by Sam Winston
“Speaking of Favre, he already has been replaced by Tyler Hansborough as the token “White Athlete That The Media Openly and Embarrassingly Fawns Over Because of His Work Ethic and Love For the Game.” (Note: Steve Nash was the overwhelming favorite here until Hansborough too over during the tournament.) For anyone who doesn’t think there’s a racial component to this, you’re crazy. Just look at David West of the Hornets — like Hansborough, he’s a self-made player and a staunch competitor who plays with an inordinate amount of passion, an undersized forward who routinely scores on bigger bodies, someone who extracted every ounce of his potential and made the most of it. Well, have you ever read a David West feature? Have you ever heard announcers raving about him to the point that you wondered if they were related to him? No and no. I just think it’s a little, um, peculiar. We’ll see if this changes during the NBA playoffs.” Bill Simmons, ESPN columnist.
Simmons maybe onto something about the salivating over Hansborough but D-West doesn’t seem nearly as physical as Hansborough has to be (West’s got a lot more touch to go along with his inside game). He is after all known by CP3 as the 17-foot assassin.
