MALCOLM GLADWELL: Before I go any further, let me just say that Nigerians, I have a special place in my heart for reasons I will explain, for Nigerians. There’s two reasons. I’ll give you the first reason, which is, my, I was thinking of this actually, today actually, hilar—when I was a kid, my dad was a math professor. And he had grad students. And the grad students in our household were the revered golden children, right? They would come to our house for dinner, my father would talk about them as if they were his own children. And his first grad student that I remember, when I was six or seven, was a Nigerian. And then he had Indians, and Africans, basically for his entire career. So as a kid, you know how when you’re a kid your reality is defined by the world you live in, I thought smart people, the geniuses in the world, were all Nigerians and Indians!

BILL SIMMONS [tersely]: Yeah.

GLADWELL: First wrinkle: I had my 23andMe done the other day, and ah, I am 23 percent Igbo, Igbo being the dominant tribe in Nigeria. Why? Because that’s where black people in the West Indies came from Nigeria, or west Africa probably. So I think you can legitimately claim that anyone from Caribbean belongs on the Nigerian team.

SIMMONS: So you’re just claiming, it’s like a territorial draft, like they used to have in basketball in the late 50s.

GLADWELL: Exactly.

SIMMONS: Why don’t you just call it African? Why is it Nigerian?

GLADWELL: Well, because the heart, its heart is Nigerian.

SIMMONS: So it’s the capital.

GLADWELL: I mean this is really, this is about Nigerians owning the fact that they could put together the greatest basketball team of all time. I don’t think you can—try, just try and come up with a team that beats that, under my categories.

SIMMONS: So, part of this theory is you feel like Nigeria in general is underrated.

GLADWELL: Completely underrated.

SIMMONS: As an athletic powerhouse.

Does Gladwell fall into the "He's what a dumb person thinks a smart person sounds like." category Curious Hair or Dave from Champaign (I can't remember which) put Dan Bernstein?

goofy looking Canadian mfer

I loved his work in So I Married An Axe Murderer

I got nothing.

This is just weird.

I figured you would have already bumped this thread.

http://chicagofanatics.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=112790

It was tempting.

Btw, what's up with the last post in that thread?

Seems like it's a Denis mult.

Penis is no Burrito.

I haven't read any of his books, but the way people talk about him makes me think he's another one of those things people don't like as much as they say they do...kind of like:

Bacon
NPR
The Blackhawks (when they were winning)
TED Talks

Does Gladwell fall into the "He's what a dumb person thinks a smart person sounds like." category Curious Hair or Dave from Champaign (I can't remember which) put Dan Bernstein?