This map shows which states produce the most NBA players

[bing101]

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/11/12/7202561/nba-birthplace-map-washington-dc-mississippi

What do you think of This?

[Brandon]

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/11/12/7202561/nba-birthplace-map-washington-dc-mississippi

What do you think of This?

Wow, I can see urban areas!  What a shocker!

Now for the NFL, MLS, MLB, and NHL maps.

[NE2]

Awesome people.

[Alps]

http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/11/12/7202561/nba-birthplace-map-washington-dc-mississippi

What do you think of This?

Wow, I can see urban areas!  What a shocker!

Now for the NFL, MLS, MLB, and NHL maps.

Well, the second map is more interesting, as it corrects for population, because otherwise the first map is generic population.

[Henry]

The strongest producers aren't much of a surprise: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, with nods to Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Detroit, New Orleans, the Bay Area and Seattle. These are the major population centers of the nation, so it's expected to see most players come from those areas.

And yet there's no team in Seattle, for now anyway. Let's hope the wait isn't as long as L.A.'s for the NFL or Washington, DC's for MLB.

Washington is overwhelmingly black. The NBA is overwhelmingly black.

Well, duh!

Vermont is the only U.S. state to never produce an NBA player.

Alaska can only claim one NBA player who was born there, Mario Chalmers. Carlos Boozer was born in Germany and Trajan Langdon was born in California. Such is the limit of using birthplace data. High school data might be more representative if so many players didn't attend prep academies in Virginia, Connecticut and Florida.

In raw numbers, California (the most populous state) leads the way with 352. New York follows with 310.

No, I'm not sure how Montana has produced nine NBA players either. It has the smallest black population in the nation (4,000 black residents for 0.67 percent of the population as of the 2010 census) and no major basketball culture as far as anyone outside Montana can tell. (For the record, all nine of the NBA players born in Montana are white. Phil Jackson is the only one in the Hall of Fame.)

Can't say I'm surprised on any of the above, either. Although I had been sure that states like ID, ME, NE, NH, ND, SD and WY (in addition to VT) had never produced any NBA players, given its current racial structure.

[triplemultiplex]

Okay, not only does that first map not showing anything useful other than population, it is a bad map period.  Why overlay that information onto a relief map?  That makes it difficult to see the information one is attempting to communicate.  And it's extraneous data not relevant to the subject.

Then the per capita by state breakdown; states are too large to see any useful pattern.  This information needs to be presented per capita by county to actually find anything interesting.  Or better yet, by zip code.

[hotdogPi]

Then the per capita by state breakdown; states are too large to see any useful pattern.  This information needs to be presented per capita by county to actually find anything interesting.  Or better yet, by zip code.

By zip code? There would be a few zip codes with 1 player, and all the rest would have 0.