Race and gender study
Every year, the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport takes attendance in the front office, sidelines and locker room to see whether biases or glass ceilings might be affecting hiring practices. Usually, the NBA ranks higher than any other professional sports league. I thought it would be good to pass along the release because it’s fairly interesting reading, so here it is …
For immediate release:
2008 Racial and Gender Report Card for the National Basketball Association.
Richard Lapchick, author of the study, said, “The NBA has had the top grade among the men’s leagues for race for all 15 previous reports over nearly two decades. Based on the total points used in the weighted scales, the NBA earned its highest grade ever for gender at 84.5, tied its highest grade ever for race with 96.2 and had the first ever A (90.3) for a combined grade for race and gender in men’s pro sports. In the 2006-07 Racial and Gender Report Card, the NBA had an A+ for race and a B for gender, which combined to give the league an overall grade of B+.”
Below are some of the highlights reported by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport:
· The NBA achieved the highest percentages for people of color in the history of men’s professional sport in the category of team CEOs/presidents at 23 percent. Team vice-presidents at 15 percent and league office professionals at just over 34 percent tied last year’s percentages.
· In the NBA, almost 80 percent of the players were people of color. The percentage of African-American players increased to 76 percent from last year’s 75 percent mark. The percentage of Latinos and Asians remained constant at three percent and less than one percent respectively. International players were down one percentage point to 18 percent.
· Professional opportunities for people of color in the NBA League Offices – at 34 percent – stayed the same as the previous Report Card. This tied the highest percentage in the NBA’s history and the highest in the history of any professional sport from last season.
· Women held 41 percent of the professional positions in the NBA League Office. This increased by two percentage points from the previous Report Card and was higher than any other men’s professional league in any previous Report Card though still below the NBA’s high of 49 percent female professionals in the league office in 1995-96.
· Robert Johnson, who owns the NBA Charlotte Bobcats, remains men’s pro sports only African-American team majority owner.
· There were 12 African-American head coaches at the beginning of the 2007-08 NBA season, the same as in the 2006-07 season. The NBA continues to have the highest percentage in all pro sports at 40 percent of the total. This season matched the second-highest in NBA history, equaling the 40 percent of the 2004-05 and 2006-07 seasons. No other sport has exceeded that figure.
· The 54 African-American head coaches in the history of the NBA are more than twice as many head coaches of color than any other men’s pro sport. Major League Baseball is second with 26 managers of color.
· At 42 percent the NBA set its highest percentage of assistant coaches of color ever.
· As of the end of the 2007-08 regular season, there were seven African-American CEOs/presidents in the NBA, surpassing the previous high of four in 2006-07 and 2005-06. Susan O’Malley, the only female president in the history of the NBA, left the Washington Wizards organization before the beginning of the 2007-08 season.
· In the season under review, the NBA had seven African-American general managers in the 2007-08 season, one less than in the previous season.
· The NBA had 15 percent of its team vice president positions occupied by people of color, the same as last year when it was the highest in the Report Card’s history as well as the highest in the history of any professional sport.
· The percentage of people of color holding NBA team senior administrative positions increased to over 22 percent, up two percent from last year, setting the all-time record for the NBA. The percentage of women holding these positions increased from 25 percent to 27 percent during the same period.
· The NBA increased in its percentage of people of color holding team professional administrative positions since the last Report Card with over 28 percent, up two percent from the previous season and setting the all-time record for the NBA for race. The percentage of women holding these posts decreased to 40 percent from last year’s 41 percent.
· As of the end of the 2007-08 season, 58 percent of the NBA’s referees were white, 37 percent were African-American, and five percent were Latino. Of the 59 referees, one was a woman.
Let me know if you are surprised by any of the findings or if you believe the NBA could be doing more on this front.
May 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
The NBA is clearly better than the other leagues on these issues. MLB and the NFL are embarrassments on race and gender equity, and frankly college sports are worse.
My one issue with the NBA however is the retread issue. Brothers don’t get a second shot. The list of black former head coaches that never get another shot is long and illustrious. The names of black front office personnel to whom this happens is not as well-known but is significant.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
The issue in MLB is complicated because not enough young African Americans aren’t playing the sport.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:10 am
Baseball is different. Blacks and other US grown minorities do not play it nearly as much as the other sports. A lot of these minorities, coming from low income backgrounds, also suffer academically due to low attention spans and belong to the “quick reward” syndrome that makes basketball and football so appealing (constant shots, downs, more use of athleticism, etc.) Baseball on the other hand is slower and takes a lot more patience to sit around for and wait for the action to come to you. These kids don’t want to wait that long..they want their “reward” – made or missed shot NOW, just like their video games. For these reasons and others, baseball can’t really be fairly judged by this study on whether it is doing enough to be diverse. If you can’t get the US raised minority players to play, how are you going to get them to eventually become managers/executives?
June 1st, 2008 at 4:10 pm
I think the NBA is doing a good job. I’m not sure if 80% of players being black is necessarily a good thing. That, to me, is not so much equality as “basketball is the black sport.” Still, the players are there on merit, so I don’t have a complaint about it. I just wouldn’t cheer it, either.
I don’t quite get the gender examination on the court. In the front office and corporate aspects, it is good to have a gender mix, but if women have their own league, then why do I need to be excited about a woman coach or ref? It’d be great if the NBA and WNBA had an equal mix of referees based on gender and ethnic origin, but I doubt it matters all that much. I’d be more concerned about the big difference between the percentage of black players versus the percentage of black coaches. Still, it’s probably not a big deal. I think the NBA is still a sport of merit over entitlement, at least as far as race goes. I’m sure we’ll see more black head coaches as time goes on.