Who are the 10 best white guys in the NBA?

[Mr_Mojo_Risin]

Can’t believe no one has mentioned Derrick or Coby White, excellent players.

[SkyHookFTW]

Billy Cunningham is at least top 15, what an omission. Bobby Jones???? Him too. Shame, shame.

I think a few people forgot to put Jokic as the current #1. He's the best player in the entire league.

[prophet_of_rage]

I just got word that Jason Kidd, Steph Curry, Jason Tatum and Devin Booker are now 100% white


The blacks get Bird and Luka

Spoiler:

sorry I know I’m gonna get The thread locked...but it’s ridiculous anyway lol

Steph isn't biracial.

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He ain’t 100% black....I assure you of that

He is a light-skinned Black man born of light-skinned Black parents. Not all of us have dark brown skin and Black hair. We come in all shades and varieties.

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[prophet_of_rage]

How is this a thread?

Because there's no actual moderation here unless you call someone a turd.

This is casual racism among friends I guess ?

I don’t get it -

Like being white makes you worse at basketball?

If you think that - you got some bias

Duh. But it isn't flooded with racial comments like other threads get and won't need to be locked.

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[mowcrowbar]

Talent-wise, Drazen Petrovic should be in the history list

I never saw him play. He was MVP contender level good?

Yes I think so.
He arrived to NBA in a difficult era for an european, and he died young. But I think he could have been

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

He most certainly was not MVP level..

[sisibilio]

I know his surname is senegalese but Georges Niang looks too white to not be white so... He also plays the right way, high character, low maintenance, deceptively quick...IDK, checks too many boxes.
What about Strus?

[tsherkin]

How can anyone even compare d ratings of players who played like 20 years apart from each other, ridiculous. I mean, Nash played in more defense centric era, so I am not trying to say he should not have higher d rating, but what kind of comparison is this. I swear some people have no clue how stats work. If eDiff was compared, than at leats we would have some kind of point.

It's not even that I'm debating the point much, you know? Nash's defense was definitely not his strong point. It's just such an awful way to approach the comparison, and such a non-sequitur relative to the lead-in discussion and everything that made it so jarring and ridiculous. And it's not like Maravich was Dennis Johnson or something on D either. Anyway, odd, but there it is. This whole thread is... dubious at best anyhow.

[Quattro]

Is there a reason why nobody mention Manu Ginbolli?

Because he's typically even more underrated/disrespected by this forum than Steve Nash?

[drchaos]

Was far past his prime when he joined the NBA but Arvydas Sabonis belongs on the list.

[uncleduck13]

Spoiler:

History ?

- Bird
- Nowitzki
- Stockton
- Jokić
- Jerry West
- Dončić
- Maravich
- Havlicek
- Dražen Petrović
- McHale

Bonus :
- Pau Gasol
- Mikan
- Cousy
- Mullin
- Pettit
- Bill Walton
- Rick Barry
- Steve Nash


Current :

- Jokić
- Dončić
- Sabonis
- Porzingis
- Chet
- Markkanen
- Şengün
- Franz Wagner
- Giddey
- Reaves/Bojan Bogdanović

Nash not being in the top 10 and at the very bottom of the ‘bonus’ is so blatantly intentional. Disgusting.

I almost took the bait as well but it's clear that's exactly what he was going for when he put Nash at the bottom and Stockton 3rd on his top 10 list.

These guys don’t even try to hide their hatred. Ain’t no way Nash ain’t a top 10 white player ever. To have Petrovic over him is just silly and disrespectful.

[UcanUwill]

How can anyone even compare d ratings of players who played like 20 years apart from each other, ridiculous. I mean, Nash played in more defense centric era, so I am not trying to say he should not have higher d rating, but what kind of comparison is this. I swear some people have no clue how stats work. If eDiff was compared, than at leats we would have some kind of point.

It's not even that I'm debating the point much, you know? Nash's defense was definitely not his strong point. It's just such an awful way to approach the comparison, and such a non-sequitur relative to the lead-in discussion and everything that made it so jarring and ridiculous. And it's not like Maravich was Dennis Johnson or something on D either. Anyway, odd, but there it is. This whole thread is... dubious at best anyhow.

