Khalid Green, who spent the past decade as a Nets scout, made waves when he charged that racial bias akin to “white supremacy” plays a role in evaluating players. The Brooklyn native said there is still a search for the Great White Hope that blinds many scouts, and contributed to Jimmer Fredette being selected in the 2011 lottery despite glaring deficiencies in his game.
“I never got caught up in that hype. Hype, he was slow, and they were pushing [Fredette] too hard,” Green said on the “Bill Rhoden On Sports” podcast. “I actually had a conversation. One of the scouts at the time was like, ‘Well, if he was a black guy you’d really like him.’ This was in a meeting and I was kind of new at the time, but I was like, ‘No, I wouldn’t have liked him because he can’t guard.’ He’s not going to be able to guard and he’s not going to be able to get his shot off, and he wasn’t athletic. And I knew what it was. I knew it was a Great White Hope-type of situation.
“That’s where the intrinsic bias comes in, because they a lot of times people want that guy to succeed to make a statement on behalf of the whole race.”
When Rhoden — a longtime sports columnist at the New York Times — likened that to white supremacy, Green replied, “Absolutely.”
Green — who coached at Bishop Loughlin High School — had been a scout for the Nets since 2008. It should be noted that at no point did he accuse anybody in the Nets’ front office or basketball operations staff of racism, overt or otherwise.
A Nets spokesman said Green hasn’t been employed in the scouting department or basketball operations for the past year, now limited to just doing some community outreach. (He was introduced on the podcast as a Nets scout, however, and his LinkedIn profile claims he has been a Nets talent scout from 2008-to-present.)
In the hour-and-a-half podcast, he also discussed the best coaches he’s worked under (naming Avery Johnson and Kenny Atkinson), and the prospects he’s hit and missed on (he liked Kyle Kuzma, but underestimated Kawhi Leonard).
Green also discussed the frequent schism in scouting departments over European prospects, some of which even surfaced this year regarding Luka Doncic.
“See, that’s because here in America, the Caucasian that plays the game has dropped, the talent level has dropped, so they’re almost feasting on Europe now as their savior. They have to go back to their motherland for their savior,” said Green, who said he is now teaching a sports management class at LIU.
“If Africa had the structure, the AAU and the high school system and all that, that would supersede what’s going on over here. You’d have 7-footers at every position in high school.”