OT: Are the Timberwolves the whitest team in decades?

After moving to Houston, I realize how incredibly white Portland is. It's ridiculous. God I miss Portland

 

It would be interesting to see a study of how many of these white guys performed well enough to justify their draft position. Were there any significantly better non-white players taken after them? Obviously guys like Bird and Stockton justified their draft positions. In fact, in hindsight, both should have been taken higher. Kevin Love certainly seems to have been a good value at no. 5 (has more WS than anyone else from his draft class, including Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook). Rubio also looks much better than Jonny Flynn (who was also taken by the Wolves one pick later).

I think, in general, teams reach for big white stiffs, mostly because there is always a shortage of good big men of any race. Mediocre (and I'm being kind) big men, regardless of race (Hasheem Thabeet, Patrick O'Bryant, Kwame Brown, Darko Milicic, etc.) always seem to get drafted too high and paid too much.

BNM

 

Shved is Nic's age. His game seems much more refined. I was thoroughly impressed with him yesterday.

 

I was too, but GB is terrible, especially their guards. I will be interested to see him against France, Spain, US, Argentina, etc

 

Hell, 40 miles down the road, and we're probably still hanging people from trees

 

That classic reference couldn't have been used in a better way.

 

Earlier on the Blazers were one of the "white" teams. That is no longer the case.

Yeah, when I lived in Portland I was used to it, but I'd travel to Oakland or Detroit or NYC and it hit me how pale Portland is.

 

I live in Flint, Michigan. Beat that.

 

So you're the one that's employed?

 

People always say that, but I don't see it. Besides 2 years when I first got married and we lived in Sellwood, I have lived in NE Portland my whole life. I'm never just around white people. This is why I love my neighborhood so much. Funny thing is I think 99 percent of black people in Oregon live in MY hood.

 

It's pretty amazing how different it is when you get to a real diverse city

 

[Edit: this post now makes even less sense, as Sly has deleted the post it was responding to (that mentioned "mulattos")]

 

I moved to Seattle a few years ago and it is definitely more diverse than Portland. My theory on why Oregon is so white goes back to the essential compromise of admitting Oregon into the union in 1859. Oregon was a free state, but it was written into the Oregon constitution that African Americans were prohibited from settling Oregon. The clause wasn't repealed until 1927.

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=perspectives/black-laws-oregon-1844-1857

For the first 70 years of statehood it was illegal to live in Oregon if you were an African-American.

 

I love the feeling of diversity. I think it's awesome when we are in DC or Atlanta and the restaurants are jammed packed with crackers. I like looking around and seeing people that are different then myself. Probably the main reason I could never live in the suburbs.

 

Rasta, are you Roger Smith in disguise? Hiding out in Portland to escape Michael Moore?

 

What a fantastic law