Questions Surround ESPN's NBA Latino Power Rankings

ESPN has assigned its Spanish-speaking correspondent Alfred R. Berrios to keep up a weekly ranking of the NBA's Latinos for its ESPN Deportes property. Celebrating the game's Central and Southern American tentacles is a positive thing, and the NBA has long sought to integrate the multitudes of Spanish-speaking sports fans in the United States and abroad into its fold.

But ESPN's list is just weird in terms of inclusion and exclusion.

The rankings include Spaniards like Marc Gasol and Jose Calderon -- players with no connection to Latin America, whose only basis for inclusion would be that they speak Spanish. Certainly you wouldn't place Picasso on top of a list of top Latino painters, right?

At the same time, the list excludes players legitimately born and bred in Latin America, like Guadeloupe's Mickael Pietrus and Rodrigue Beaubois. The only apparent justification for the exclusion is that their homeland speaks a language other than Spanish. (Guadeloupe is a French territory in the Caribbean. I would argue that in terms of global identity, Pietrus has as much in common with Carlos Arroyo than Boris Diaw.) Heck, Haitian-born Samuel Dalembert was born on the same island as the included Al Horford and Francisco Garcia, but didn't make the cut as he came up on the French side.

If it's a Spanish language issue -- which it appears to be, considering the inclusion of the Gasols and Calderon -- why are Brazilians included? Obviously, a "top Latino" list without Leandro Barbosa and Nene would draw guffaws, but the weird, unexplained definition used by ESPN forces these sorts of questions. If Portugal ever produces an NBA player, will he make the cut?

As such, for a more robust Latin American list, make sure to add Pietrus, Beaubois, Dalembert, Jamaican-born Ronny Turiaf and Adonal Foyle (born in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) to ESPN's power rankings.

The most bothersome mystery in all this, though, is the exclusion of American-born Latinos like Carmelo Anthony and Trevor Ariza. Queens-born Charlie Villanueva leads the power rankings this week, with his inclusion based on being a first-generation American born to Dominican parents. (And also, assumedly, based on the fact that Villanueva played for the D.R. last summer in FIBA action.)

Anthony, also born in NYC, has a Puerto Rican father. The Miami-born Ariza considered playing for the Dominican team last summer on the basis that his mother is Dominican and Venezuelan. (Ariza's grandfather, in fact, lives in the D.R.) If Villanueva makes a list of Latinos in the NBA, there's no excuse to exclude 'Melo and Ariza. Further, where do you draw a line? Gilbert Arenas has a Cuban last name and Cuban lineage, and even put out sneakers with a nod to his Cubano roots. Isn't he Latino too?

I know that ESPN means well in expanding its coverage of the NBA, tailored to a population subset that has too long been ignored in sports fandom. But it missed the mark here, and really should better define its criteria before purporting to offer up comprehensive ethnicity-based player rankings.