Lack of White Presence In NBA Noticeable This Season

It's not shocking or unknown that the NBA is mostly dominated by African-American men each season. However, what's shocking is the increasingly low number of white guys in the NBA the past couple seasons, especially the past two.

According to information found from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports and used on ESPN's theundefeated.com, 74.3 percent of the NBA was black and 81.7 percent were people of color during the 2015-2016 season.

That means that last season only 18.3 percent of the entire league was white. The number can be dropped even lower because it includes European, Australian and Canadian players.

Currently, there are only 43 white players on NBA rosters as reported by Ryen Russillo on Tuesday. Unless my math is wrong or NBA hasn't listened everyone yet, that's only 9.6 percent of the entire league this season. This number also includes foreign white players as well.  

“This is the first year where I’m like, ‘You know what, there are not a lot of white guys in the NBA,’ ” J.J. Redick of the LA Clippers told The Undefeated.

Redick told Russillo & Kanell on ESPN Radio that he agrees with what Doug McDermott said about the low number stemming from where you grow up and what "white suburban kids" have access to. Whether that's a baseball glove with a bat or a bag full of golf clubs and a course. That's obviously gives kids multiple opportunities compared to only having a ball and a basketball court at the park.

Secondly, he said that the game has changed and that teams are looking for more athletic players to space the floor. He continued to say the game is being taught wrong to young players who can afford to go to private coaches or trainers to do basketball drills instead of going out and improving with game play.

I agree with both of these reasons but he might be onto something with access. Before you say yeah obviously, look at how drastic the numbers from baseball or golf are...

You'll see that the percentage of white players in the MLB has gone from 60.9 percent in 2014 to 58.8 percent in 2015 but then back up to 59.07 percent this season. Look at golf too, other than Tiger Woods, Harold Varner III is the only other PGA Tour member of color.

Now I am not saying that black people cannot be successful or make enough money to do these other sports. I'm pointing out the majority of young black athletes from the inner city or low income homes don't have access to baseball equipment or golf clubs and a course. That's just reality.

This is even more evident when you look at each of the sports numbers too, something that I would like to see change but would be tough. You can't just go build a golf course in the middle of downtown Chicago. Something needs to be done to give the inner city kids more of an opportunity to play these sports.