I watched every minute of all eight NBA postseason games this past weekend.
Pro basketball and college basketball are classified as the same sport but they are completely different games.
Where to start?
In the NBA, great offense beats great defense.
The best offensive players on the top NBA teams are virtually unstoppable.
The rule book and more specifically, the interpretation of the rules, tilts the game in favor of the league's superstar players.
In the name of entertainment, NBA officials grant players like James Harden, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo the benefit of the doubt.
It's no secret the league's best players benefit from the most favorable calls.
When the most prolific scorers receive cover from NBA officials, it becomes impossible to deny scoring opportunities from the field or the free-throw line.
Figuratively speaking, three of the game's all-time greats -- Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- often played with a whistle in their mouth, calling fouls on their opponents like playground hoopsters.
Defense wins championships but offense sells merchandise, produces television ratings and drives advertising revenue.
And the collective powers of the NBA know it.
Four seasons ago, NBA games averaged 200 points per game.
This season, NBA teams combined to score more than 222 points per game.
The offensive skill level of the world's best players is off the charts compared to their college counterparts.
Show me an open NBA shooter and I'll show you an automatic two or three points.
In contrast, open shots in the college game are routinely missed and challenged shots rarely find the bottom of the net.
Scoring in the pro game is completely different than the college game, largely due to the length of the game and the difference in shot clocks.
An NBA contest spans 48 minutes with 24 seconds allowed for every shot.
The college game is 20% shorter (40 minutes) with a shot clock (30 seconds) lasting 25% longer.
The average number of possessions per game for an NBA team this season was 100, the average number of possessions for a Division I college team was fewer than 68 and the average number of possessions per team in a game involving national champion Virginia was fewer than 60.
Division I college basketball games this season produced 143.8 points per contest.
Inferior teams have a much better chance to engineer an upset in the briefer college game.
Collegiate postseason tournaments, which feature a single-elimination element compared to the NBA's longer Best-of-7 playoff format, also favor pesky underdogs with a loud bark.
And here's one of the biggest differences between the pro and college game that most analysts are reluctant to discuss: The absence of the American-born white player in the NBA.
Eighty players landed starting spots this past weekend when the 2019 NBA playoffs debuted.
Only two of the 80 starters were American-born white players and they combined to score a grand total of 18 points in 53 minutes of action.
J.J. Redick (age 34) and Joe Harris (age 27) are members of a dying fraternity whose charter, if the current trend continues, will soon expire.
In the most recent NBA All-Star Game, none of the players and only the head coaches -- Michael Malone and Mike Budenholzer -- were American-born white men.
An oft-injured Kevin Love may be remembered as the NBA's last "Great White Hope."
Born in Santa Monica, California, Love represents a vanishing breed of American player who struggles to find a place in the league.
Love "rested" for four of Cleveland's final five games this season despite appearing in only 22 games this season for the hapless Cavaliers.
Meantime, the white American in college basketball is alive and well.
In last Monday night's championship game, three of the top five players on the court were white players produced in the States.
Virginia guards Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome and Texas Tech's Matt Mooney were valuable players in leading their teams to the title game.
None of the three will ever make an NBA All-Star Game appearance.
Yet Kyle Guy was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.
Guy joined fellow white Americans Kyle Singler (2010), Luke Hancock (2013), Ryan Arcidiacono (2016) and Donte DiVincenzo (2018) to win the prestigious award over the past decade.
Arcidiacono and DiVincenzo are bench players in the NBA while Singler was forced to play overseas last season in Spain.
Hancock went undrafted and never played a single minute at the NBA level.
And therein lies the biggest difference between pro basketball and college basketball.
White men born in the States can star at the collegiate level but no longer hold a significant place on the NBA hardwood.
It's an unmistakable black-and-white issue for all to see, yet a delicate topic which rarely gets addressed.
White Americans can own the team, manage the team or coach the team, but white American-born players in the NBA are disappearing faster than the mid-range jumper.
