First Take took a break from normal sports talk banter on Thursday, addressing an article from Marc Spears of the Undefeated.
Spears detailed that while just under 75 percent of the NBA players are African-American, there are still very few African-Americans in NBA front offices.
Stephen A. Smith was similarly appalled by the lack of diversity, and was not afraid to air his grievances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N20JSxGBXdk
Say what you will about Smith, but he’s largely on point here. A league that’s nearly three-quarters African-American should be significantly better represented by African-Americans in places of power.
A total of three of the 30 general managers in the NBA are black, two African-Americans and one Native-African. Only one president around the Association is black.
The problem that comes from a of lack of African-American owners is a little deeper than just “The brothers aren’t usually getting hired,” as Smith said. NBA owners generally have vast personal wealth.
As Chris Smith of Forbes Magazine detailed in January of 2015, many of the NBA’s owners have a net worth of over $1 billion.
In March of this year, Forbes Magazine’s Mfonobong Nsehe said that “Out of the 1,810 billionaires in the world, 12 of them are black.” That obviously limits the ownership options.
There aren’t many billionaires in the world and we barely need more than the fingers on our hands to count those who are black, many of whom aren’t Americans.
Certainly financial inequality among the races is a problem, but it’s more of a societal issue than it is an NBA issue.
With that said, one thing absolutely must be mentioned. When Magic Johnson, by any standards one of the five-best players in NBA history, gets into sports ownership in MLB and not the NBA, it’s possibly indicative of a bigger problem.
But even if Johnson’s issues had nothing to do with the lack of diversity, Smith’s points are spot on with that one small exception. Owners are obviously a huge part of NBA front offices, but most teams have several people filling different executive positions. The fact that so few of those positions are being offered to African-Americans is really troubling.
It’s a problem that needs to be rectified soon, and really, the NBA needs to spearhead the cause. If a league whose work force is overwhelmingly African-American is not hiring African-Americans to positions of power, it’s hard to see other companies taking charge.