The NBA is, in many ways, the league of America’s youth. Basketball and its athletes have the strongest internet presence of any major professional sport, the most household names, and the strongest branding power. Crucially, it also reflects the diversity of the United States better than any other league, according to a report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport released on Thursday.
The NBA received an “A+” from the institute on racial diversity and a “B” in gender diversity, both of which best the NFL, MLB, NHL and MLS. The NBA boasts the first two female assistant coaches in any professional male sport in America with Becky Hammon (above, on the Spurs) and Nancy Lieberman (on the Kings), and six female team vice presidents. The one distressing part of the report is that the league had a B+ grade last year in gender diversity, representing a slippage on that front — never the direction you want diversity to trend.
That just serves to further the point that diversity is not some mountaintop to reach and yell, “We did it! We’re diverse!” Rather, it’s a state of being that requires work and maintenance so long as the majority of power and influence resides with white men, whose collective history has been to favor exclusively their own kind. The NBA is leading the way in this regard, but this is no time to rest on its laurels.
(Via Associated Press)