Overall, I am not familiar with Maravich personally, I just know the stories and highlights. I have no doubt he was great, but from my understanding, he came into the league with massive expectations on his shoulders, and although he was good, he never ultimately lived up to it, and was often regarded as flash not substance.

But for what I know, Nash was the opposite, I know Nash was great, man is so disrespected as MVP, by fans who only care about high scoring rate. Even fans who love Nash, always come up with these threads like - what could Nash average today if he had Curry shot selection etc etc. And I get it is compliment, people implying he had skill to be scoring machine, but it makes it sound like Nash was some kind of wasted what if story, man won two MVPs, he did good. We watching the league were Russell Westbrook, guy with no basketball IQ whatsoever, won MVP, yet people claim Nash is worst MVP, that is freaking insulting.

Was far past his prime when he joined the NBA but Arvydas Sabonis belongs on the list.

I swear, every thread I open by now, has this exact comment now, is this some kind of running joke now? Yeah, we know Arvydas was great, he is first ballot hall of famer lol.

[SeattleJazzFan]

threads like this should be locked immediately just saying

You should delete your account immediately. Just saying.

[SeattleJazzFan]

I was thinking about how much impact Europeans have had on the NBA recently.
We currently have an arguable top 3 NBA player ranking of 3 Europeans in Jokic, Luka.and Giannis

This got me wondering when the last time the best player in the NBA was white. I thought of Dirk and Larry Bird as probably the best 2 white players to grace the court before Jokic and Luka, with Steve Nash or Kevin McHale probably filling out the top 5 of the last 40 years?
Am I missing anyone?
So who are the top 10/15 white guys of the last 40 years in the NBA...and..
Who are the current best 10/15 white players IN THE NBA.

Uh, the all time assist and steals leader.

But Kevin Love deserves mention, as well as AK-47

[tsherkin]

We watching the league were Russell Westbrook, guy with no basketball IQ whatsoever, won MVP, yet people claim Nash is worst MVP, that is freaking insulting.

People like athletic endeavors and PPG, man. It is what it is. And tbf to Westbrook, he was actually incredible in 2017 when he won. Dropped off a cliff in terms of effectiveness and impact immediately thereafter, but that season, he was something else.

At least he won the MVPs. 2006 in particular was wild, man; no Amare? 54 wins, Conference Finals, beat Kobe's Lakers in the first round? That was one hell of a season, man.

[UcanUwill]

We watching the league were Russell Westbrook, guy with no basketball IQ whatsoever, won MVP, yet people claim Nash is worst MVP, that is freaking insulting.

People like athletic endeavors and PPG, man. It is what it is. And tbf to Westbrook, he was actually incredible in 2017 when he won. Dropped off a cliff in terms of effectiveness and impact immediately thereafter, but that season, he was something else.

At least he won the MVPs. 2006 in particular was wild, man; no Amare? 54 wins, Conference Finals, beat Kobe's Lakers in the first round? That was one hell of a season, man.

I personally will never rank Westbrook high as a great, because in my opinion, he is the guy who can make absolute terrible team far better, but he will never make truly great team better. If you have bunch of scrubs, but want to win 45 games, Westbrook as one man army can in fact give you that. But put him in scenario with actual amazing teammates, he just does not make anything better, I know it is extreme hate filled opinion, but that is how I see Westbrook, I just not a fan, never believed prime Westbrook could ever win anything.

And yes, I know Westbrook and Durant won bunch of play off series, but LeBron on that new pod recently said - in first round, maybe even in second round, teams can win by sheer talent. But by the time you reach conference finals or finals, Basketball IQ is the reason that wins you all at the end, the talent and stakes at that point do change.
Not sure how credible that take is, but LeBron said it, not me, and when I heard that, I could only think of Westbrook.

Westbrook was good, on a terrible team, as I said, he was indeed very valuable. But at the end, I feel the narrative won, not the basketball player. Westbrook was the first guy to average triple double in many decades, and while thats an amazing achievement, it is still an arbitrary number and voters just got flashbanged by it. For most of them, it was the first time in their career, the NBA guy did average triple double, so they just gave it to him. Good season, but I do not put that much respect on it, since it was pure narrative MVP.

[Sofia]

How is this a thread?

Because there's no actual moderation here unless you call someone a turd.

This is casual racism among friends I guess ?

I don’t get it -

Like being white makes you worse at basketball?

