When Tyler Hansbrough began to get raves from Carolina fans that I know, I wondered if all of the love didn't have something to do with the fact that he was white. I am now ashamed of those thoughts.

I often get frustrated with people that I know whose favorite player on every team is the best white guy. I also get frustrated with people who automatically laud white players for their hard work while simultaneously ignoring the hard work of black players and the talent of the white players. But at this point, these scenarios are just not the root of what's happening with Hansbrough. He DOES work so hard. He DOES get more out of his natural gifts than he should be able to. He IS the first player since Michael Jordan (black, by the way, in case you are an alien who doesn't know) that Roy Williams has coached that he says never takes a play off. His work ethic IS remarkable. (I only know anecdotes about off of the court, but I can watch him go after rebounds with my own eyes.)

Sports announcers are always overstating things, and even more often, they repeat things a nauseating number of times. That's how they operate, so of course they are going to slurp Hansbrough all of the time. But just because they say it 1 million times doesn't make it false. I love it that people are deciding that National College Player of the Year should go to the National College Player of the Year, rather than the best NBA prospect (also true when Reddick/Morrison received the awards, but people weren't acknowledging out loud that Reddick, and to a lesser degree AM, were not going to blow up the NBA as they are now with TH).

It is so much fun to watch Hansbrough because of the way his desire plays out, and that would be true whether he was white or black.