Thank you OP for this thread. This has been my beef with sports since I was a kid.
With black players if they ain't shaped like greek gods then all the racist fans and racist media criticize their weight and how they are shaped. Think melo, harden and other black players.
Yet white players can look like they eat a bag of whoppers and white castles for breakfast and no one says shyt about their weight. For example how chubby Kevin Love was in minnesota or how chubby donic was in his rookie year or how chubby Jokic is and no one says shyt about how fat and out of shape they are. And if you say something about the white boys weight you get some push back. Like last year when folks called out Donic's weight you got the well he didn't have a chance to work on his cardio in the offseason and blah blah blah.
fukk that bull shyt...black players never get those excuses.
You see the same shyt in basketball when it comes to white boys playing defense. No matter how old a black player is (lebron) or how avg or slightly above avg an athlete they are for an NBA player (Harden). Black players are expected to play defense. No matter how much their offense load is. They are expected to play defense at a Bill Russell level. If not then media and fans run with the bull shyt that they are lazy, have no defensive IQ or are pouting.
But a white boy.....shyt if he young (Donic) or built like a greek god (KP) or has a big offemsive load (Dirk) he is never expected to be a two way player and play defense. If you call them out on defense you get push back as well. Folks will mention their offensive load, or how they are unathletic to play defense even if as a offensive player they can jump out a gym (KP is a perfect example). Every damn excuse will be used to defend their lack of commitmemt on the defensive end (as they are hidden on defense game after game after game).
This is dumb
Doncic was literally dogged all last season about being a tubby boy. Cuban and Carlisle emphasized that he needed to work on his weight and conditioning in the off-season. Luka even "promised" Cuban he'd come back with a 6pack, albeit in jest. It was definitely discussed all year by the local and national media and was the key point of the off-season.
Luka lost roughly 15lbs in the off-season and he's playing a tad bit quicker.
And for Dirk, again, he was dragged his entire career for being a sieve on defense. Do you forget he played in the Duncan and Garnett era? That was ALWAYS the knock on Dirk. That he didn't play defense. Duncan is clear ahead of both, but Dirk's lack of defense is why you have so many people that rank Garnett over Dirk. Dirk was even jokingly referred to as "Irk" in some circles, cause he plays no "D"
And for KP, he's a pretty solid rim defender so idk about the defensively complaints. He's been blasted for being soft. By the NY media and the national media. We have Dejounte Murray playing PG in the modern era off an ACL tear and there was no concern. Meanwhile KP was talked about like he'll never be the same again. And KP also hit the gym hard in an attempt to get bigger this off-season
No argument with KLove or Jokic, though. Them boys just fat.
