-point-yearbook-photo-from-1969-1462981922

A few amazing things about the yearbook:

1) Name spelling of both the first and last names are classic
2) I am so confused reading the biography (Sesumarongi, phone booth, etc)
3) The picture is...well...classic maybe an understatement

Great find. I think it's harmless and hilarious.

Man, I posted that a month ago...

http://forums.dukebasketballreport.com/forums/showthread.php?32254-Coach-K-s-yearbook-photo&highlight=yearbook

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

The solution = Not reading.

It's not even worth the 1 min of speed reading...

Right. I saw the post in my rss feed and kept moving.

[johnb]

Race and basketball. What's not to love about an article that purposefully tries to tweak?

A few thoughts: White people are the ones who (tend to) think it's preferable to discount race and assume we're a (nearly) race-blind country. Black people (tend to) see through race-colored glasses. My black middle-aged friends, when watching a game that doesn't feature one of their favorite teams, tend to root for the team based on its blackness. This might mean just counting up the black players, giving extra points to a black coach or black GM and subtracting lots of points for being the Celtics. Is that racist? It would probably be considered racist for white people to follow teams based on their whiteness, but white people don't live in a black-dominated society. From my perspective, it's reasonable for African Americans to explicitly look for black heroes and role models given a society that tends to denigrate blackness.

Duke played a game earlier this year in which Plumlee and Murphy didn't play. After the game, I got a phone call from a (black) friend. He asked me whether Duke had ever gone an entire game without playing a white player. Ever. I really didn't think so.

This article--written by a black guy, from what I can tell--was not entirely crazy. There are lots of Duke haters out there, and since we tend to hate Straw Men of our own devising, Duke gets the rep for being the rich white school. It's not entirely unearned in general, and not entirely unearned in regards to basketball. Our team does tend to be whiter and more affluent than most college basketball teams. We're not unique in that, but, since we're on tv more often than the Simpsons, we are highly visible. It's not like other teams didn't want Singler, Laettner, Ferry, JJ, the Plumlees (the list of our white stars could go on for an unusually long time), but few teams not associated with mountains, corn, and ivy have consistently started > 2 white players over the past 30 years. And what other team has consistently had a celebrity parent or two who routinely attends games? These "celebrities" are often black former athletes, but affluent/rich/famous black people tend to be considered "white" by African Americans; they might be admired and respected, but--by parental proxy--many of our black players would be considered outliers. This goes back to Grant and Thomas Hill through Rivers, Kyrie, Jabari, etc. Our friend Jalen Rose brought this up, but do notice that he has essentially shut up about it since the film--my hunch is that he quickly recognized that his espn paycheck depended on getting along with "the man" while still being a guy from the hood. And if you don't think espn pays attention to viewer demographics in its selection of announcers, you're out of your mind.

The athletic black player vs the unathletic white player is a little more complicated. He addresses this by saying Duke has had athletic white players and unathletic black players (though I would hardly call Elton or Shane "unathletic," and one could argue that Shane is half-black and mention that the U.S. is fairly alone in calling people black when they have ANY African lineage). But, while there is overlap, there remains--from what I understand--a reality or at least a common perception that a disproportionate number of the most elite jumpers and sprinters are of West African descent; this makes for great sprinters and for an unusually high percentage of elite basketball players. I say "elite" because I haven't heard evidence that "black people are faster," just that, among the top 0.001% of athletes who rely on fast twitch muscles to distinguish themselves from more ordinary athletes, there is an enhanced likelihood of finding people with West African genetics. This says NOTHING about their intelligence or anything else about them. And it says nothing about the bottom 99% of people--white or black, whose athleticism varies sorta randomly. It doesn't mean that there aren't lots of very fast people without West African roots--and there are always a few white sprinters who make the qualifying heats of the Olympics--but the finals have been almost always all black. 99 of the fastest 100 fastest sprinters in the world can trace a lineage back to West Africa... it's something to be proud of, and I certainly know Jamaicans who feel at least as happy when Bolt wins a race as we feel when Rodney drains a game-altering three.

Anyway, feel free to skip the article, but don't think that race issues disappear if you don't think about them. Or that our recruits and players don't take race relations into consideration when choosing a school (eg, just try to find an NCAA or NBA team without a black assistant coach).

[Duvall]

Anyway, feel free to skip the article, but don't think that race issues disappear if you don't think about them.

There are interesting discussions to be had about race and sports and basketball and Duke.

Deadspin is not going to make a valuable contribution to those discussion.

[FerryFor50]

Deadspin isn't all bad. This is pretty hilarious (some NFSW language, though):

http://deadspin.com/the-2013-haters-guide-to-the-williams-sonoma-catalog-1481230580

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

There are interesting discussions to be had about race and sports and basketball and Duke.

Deadspin is not going to make a valuable contribution to those discussion.

Right, I just wanted to clarify that I skipped the blog post, not because it was about Duke bball and race, but because it was a Deadspin post about Duke basketball. Deadspin typically treats Duke bball with contempt and rarely produces any useful insight. I do find Deadspin amusing in its coverage of other sports, especially the NBA.

[destroslithoid]

I just read through the "article," and it was by far one of the worst attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor that I've read. We get that there's the stereotype that the Duke team is mostly white and unathletic, but beating a dead horse does not provide you with a fresh joke (Carolina, however, seems intent to provide fresh punchlines each day with its off-court issues). Because the author was so lazy and sloppy in his attempt at humor, he rubs off as racist.

[g-money]

Race and basketball. What's not to love about an article that purposefully tries to tweak?

I thought your post was entertaining and thought-provoking without going over the line. Well done.

May I ask you johnb, are you black or white? As a white guy living in the 'burbs, I could never write up an essay like yours without stepping on a proverbial land mine. My tongue would be tied in knots.

Anyway, this was the post of the week in my opinion.

As for the Deadspin article, I didn't bother to read it only because I don't believe in abusing dead horses.