Though most of the players in the NBA today are Black, there are a decent amount of white players throughout the league.
Miami Heat big man Kevin Love is white, and he apparently offered some interesting comments to Dean Wade, his former teammate on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Wade revealed the comments while speaking to former NBA player Evan Turner and Golden State Warriors forward Andre Iguodala.
“If you’re going to be successful in the NBA as a white guy, you kinda gotta be an a–hole,” Wade said regarding what Love told him.
As of 2022, only 17.4 percent of the league was white. The amount of white players in the league has fluctuated over the past several seasons as players cycle in and out of the NBA.
Some of the more well-known white players currently in the league include Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks and Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.
Love is one of the more successful white NBA players in recent years. He’s a five-time All-Star and one-time NBA champion. He started out the 2022-23 season on the Cavaliers alongside Wade, but the 34-year-old eventually secured a buyout and joined the Heat.
He competed in 21 games during the regular season with the Heat, getting 20.0 minutes of playing time per game and recording 7.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest.
The University of California, Los Angeles product has had plenty of ups and downs during his short time with the Heat. He played very well in the team’s playoff opener against the Milwaukee Bucks, recording 18 points and eight rebounds on 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc, but he was pretty ineffective in Game 2 of the first-round series.
As for Wade, his Cavaliers are in the midst of their own playoff series against the New York Knicks. That series is tied one apiece, with Wade seeing some action in Game 1 and no minutes in Game 2.
Wade and Love might get a chance to face off against one another in the playoffs, but in order for that to happen, the Cavs and Heat have to get past their respective opponents in this round.
A Cavaliers-Heat series would undoubtedly have some testy and exciting battles.