We can say for sure that a rather large percentage of players in the National Basketball Association are black. We can also say for sure that nearly the entire remaining demographic of the NBA is white. Curiously, there is very few Asians in the league. What's amazing about this fact is that basketball is wildly popular along the Pacific Rim. China, the Phillipines, and Thailand in particular absolutely love the sport, possibly as much or more than we Americans. Why is it, then, that there are few Asians in the NBA, where the real money is made?
Explanations are easy enough: prospective American basketball players pass through collegiate programs which invest unfathomable levels of resources into; these players are coached by professionals who've made mastering the game and improving players their life's calling; these players are sometimes on national television, garnering the spotlight (as essentially advertisement) and drawing the cheap attention of scouts who work for teams in the NBA or the NBA itself.
Whereas Asians must put in the time themselves, are probably coached by lesser quality semi-professionals, and do not garner nearly the attention of NBA scouts that American collegiate players might. We can say in many regards, life just isn't fair for Asian basketball players who aspire to the pinnacle of professional basketball in the NBA. Despite their passion for the game, they simply by the virtue of birthplace, are denied equal preperation and chance to become professionals in the NBA.
As an advocate of the disadvantaged, perhaps it only makes sense that there should be more ethnic equality in the NBA. As there are radically high percentages of blacks and whites in the NBA, we will even things out at the draft, where new players are admitted into the league by selection from the various NBA teams. In order to do this, we will ban blacks and whites from being drafted until a more equitable number of Asians have signed NBA contracts. This is open-ended. We continue this policy until we're satisfied of racial fairness.
Unfortunately, because of the great advantage American collegiates have, there is a disparity in the quality of basketball player in the Americans to Asians. For example, we get to draft day and there are, say, 60 picks? Scouts, pundits, and general basketball media hawks will come up with a list of the greatest non-NBA players. It's not unfathomable for, say, 95 of the top 100 prospects are American collegiate players or whites playing in European leagues. There's one Asian. And four black American high school players. Because of the disparity in preperation, the top 60 Asians (who all will be drafted), are in fact in the top 500 non-NBA players.
So the Asians are the worst players in the league, largely sitting on the bench. Fine, they're the benchwarmers today. However, we continue drafting these players, year after year. Maybe a few will adapt well, have natural talent, can make a contribution in this way or that. Maybe even a genuine star will arise. But because we're drafting more and more ill-prepared players, and the superior quality vets are aging and retiring, we begin to see more Asians. Mathematically, they have to have more playing time, simply because they're increasing in number whereas non-Asians are decreasing. Because these Asian players were not given the same quality of preperation as previous drafted players, the quality of the league itself declines. There is less muscle, fewer made shots, fewer blocked shots, fewer of anything good, more of anything bad. Lower quality of basketball.
Meanwhile, what is happening to the American collegiates? Surely, many of them still might want to play basketball, and so the best of the prospects are moving abroad to the European leagues or are joining new upstart American leagues which do not employ Affirmative Action policies. Because these leagues and teams are now acquiring the best players, these leagues now surpass the NBA in quality. To be the champion of the NBA is no longer an indication of being the best in the world.
The NBA, by artificially denying the best players for the sake of racial equality, has then sunk to a poor state, a poor quality. This isn't really an analogy: change "NBA" with your state college, your neighborhood hospital, the airline that you fly on. The results are the same. This will be the legacy of Affirmative Action.
