NBA lauded for Diversity of players, coaches
When compared to the other three major American sports leagues (MLB, NFL, and the NHL), the NBA has no peers when it comes to diversity in regards to race and gender.
A new study done by the University of Central Florida’s Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport shows that 43 percent of professional positions in the NBA’s league offices are held by women, giving the basketball league its highest grade for gender amongst all men’s pro leagues.
“On the issue of hiring women, the NBA has far surpassed the other major professional men’s leagues,” said Richard Lapchick, the director of the university’s study.
When it came to race, the NBA was in their own league, so to speak.
This season, nearly 82% of NBA players were black, increasing on last year’s 80 percent. The 2008-09 season percentage saw is the highest percentage since the 1994-95 season. Additionally, the league featured 77 international players from 32 different countries according to NBA.com.
There were twelve minority head coaches at the beginning of the 2008-09 season (one Asian and 11 black head coaches).
The twelve made up 40 percent of all NBA head coaches, which is the highest percentage of minority head coaches in pro sports.
According to the study, the 59 black coaches in NBA history are more than twice as many than any other men’s pro sport,
Major League Baseball comes in second with 28 black managers in its history.
“The NBA has really made diversity a concerted effort and probably something more professional leagues need to do,” said Dave Czesniuk, the director of Northeastern University’s Sport in Society program
Links and Resources: NBA gets high marks for diversity in new study (Yahoo via AP), NBA Players from around the world (NBA.com), Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDE Sport)
No one needs to do anything. There are so many black player and coaches in the NBA because of talent and merit. No one needs to hire blacks just because they are black. Merit is the strongest factor period.
July 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
[...] Source: http://www.interbasket.net/news/2009/06/10/nba-lauded-for-diversity-of-players-coaches/ [...]
January 21st, 2010 at 3:14 pm
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January 26th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Wait so a sport where 82% of people are of the same race is lauded as the more diverse of them all? If 82% of players are black, doesn’t that also explain the interest that might drive other blacks (male and female)into working for these organizations? It seems the authors, and many others believe the only diverse sport is one thats made up of mostly blacks.
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
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September 25th, 2011 at 5:28 pm