Most people won't admit, but serious sports fans know that there is a secret code when describing athletes. For those that don't know, take the opportunity to watch the NBA Draft. Any draft. You will hear certain buzzwords that will translate into actually describing race. For most young black basketball players, you hear phrases like, upside, tremendous athlete, great wingspan, physical specimen. If I close my eyes and listen to the analysis, 99% of the time I would correctly guess they were referring to a black player. There also buzzwords used for white athletes too. They're usually described as smart, heady, all American type player, coach on the floor, hard working, and my personal favorite, he has all the intangibles. I always take a little bit of offense to the buzzwords. Black players never get credit for intelligent play or hard work. White players get way too much credit. Over the last few years we have come up with advanced metrics to analyze players. Stats like true shooting percentage, plus/minus, and win shares are supposed to give you a clear picture of what exactly a player does contribute to the team and what he doesn't. These stats are used to discredit a guy like Rudy Gay, who's athletic, can get you about 20 points a game, and just got finished playing for Team USA. We can look at the stats and say, he scores, but he's not that efficient. So therefore he's not as good as it seems. Which brings me to Kirk Hinrich. On occasions where coaches and general managers need to justify a white guys place on the team, they throw out the numbers. They say things like, "he does things that don't show up on the stat sheet", or "he is such a fiery competitor, he just fights for everything out there". Phrases such as these have been used to describe Kirk Hinrich going into Bulls training camp this year.
Ever since we drafted the guy, I have been perplexed as to why coaches just seem to love him. His entire career he's been okay, but never great. He had maybe a season or two where he played above average. But that was back in 2006 or 2007 or something like that. He has clearly begun his decline, and yet we keep resigning him. Understand that I am a lifelong basketball fan and I'm a die hard Bulls fan. So I watch 82 games a season. I'm not sure what Kirk brings to the team at this point.
He's lost a step when he didn't have a step to lose. He's never been a ball handler who can break down a defense or wow you with his passing ability. And he can't shoot. I watched Kirk miss open 3 pointer after open 3 last year. In my opinion, he is completely washed up and finished. Anytime he plays over 20 minutes in a game, he misses the next 3 games with a injury. Some people will point to his defense but let me debunk that myth right now.
Can Hinrich play defense? Yes. Is he a lock down defender capable of shutting down a team's high scoring guard? No. What he does on defense is this: He stays in front of you, forces you to dribble towards other good defenders, and gets a hand in your face when you shoot. Good defense. But night after night, the guy he's guarding still gets about his average amount of points. He just has to work a little bit harder for them. A true lock down defender holds you to below your average.
So why do the Chicago Bulls bring him back year after year, in lieu of someone like say D.J. Augustin who I could argue saved our season last year? We will give up on athletic players in a heartbeat. We will let guys go who are nowhere near as ineffective as Hinrich. Year after year I watch the Bulls bring this guy back, with no clue of what he brings to the table other than being a "great locker room influence". I was discussing this very issue a couple of years ago when a friend of mine, jokingly may have provided me with the answer. We were discussing the fact that while we were at Bulls game, it seemed as though white fans had a completely different view of Hinrich than we did. I threw out the question of why they support him so much.
My friend puts on his quasi serious face and says the following: "White people love Kirk Hinrich. When they look at him, they see themselves in Kirk Hinrich. John Paxson looks at Kirk and sees himself when he used to play. Like that's his son or something. " We had a good laugh about it and the phrase "White people see themselves in Kirk Hinrich" became something of a running joke. Only over the years it got less and less funny.
He's lost a step when he didn't have a step to lose. He's never been a ball handler who can break down a defense or wow you with his passing ability. And he can't shoot. I watched Kirk miss open 3 pointer after open 3 last year. In my opinion, he is completely washed up and finished. Anytime he plays over 20 minutes in a game, he misses the next 3 games with a injury. Some people will point to his defense but let me debunk that myth right now.
Can Hinrich play defense? Yes. Is he a lock down defender capable of shutting down a team's high scoring guard? No. What he does on defense is this: He stays in front of you, forces you to dribble towards other good defenders, and gets a hand in your face when you shoot. Good defense. But night after night, the guy he's guarding still gets about his average amount of points. He just has to work a little bit harder for them. A true lock down defender holds you to below your average.
So why do the Chicago Bulls bring him back year after year, in lieu of someone like say D.J. Augustin who I could argue saved our season last year? We will give up on athletic players in a heartbeat. We will let guys go who are nowhere near as ineffective as Hinrich. Year after year I watch the Bulls bring this guy back, with no clue of what he brings to the table other than being a "great locker room influence". I was discussing this very issue a couple of years ago when a friend of mine, jokingly may have provided me with the answer. We were discussing the fact that while we were at Bulls game, it seemed as though white fans had a completely different view of Hinrich than we did. I threw out the question of why they support him so much.
My friend puts on his quasi serious face and says the following: "White people love Kirk Hinrich. When they look at him, they see themselves in Kirk Hinrich. John Paxson looks at Kirk and sees himself when he used to play. Like that's his son or something. " We had a good laugh about it and the phrase "White people see themselves in Kirk Hinrich" became something of a running joke. Only over the years it got less and less funny.
The more I thought about it, the more I think it's true. A lot of the same descriptions people use on Hinrich, like tough as nails, and fiery competitor, are the same way they talked about Paxson when he played. Hinrich is beloved by white fans, generally speaking. He is definitely beloved by the organization. When we traded him away a few years ago, I thought it was a good move. We had got most of the good basketball out of him, so let him decline on some other team. He promptly stunk up the court in Washington and Atlanta respectively. Then we brought him back two years later. His first game back, they stopped the player introductions to welcome him back with a video montage of his highlights. I'm watching a highlight reel of layups and bounce passes and all that's going through my head is, "White people see themselves in Kirk Hinrich".I've made my peace with it, as I do with the many things in the world that I can't control. Kirk is going to retire a Chicago Bull. He's going to come out that last game, thank us for the memories, get his standing Caucasian ovation, and ride off into the sunset. Then we'll bring him back a year later for the jersey retirement ceremony like he was some franchise cornerstone. We are going to watch as his number 12 jersey is raised to the rafters to sit next to guys like Jordan and Pippen. Then he's going to either become associate vice-president of basketball operations or the coach or something and spend the rest of his days drafting guys just like him. This is going to happen. And when it does and you are asking yourself why, just remember, it's because "White people see themselves in Kirk Hinrich. "
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