Congratulations to the Duke Blue Devils and the other teams for making the final four! What a great achievement. But while most of us were cheering the amazing display of basketball skills from all of the teams in March Madness, there is one group of "fans" who were are concerned with the players' skin color. For blogger Richard Spencer and his readers over at Alternative Right, Duke's success is not a testament to the coaching, skills and discipline of the team, but rather further evidence of white people's superiority.
The credit or blame, as it were, for Duke whiteness must surely lie on the shoulders of Mike Krzyzewski, not only the head coach but the man who signs off on every recruiting decision. Recruiting is, of course, a two-way street; recruits must choose Duke.2 But it's no exaggeration to say that Duke gets the pick of the litter each year, and one must conclude that the fact that Coach K and his assistants key in on the best white players in the country is part of a deliberate plan. (And even if it's somehow unconscious, it's consistent.)
Duke's white players, according to Spencer's basketball theory, are too smart and classy to succeed in the "thuggish" NBA:
Duke whiteness just doesn't work in the NBA -- much like its intense, trapping defense and complicated, three-guard weaving patterns can't be transfered to the more primitive pro game, which has devolved into scenes of eight men standing around watching a man-é-mano matchup between each teams' two best players.
White fans of other teams with black players, Spencer concludes, are secretly jealous of Duke's success:
In the end, Duke Hate probably boils down to this. When opposing fans look at the Blue Devils, they wish in their hearts that their home team were like that.
Say what? As a (heatbroken) Villanova fan, I know Spencer is full of sh**t. But Spencer's readers chime in with some choice gems of racist support:
Good article, and probably right. As a life-long basketball player I think you gotta respect the blacks. They have bodies (long legs, short torsos, long arms and a lithe "springiness") that are perfect for this game. One thing almost always missing, however, is the "smarts.
"
I had played year-round aau basketball for five years when I quit in high school after realizing that my black teammates were not merely annoying but insufferably detestable. Black basketball coaches are the dumbest men I have ever met.
Makes me sorry for the Blue Devils. They certainly don't deserve "fans" like the idiots at Alternative Right. May the best team win!