Should the NBA assist white players with affirmative action?

theGrio.com
By Ronda Racha Penrice
9:30 AM on 12/09/2009

Recently, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" ran a segment about the declining number of white American players in the NBA. Apparently the league is currently 71.8 percent African-American, 18.3 percent international and 9.9 percent white American and there's a problem. To underscore the "whiteout" of the NBA, "Outside the Lines" chose to follow the trials and tribulations of Kyle McAlarney, a former standout point guard from Notre Dame whose dream is to play in the NBA. According to McAlarney, his race is keeping him out of the league.
Never mind that he stands only 5'11 or that he was invited to play summer league with the Los Angeles Clippers by Mike Dunleavy, a former white NBA player who is the team's general manager and coach. Currently, McAlarney plays in the NBA's developmental league. Not once is his arrest for marijuana possession as a sophomore mentioned. Yet he is the posterchild for the white American quest to play in the NBA. Dunleavy - whose 6'9 son, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., currently plays for the Indiana Pacers -- didn't pass on McAlarney because he's white; he passed on him because he's not good enough to play in the NBA.
Does the NBA need white players so badly that it is to ignore standards and let them in even when they are clearly not qualified? Is this not the same criticism that is often leveled at affirmative action programs and its beneficiaries - that they are not qualified to do the job but only get a pass because they are a desirable minority? The fact that affirmative action is meant to ensure that a qualified person will not be denied an opportunity because of race, gender and other factors is generally ignored.
According to Wayne Embry, a senior advisor with the Toronto Raptors, the league implemented the zone defense to help white American players and not to advance the game, a charge that Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations, denies. Jackson, through a statement to "Outside the Lines" maintained that the NBA's objective is "to find players with game regardless of what country they come from or what race."

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