Pro basketball and college basketball are classified as the same sport but they are completely different games.
Where to start?
In the NBA, great offense beats great defense.
The best offensive players on the top NBA teams are virtually unstoppable.
The rule book and more specifically, the interpretation of the rules, tilts the game in favor of the league's superstar players.
In the name of entertainment, NBA officials grant players like James Harden, Kevin Durant and Giannis Antetokounmpo the benefit of the doubt.
It's no secret the league's best players benefit from the most favorable calls.
When the most prolific scorers receive cover from NBA officials, it becomes impossible to deny scoring opportunities from the field or the free-throw line.
Figuratively speaking, three of the game's all-time greats -- Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James -- often played with a whistle in their mouth, calling fouls on their opponents like playground hoopsters.
Defense wins championships but offense sells merchandise, produces television ratings and drives advertising revenue.
And the collective powers of the NBA know it.
Four seasons ago, NBA games averaged 200 points per game.
This season, NBA teams combined to score more than 222 points per game.
The offensive skill level of the world's best players is off the charts compared to their college counterparts.
Show me an open NBA shooter and I'll show you an automatic two or three points.
In contrast, open shots in the college game are routinely missed and challenged shots rarely find the bottom of the net.
Scoring in the pro game is completely different than the college game, largely due to the length of the game and the difference in shot clocks.
An NBA contest spans 48 minutes with 24 seconds allowed for every shot.
The college game is 20% shorter (40 minutes) with a shot clock (30 seconds) lasting 25% longer.
The average number of possessions per game for an NBA team this season was 100, the average number of possessions for a Division I college team was fewer than 68 and the average number of possessions per team in a game involving national champion Virginia was fewer than 60.
Division I college basketball games this season produced 143.8 points per contest.
Inferior teams have a much better chance to engineer an upset in the briefer college game.
Collegiate postseason tournaments, which feature a single-elimination element compared to the NBA's longer Best-of-7 playoff format, also favor pesky underdogs with a loud bark.
And here's one of the biggest differences between the pro and college game that most analysts are reluctant to discuss: The absence of the American-born white player in the NBA.
Eighty players landed starting spots this past weekend when the 2019 NBA playoffs debuted.
Only two of the 80 starters were American-born white players and they combined to score a grand total of 18 points in 53 minutes of action.
J.J. Redick (age 34) and Joe Harris (age 27) are members of a dying fraternity whose charter, if the current trend continues, will soon expire.
In the most recent NBA All-Star Game, none of the players and only the head coaches -- Michael Malone and Mike Budenholzer -- were American-born white men.
An oft-injured Kevin Love may be remembered as the NBA's last "Great White Hope."
Born in Santa Monica, California, Love represents a vanishing breed of American player who struggles to find a place in the league.
Love "rested" for four of Cleveland's final five games this season despite appearing in only 22 games this season for the hapless Cavaliers.
Meantime, the white American in college basketball is alive and well.
In last Monday night's championship game, three of the top five players on the court were white players produced in the States.
Virginia guards Kyle Guy and Ty Jerome and Texas Tech's Matt Mooney were valuable players in leading their teams to the title game.
None of the three will ever make an NBA All-Star Game appearance.
Yet Kyle Guy was named the Final Four's Most Outstanding Player.
Guy joined fellow white Americans Kyle Singler (2010), Luke Hancock (2013), Ryan Arcidiacono (2016) and Donte DiVincenzo (2018) to win the prestigious award over the past decade.
Arcidiacono and DiVincenzo are bench players in the NBA while Singler was forced to play overseas last season in Spain.
Hancock went undrafted and never played a single minute at the NBA level.
And therein lies the biggest difference between pro basketball and college basketball.
White men born in the States can star at the collegiate level but no longer hold a significant place on the NBA hardwood.
It's an unmistakable black-and-white issue for all to see, yet a delicate topic which rarely gets addressed.
White Americans can own the team, manage the team or coach the team, but white American-born players in the NBA are disappearing faster than the mid-range jumper.
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