(This essay revolves around the NBA draft, which happened in June. While I realize this is old news, and has been covered extensively, I feel that I have a new angle to present. I also am writing this with the assumption that the reader knows nothing about Ricky Rubio and Hasheem Thabeet. If you are relatively familiar with both you can simply skip to the "Implications" section without missing anything.)
Ricky Rubio is thought to be a Spanish basketball prodigy. He was the back-up point guard for the Spanish team which placed silver in the Beijing Olympics. Known for his dazzling passes, he has been favorably compared to "Pistol" Pete Maravich. Most importantly, if you read this website, then you know that he also looks like a Jonas brother.
This year, at the age of nineteen, he entered his name into the NBA draft, and was drafted 5th overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but there was a major problem. Prior to the draft, young Ricky had already chosen the teams that he wanted to play for: the Los Angeles Clippers or the Sacramento Kings (with the #1 and #4 picks, respectively). Further, through his agent, he threatened Memphis (#2 pick) and Oklahoma City (#3), warning them that if they drafted him he would remain in Spain. He also refused to participate in pre-draft workouts or combines with any team other than Sacramento. The Kings were in desperate need of a playmaker, and Rubio appeared to be the perfect fit, so it was simply assumed that they would grab him when they got their chance. Unfortunately for Ricky Rubio, Kings' GM Geoff Petrie, one of the most respected GM's in the NBA, wasn't quite as enamored with Ricky as the rest of the NBA and ESPN. Petrie had legitimate concerns about his lack of athleticism and questioned his ability to score in the NBA. When the Kings came onto the clock, Petrie instead opted for the dynamic Memphis guard Tyreke Evans, who had been personally endorsed by Barack Obama no less.
The Timberwolves, with the fifth and sixth picks, sensed a golden opportunity to seize prized trade asset and snatched Rubio with the fifth pick, then took Syracuse playmaker Jonny Flynn with the sixth as insurance in case Ricky opted to stay in Spain. Their fears turned out to be well-placed, as moments after being drafted, he made it know that he would probably remain in Spain, and skipped the post-draft team interviews. However, the strangest part of this saga has been the fallout; the national sports media (primarily ESPN, but not Jay Marotti, go figure) was quick to defend Rubio and criticize Minnesota GM David Khan, saying, "Of course Ricky's not going to want to play for the 'Wolves; he's going to have to compete for playing time with Jonny Flynn."
Now I should point out that Rubio is not the first athlete to try and punk several teams in the draft. Players such as Steve Francis, Jamarcus Russell, and John Elway have all attempted similar feats with varying degrees of success, but have been severely criticized by the media, especially the African-Americans Francis and Russell. The glaring distinction is that all of them had been absolutely dominant in their respective sports for the entirety of their college careers. Basically they had proven themselves time and time again. Rubio has not. While he was on the Spanish national team, he was largely invisible during his playing time in Beijing. It should be fairly obvious that the distinction between Rubio and Steve Francis is race, but the case of Ricky Rubio extends deeper when he is compared to fellow 2009 draftee Hasheem Thabeet.
Hasheem Thabeet is a Tanzanian-born center who played three years of college basketball for Georgetown. While at Georgetown, he was quite possibly the most dominant defensive center of all time, averaging over 4 blocks a game. In spite of this, Thabeet has largely faced an army of doubters, many of whom immediately proclaimed him as a bust the moment he was drafted second overall by the Memphis Grizzlies. Many pundits have made racially-tinged remarks comparing him to fellow African Michael Olowokandi, one of the bigger busts in draft history. In addition to this, Thabeet will be forced to compete for playing time with 7"2 Hamed Haddadi and 7"1 Marc Gasol, who is coming off a solid rookie campaign where he was named to the NBA All-Rookie 2nd Team. Yet in spite of all these negatives, Thabeet has remained completely positive, expressing his gratitude at being drafted by Memphis (not exactly one of the choice teams in the NBA).
When you compare the profiles of Rubio and Thabeet, you observe one potentially-dominant skill and a lot of question marks. Rubio's passing is his calling card, whereas Thabeet's shotblocking is his. Both will probably struggle to score consistently in the NBA. However, Thabeet has size (he's 7"3) and athleticism which Rubio does not possess, yet Rubio is thought to be the better prospect. Personally, I have concerns about each of them, but the national media's glaring discrepency in tone has made the racial overtones of the 2009 NBA draft so overt that you'd have to be blind, deaf, and dumb to miss them.
The Implications
On FreeDarko Dr. LIC wrote that Rubio was shitting on the American dream. I think it's even worse than that. I see Ricky Rubio as the symbol of Old World Europe, coming to colonize the Americas just as his ancestors did 500 years ago. He arrogantly believes that everything should be handed to him as he dictates. Like the Spanish with their guns, horses, and diseases, he has bamboozled (I was really looking for an excuse to write "bamboozled") the natives into thinking that he has something to offer, but really he brings absolutely nothing. The biggest fear that I have about the entire Rubio saga is that it will set a precedent for foreign athletes looking to come over to the NBA. Just imagine what would happen if every European player was able to make the same childish demands as Ricky Rubio. If that were the case, you might as well throw out the lottery system. While it's a flawed system, it does give small-market teams a glimmer of hope. Teams like OKC (Kevin Durant), Cleveland (LeBron James), and New Orleans (Chris Paul) have been lucky enough to get franchise players because of the lottery system. What if the future superstars decided that they didn't want to play for Memphis, Charlotte, or Milwaukee? There would be absolutely no social mobility in the NBA; you would be stuck with perpetual winners and perpetual losers. What is already a huge problem becomes even worse.
The case of Hasheem Thabeet is equally troubling. Thabeet represents postcolonial Africa. He possess many valuable commodities (he's an athletic 7", when have GM's and pundits not lusted after them?), but because of his African heritage, he lacks any semblence of credibility. Critics love to point to Olowokandi and Saer Sene, but weren't Hakeem Olajuwon and Dikembe Mutombo or Americans like Andrew Bynum and Dwight Howard pretty damn raw when they entered into the NBA? The great ambassadors Olajuwon and Mutombo seemed to pave the way for Africans in the NBA, yet they still face huge hurdles just to get into the NBA. What if one day the next Olajuwon or the next Mutombo decides it isn't worth it, and plays soccer instead? Why do we want to discourage humble, hard-working Africans while encouraging bratty, spoiled Europeans? Neo-colonialism is at work in the NBA and ESPN, and it needs to be addressed. It is not healthy for the league just as it is not healthy for the world. By the way, I wasn't joking when I compared Ricky Rubio to Cortes.
A Solution
Having studied postcolonialism in literature and history for majority of my collegiate career, I realize that it can be a depressing field. I don't want to come off as a complete downer, but I am skeptical about the NBA's willingness to correct itself. I do have a simple solution. While it won't cure the media's racial hang-ups, it will solve some of the league's problems. I believe that a clause should be added to the NBA draft: a player must sign a contract when he enters his name into the draft stating that if he is selected in the 1st round, he must play for that team that season, unless the team signs a waiver allowing him to remain elsewhere. I'm sorry, but 19-22 year-olds who have not played a minute in the league should not be given any kind of leverage, especially when they stand to earn more in a season than many Americans earn in a lifetime.
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