National Basketball Association (NBA)
The 2006 Racial/Gender Report Card
By Richard
Lapchick
The Racial
and Gender Report Card for the National Basketball Association for the 2005-06
season showed that the NBA remains an industry leader on issues related to race
and gender hiring practices. The Report
Card asks, ‘Are we playing fair when it comes to sports? Does everyone, regardless of race or gender,
have a chance to make a basket or run the business of basketball?’
The NBA has had the top grade among the
men’s leagues for race for all 12 previous reports over nearly two
decades. Based on the total points used
in the weighted scales, the NBA earned its highest grade ever for race and its
highest combined grade for race and gender ever with an A for race and a B- for
gender for a combined B+. The NBA
showed dramatic improvement in almost all areas for race in both the league
office and at the team levels.
Using data from the 2005-06 season, the
Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport conducted an analysis of racial
breakdowns of the players and coaches.
In addition, the Report includes a racial and gender breakdown of
management in the NBA League Office and, at the team level, top management,
senior administration, professional administration, physicians and head
trainers, and broadcasters.
It is imperative that sports teams play
the best athletes they have available to win games. The Institute strives to emphasize the value of diversity to
sports organizations when they choose their team on the court and in the
office. Diversity initiatives such as
diversity management training can help change attitudes and increase the
applicant pool for open positions. It
is clearly the choice of the organization regarding which applicant is the best
fit for their ball club, but the Institute wants to illustrate how important it
is to have a diverse organization involving individuals who happen to be of a
different race or gender. This element
of diversity can provide a different perspective, and possibly a competitive
advantage for a win in the board room as well as on the court.
The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in
Sport publishes the Racial and Gender Report Card to indicate areas of
improvement, stagnation and regression in the racial and gender composition of
professional and college sports personnel and to contribute to the improvement
of integration in front office and college athletics department positions.
REPORT
HIGHLIGHTS
• Based on the total points used in the
weighted scales, the NBA earned its highest grade ever for race and its highest
combined grade for race and gender ever with an A for race and a B- for gender
for a combined B+.
• For the 2005-06 season, the NBA earned an
A+ for race in the categories of players, league office professionals, head and
assistant coaches. It earned an A for
race for team senior and professional administrators, an A- for general
managers, and a B for team vice-presidents.
For gender, the NBA earned an A in the league office and for
professional administrators.
• The NBA set historic high marks for race in
the following categories: League Office, team senior and professional
administrators, president/CEOs, physicians, trainers and radio/TV
broadcasters. It equaled the high for
team vice-presidents of color.
• In the NBA, almost 78 percent of the
players were people of color. The
percentage of African-American players decreased to 73 percent since the last
Report Card and was the lowest percentage of African-Americans since the
1990-91 season when it was 72 percent.
The percentage of Latino and international players continue to increase.
• Professional opportunities for people of
color in the NBA League Offices – at 33 percent – increased by four percentage
points from the previous Report Card.
This was the highest percentage in the NBA’s history and was higher than
any other men’s professional league in any previous Report Card.
• Women held 41 percent of the professional
positions in the NBA League Office.
This declined by two percentage points from the previous Report Card but
still was higher than any other men’s professional league in any previous
Report Card.
• Robert Johnson, who owns the NBA Charlotte
Bobcats, remains men’s pro sports only African-American team majority
owner.
• In the NBA, there were 11 African-American
head coaches during the 2005-06 season.
While this number decreased by one since the 2004-05 season, the NBA
continues to have the highest percentages in all pro sports history at 37
percent of the total.
• There were four African-American
CEO/presidents in the NBA and two additional African-American presidents of
basketball operations during the 2005-06 seasons, an all-time high. They are the only African-American
CEO/presidents in the history of men’s professional sports. Susan O’Malley remains the only female
president in the NBA.
• In the season under review, the NBA had
seven African-American general managers, raising their percentage of African-Americans
to 23 percent, the highest since the 1997-98 season. This was also higher than any other men’s professional league in
any previous Report Card.
• The NBA had 12 percent of its team vice
president positions occupied by people of color, equaling the previous high in
1997-98, 1994-95 and 1993-94.
• In the 2003-04 season, the NBA posted the
highest percentage among the men’s leagues of female team vice presidents at 17
percent. They improved the percentage
of women to 18 percent of total team vice president positions during the
2005-06 season.
• The percentage of people of color holding
NBA team senior administrative positions increased from 15 to 20 percent since
the last Report Card. This was an all-time record for the NBA. However, the
percentage of women holding these positions decreased from 26 percent to 23
percent during the same period.
• The NBA increased both its percentages of people of color and women in team professional administrative positions since the last Report Card with 26 percent and 42 percent of the total, respectively. This was an all-time record for the NBA for race. Reprint permission from www.bstmllc.com.