The Whitewash

It may be common knowledge or it may not be, but the whitewash is becoming a rare phenomenon in the NBA. What exactly is a whitewash you may ask? Well it was what you could a team that fields a five-man squad of white players. It may sound racist to some, but come on, it’s only a joke. Besides, despite the fact that white players has won the previous three MVP awards in the NBA, we all know the best players are black.

An interesting point was brought up by ESPN.com’s Bill Simmons. He claimed the Toronto Raptors were not, in fact, rolling out a whitewash with their Calderon, Delfino, Kapono, Bargnani and Nesterovic lineup because European players don’t count. How could this be possible? I will give him the benefit of the doubt on Delfino, who has tanned skin, negates the whitewash, but there’s no real foundation to the claim that a whitewash has to be made up of American players.

Should a whitewash not be based on the colour of your skin and not include qualifiers regarding nationality? It makes as little sense as the Kansas City Royals fielding a team ever year (We all know they can’t compare to the better triple-A teams). So why try to ruin the fun of a whitewash Simmons, it makes no sense. In my books, there will not a be Euro bias.

I’m not sure if the Lakers have tried this one out yet, but a line of Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Walton, Radmanovic and Gasol is a nice whitewash too. They could also put Coby Karl out there too. But then again, how often is Kobe not on the court for them.

And hey, just for fun, what would the ultimate whitewash in the NBA look like right now? Including Europeans, of course. Well the first two members of the squad are easy; Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki are givens for the 1 and 4 spots. Manu Ginobili is a good fit in the 2 spot. At 3, Hedo Turkoglu is having a great season and is worthy candidate. 5 is a toss up in my mind, but the Lakers’ Pau Gasol beats out the Clippers’ Chris Kaman and Big Z for my team. I’m sure I’m probably forgetting a lot of worthy white boys, but hey, this isn’t something significant like the Academy Awards we’re talking about.

(Speaking of the Oscars, Ellen Page was robbed.)