how urban is the n.b.a.?

after reviewing an espn report on the hometowns of u.s.-born professional basketball players, demographer william frey concluded that the "NBA is much more of a suburban population than most would have thought." the average player hails from a city that is 59% white, which is significantly lower than the nation as a whole. on most other dimensions, however, the hometowns of NBA players are quite comparable to anywhere, u.s.a.: their average population is 112,017, 79% of their adult residents have a high school degree, and their average income is $38,127. professor frey concludes, "there's a broad spectrum of areas the players come from, and a significant number come from white, middle class suburbs."

given the neighborhood-by-neighborhood heterogeneity within any town or city, i'd be careful about drawing inferences before asking some basic level-of-analysis questions. that said, i'm guessing that a tract-level analysis would likely tell a similar story. the article notes that players hail from places such as carroll, IA, sugar land, TX, and forest park, OK.