On European-ness
I remember sometime during the last NBA season being startled to hear a TV announcer refer to Manu Ginobili as a "prototypical European" basketball player. Why did this come as a surprise? Ginobili is Argentinian.
So you can imagine my double disbelief when the announcer in tonight's Milwaukee Bucks-Cleveland Cavaliers matchup describe Yi Jianlian as a "prototypical European" basketball player. Yi is from China!
Two scenarios present themselves: one, these announcers really have no idea that Argentina and China are not part of Europe; or two, for the rapidly globalizing sport of basketball and the (Trans)National Basketball Association with its production of American spectacle, "European" has come to be a synonym for "non-American".
Both are problematic, the latter perhaps more so.
Global Village Basketball is an 
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January 3rd, 2008
smithers,
I hate to say it publicly on here, but I heard you once referred to as a prototypical European baller. I think it was either Brayton or Duquette who tagged you as such, but it was said nonetheless. ;)
Seriously though, that's just fucked up. Either reason for confusing/conflating nationality is problematic. Guess it shows that there's still much work to be done to loosen the hegemonic American grip on both basketball and worldviews.