The Untold Story of 2007-’08
pictured: Jon Brockman
by Jimmy Chitwood
I watch a lot of http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2328. A LOT of basketball. So I catch most all the regularly aired hype commercials that promote various match-ups on the idiot box. When a network will be featuring some game or other, they most always feature highlights and graphics of a team’s “best” player in order to garner as much fan notice as possible. You’ll notice I place “best” in quotation marks…
See, here’s the deal. http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2108’s star freshman center Kevin Love is the only white man playing hoops in the PAC-10.
Or at least, he’s the only one worth watching. I find this troublesome.
“Why?” you might ask. I’ll tell you.
This season, the PAC-10 has been http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=3360. Yes, dominated.We as fans are repeatedly assured that basketball is a black man’s game. I guess the white men in the PAC-10 didn’t get the memo.
If one were to watch a lot of PAC-10 hoops, as I do, one would be inundated with messages regaling the most glowing praise imaginable on USC’s O.J. Mayo (you know, the phenomenal future NBA superstar), or on UCLA point guard Darren Collison (without a doubt one of the top two point guards in the nation, of course), Washington State’s Kyle Weaver, Arizona’s Jerryd Bayless, or Arizona State’s James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph. The list of black “superstars” and superlatives to attach to them is seemingly endless…
Which brings up a problem.
Why are these guys hyped when there are numerous white athletes who are MUCH better? The PAC-10 hype machine is truly a Puzzle And Conundrum. Because it would appear that there are Plenty of Awesome Caucasians to praise, but aside from the aforementioned Love the only white man who ever gets any love (please pardon the pun) from the media is Arizona’s Chase Budinger. But he often, maybe even usually, gets pushed aside for his less gifted (but blacker) teammate Bayless.
This is obviously driven by a purposeful agenda. Otherwise, every basketball fan would know a vastly different set of names associated with the PAC-10 than the ones mentioned two paragraphs up.
Yes, the promo advertisements would be featuring a much paler set of players. For example:
The PAC-10 is led in scoring by Ryan Anderson’s 21.5 points per game. He’s a white forward from Cal. Ever see him anywhere on the idiot box? Me neither. And I’ve looked! He’s also third in the league in rebounding (9.9 rpg). Not bad for a guy that can’t get any air time, huh? In fact, 5 of the top 10 scorers in the PAC-10 are white. I’m guessing that also comes as a surprise to you.
You’ve all surely heard of Kevin Love from UCLA. He is a gifted big man, without a doubt as his numbers indicate (he is second in the league in rebounding with 11.1 rpg and sixth in scoring with 17.3 ppg). However, there is another white big man in the PAC-10 who is putting up even better numbers than the “potential College Player of the Year.”
His name is Jon Brockman, and he plays for the University of Washington. The only way you’ll see or hear about him on the TV is if Washington has a televised game. He gets no promo ads, no references to greatness, no nothing the rest of the time. And he leads the PAC-10 in rebounding (11.6 per game) and is fifth in scoring (17.6 ppg)!
Ever hear of Maarty Leunen? I didn’t think so. At 6-foot-9, he’s the best 3-point shooter in the PAC-10 (knocking down an incredible 53% of his long bombs). He’s also the league’s number four rebounder (9.1 rpg) and averages 15.7 points per game (which is ninth in the conference) while shooting a stellar 57% from the floor. Until this year, the natural small forward had been forced to play center, but now he’s free to roam both inside and outside, and he’s killing people every time out. Think Kyle Singler (Duke’s phenomenal frosh) only as a senior. I wonder why he’s not getting more attention from the media? Hmmm…
http://castefootball.us/viewarticle.asp?sportID=4&teamID=0&ID=23278