4/5 of the most hated players are white.
LOL There are only like 10 white starters left in the sweet 16.
Every year people hate on successful white basketball players. I'll never understnd.
Here's why: it's not because they're successful and white, it's because they're successful, overhyped, and preening schmoes. Hansbrough is on that list because the announcers cream over him non-stop and hyped the Psycho-T persona.
Scheyerfaces are worthy of mockery. Me, I wouldn't necessarily put him on the list, but he does play for Duke.
Greg Paulus, his flopping, the fact that he's not that good, and the way announcers creamed over him while anyone watching thought "this guy's not that quick" ... that makes him hated.
Devendorf just acts like a complete ass on the court. The Syracuse fans I know hate his antics. And that off the court stuff, whatever happened, doesn't help.
Who else is on magazine covers and headlining the news? Would you recognize Michigan State's players by sight (black or white)? The Villanova guys get no publicity. Chase Budinger plays out west, so isn't a focus of widespread dislike. Purdue's Chris Kramer and Robbie Hummel are white and integral to their team, but they don't get that kind of hate - because they don't have Hansbrough/ Paulus levels of publicity... and don't smack the floor and yell at the sky every time they make a basket in the second half like someone who hasn't been there before.
I think Griffin could be "hated" but he doesn't have the bragging personality, the media hype, or the "I just said some obnoxiousness" that Thabeet had when he started mocking Harangody (whose primal screams could get him on this list as well).
Terence Williams is worthy of being on the list, but he's not often spoken about the way the previously mentioned players are. Greivis Vasquez, I guess, doesn't have a high enough profile; I'd put him in place of Scheyer or Thabeet. There's no Rashad McCants this year. Lots of non-white players get hated on, man, but none of them have the profile this year.
If you look back through the years, the best white players have been hated on. Morrison, Reddick, Bobby Hurley, etc. Even GMac was hated on until that tournament.
I think you are right that they publicity hurts them. Over-exposure definately fuels the fire. I think what also hurts them is that they look so different and are so easily indentifiable than just about anyoneone else on the court.
It's just funny that so many white people hate on white players. I think I am one of them too LOL. I used to HATE Bobby Hurley for no reason. I didn't even dislike Duke.
Hansbrough doesn't really do anything on the court to warrant being hated. The annnouncers go a little nuts on him, but his freshman year was RIDICULOUS.