If you think that - you got some bias

No one is coming in here saying white people suck. Feel free to make a best black player thread if you like…

[shi-woo]

threads like this should be locked immediately just saying

You should delete your account immediately. Just saying.

Why, because I think it a bad idea to generalize and denigrate others ethnicity and culture?

Just because you look at something as black and white doesn't mean that's how the rest of the world works, or how people in those countries identify.

You have people in here using the terms white, Caucasian, and European like they are interchangeable, and they aren't. It's like calling people Orientals or Negroids, it's not the 1800's anymore, that is considered rude and racist to a lot of people. Even more so when you are talking about American's who typically come from multi-racial/ethnic backgrounds.

What is caucasian to the people in here who have an asian mother and an italian father? What is white when you are talking about Manu who is of Italian heritage, but was born in Latin America? Is someone of the jewish race also apart of the white race?

What do we call people like Steph Curry and Klay who have skin whiter than my mothers? It's just weird. White is only a recent American invention, so again, it's weird to rope every country into this awkward americanization of things.

[tsherkin]

I personally will never rank Westbrook high as a great, because in my opinion, he is the guy who can make absolute terrible team far better, but he will never make truly great team better. If you have bunch of scrubs, but want to win 45 games, Westbrook as one man army can in fact give you that. But put him in scenario with actual amazing teammates, he just does not make anything better, I know it is extreme hate filled opinion, but that is how I see Westbrook, I just not a fan, never believed prime Westbrook could ever win anything.

I think the truth is somewhere in the middle of all that, personally. I think he had a shot. But yeah, in the playoffs, he was sort of David Robinson-ish in the sense that he could draw fouls but couldn't actually hit his shots, you know? In 2017, for example, he led the playoffs with 37.4 ppg but did it by drawing 14 FTA/g and shooting 38.8% from the field. He's led the playoffs in APG four times (once over an 18-game postseason) and averaged a triple-double in the postseason 3 times (all on 5 or 6 GP), like dude could ball. But he was missing some key pieces to be a true ATG.

But he still might have won if the chips fell the right way, you know? It happens.

And yes, I know Westbrook and Durant won bunch of play off series, but LeBron on that new pod recently said - in first round, maybe even in second round, teams can win by sheer talent. But by the time you reach conference finals or finals, Basketball IQ is the reason that wins you all at the end, the talent and stakes at that point do change.

That isn't entirely true, there is still a luck factor to be considered. And when guys win on last-minute jumpers, you have to stop and think, you know?

Westbrook was good, on a terrible team, as I said, he was indeed very valuable. But at the end, I feel the narrative won, not the basketball player. Westbrook was the first guy to average triple double in many decades, and while thats an amazing achievement, it is still an arbitrary number and voters just got flashbanged by it. For most of them, it was the first time in their career, the NBA guy did average triple double, so they just gave it to him. Good season, but I do not put that much respect on it, since it was pure narrative MVP.

In 2017, it's worth recalling that RS Westbrook led the league in PER at 30.6, topped the league in AST% at 57.3% WHILE leading the league in USG% at 41.7%, topped the league in OBPM at +8.7 (and overall BPM and VORP), led the league in both APG and SPG, was 3rd in the league in O-EPM (4th in overall EPM) and so forth. He was crushing it. To award him the MVP that year was not at all inappropriate, and it wasn't just narrative-driven.

That said, speaking of narrative (which very often does drive awards), the Thunder were coming off a Conference Finals loss (granted, one where Russ sharted himself in Game 7) the year before and had lost Kevin Durant. They had won 55 games that season, and won 47 without Durant instead of imploding. Durant, who had been the 2014 MVP and had been 2nd in the MVP in 3 of the 4 seasons preceding that. An immense loss to manage, and the Thunder stayed afloat.

So between his historic box score production AND ensuring that the team didn't fall completely apart, that's a couple big checks in the Westie-for-MVP column, you know? I'm not the largest fan, but that was an epic season on his behalf.

[MrGoat]

"Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Jalen Brunson, Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr, Julius Randle, Devin Booker, LaMelo Ball, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rudy Gobert"

-Stephen A Smith, probably

Why’s Giannis and Randle on this list? May as well include Lebron and Buter then.

Because Giannis is European and Randle is a Knick