Denver Couldn't Keep Doug McDermott. GM Loves Denver Too Much

For about 30 minutes Doug McD was coming to the "D".

As it turns out, it wasn't meant to be.  Doug McDermott was slotted for Chicago and Denver was just a layover city.  But for 30 minutes, Denver had a new white guy.

Oh, I wasn't supposed to mention his color?  I realize that Chris "Birdman" Anderson is a champion these days, but in Denver he was an extremely popular shot blocker who was too small to stop big centers and missed free throws and jumpers with regularity.  Despite being rather awful in retrospect, Birdman was immensely popular because white people could relate to him.  When Bird left, white kids instantly missed his mohawks more than any block he made in a Denver uniform.

McDermott has as much chance at becoming an NBA star as Sam Bowie did.  The team that drafted Bowie was certain he'd be better than Mike Jordan.  My point is that the draft is a crapshoot.  Sometimes you get Greg Oden, other times you get Chauncey Billups and have to wait for him to become a legend. Every so often the guy you draft is Magic.

Players can be magical.  Guessing who might become good isn't impossible, but achieving greatness is a combination of potential and environment.  The greatest of players are nurtured with focus and patience, patience that average players are never afforded.  McDermott might  get there, but he needs to play, and play a lot.  In Denver, McDermott would be pressed to beat out better players as he learns NBA style defense, both doing it and having it done against him.  Oh yeah, add the color of his skin and he'll get more heat than Jeremy Lin got after eating up the league for a month.   The challenge of living up to your potential with all of these elements to overcome creates a challenge to both white players and the GM's who court them.

If I could offer white America a fair break right now, it comes when you look at the example of white basketball players and their place in the league.  Blacks often complain about the absence of black coaches and executives, especially in sports that are dominated by black people.  From strictly a numbers perspective, there has to be more white male basketball players who play high school sports.  By the time we look at colleges, blacks shift the numbers drastically, signifying a voracious hunger for black basketball players.  When it comes to the professional ranks, white players, especially American born whites, are a commodity that might get you fired.

Much like missing on a black coach, GM's who do it have to fire them quickly and usually lose credibility (or their job) soon after.  If such a trend can be documented, such information could be in mind at the key moments of decision making.  Is it racism to hire safe? Should the person I hire disrupt the chance my children get to afford a good college?  Such questions have no easy answers, but proven talent is the same as money, it disregards color for just a while.  Unproven talent does not.

Colorblindness is a joke.  If you are a white boy who can also play, you are an extraordinary commodity.  If you are a black coach who can match wits with the best of them, you will get a shot as well, but much like the white player, you had better prove yourself quickly.  Teams that have family executives (Denver Nuggets, Pittsburgh Steelers) are much more capable of being long suffering, but even they face the heat of public opinion and must cut their losses in order to maintain the ship.  Black coaches and white hooper's don't get time for ramp up.  You get one or two seasons before the vultures descend.

Sorry Brian Shaw.  Even Jon Embree, the former CU star himself, only got two cracks at it before they cut bait.  Embree's players were doing well in school and Embree was doing it the right way by playing younger players and taking it on the chin early, yet he got fired quickly and so will Shaw if he and the Nuggets don't look to win quickly.  (What happened to that guy who hired Embree?)

To the credit of the Nugget's, they did not burden their black coach with an uncertain white boy to place heat on Tim Connelly, the Nugget's GM, and Shaw his up and coming coach.  Tim likes living in Denver and hopes to stay for a while.  From all accounts, so does Shaw. In addition, the Nuggets did not need more youth, they needed more...more....more..??..  They needed more of whatever gave Brian Shaw another season.  Shaw showed some things that intrigue any "real" basketball mind.  A few of those minds played against Shaw's undermanned teams last year and might choose to play for him during next weeks free agency period.

From one obscure #11 pick made during yesterday's draft, the entire draft buzz continues to be about Doug "the white boy" McDermott. The NBA needs a couple of killer white cats.  Identifying with someone who looks like you offered the framework of the black power movement.  The NBA needs a few good white men and Doug McDermott could foot the bill.

...or he will cost some GM a job.