When it comes to the NBA one should start asking questions about how progressive they really are. With all of their movement now in the bubble to support and promote equality, it is shocking that when it comes to the head coaching dynamic within the NBA black coaches are still speaking up about the inequality in their ability to land coaching jobs and/or situations that are conducive to them winning.
A lot of noise was raised when Steve Nash was hired to become the next Brooklyn Nets head coach after Jacque Vaughn took over the team. After Kenny Atkinson was fired, he managed to coach the nets in the restart bubble to respectability while maintaining their competitiveness without having any one of his best players outside of LeVert. Many assumed that Vaughn would get the job because he had done such a great job in the midst of all the things he had to deal with and he ended up not getting the job. But the major problem was that the job was given to an individual in Nash who has no coaching experience at all.
This immediately raised eyebrows and caused questioning over whether or not Nash was given the job due to white privilege. This has been a re-occuring conversation ever since Mark Jackson was fired in Golden State for Steve Kerr and immediately the Warriors went on to become a dynasty. Many feel to this day Kerr is reaping the benefits of the foundation Jackson created. However, the difference between Kerr and Nash is at least Kerr served as an executive in Phoenix before he became a head coach.
The other side of the conversation is that black coaches who do find themselves obtaining positions they always end up getting the jobs no one else wants, or with organizations that are not winning anytime soon. Black coaches get hired to establish a "winning" culture and once the team is ready to start winning they get ousted for a white coach. All of a sudden, organizations find it a necessity to go "in a different direction". This brings about a cause to pause.
Why is it that black coaches seem to always get stuck with trying to build up or coach bad teams? Why is it that organizations are less aggressive to go and grab players to create a great team when they have a black coach? Only when you have the luxury to run the team like Doc Rivers did initially with the Clippers can you find a black coach amassing enough talent to be competitive. This is the inequality that exists for black coaching in the NBA.
Either black coaches have short leashes or they are only hired to fill a quota. Currently, when you look around the league today there are only 4 black head coaches in a league with 30 teams. That is 13% of the head coaching jobs being held by African-Americans. This is staggering for a league that promotes itself on being equal and fair. It appears that the NBA will become more interested in creating diversity in head coaching through women than it will with male black coaches. The quality of black coaching has got exponentially better but the opportunities have become slimmer and slimmer.
Ultimately, there are a few openings this year with teams that are ready to win or compete if there are no major adjustments. The Sixers, the Rockets, the Pelicans, the Thunder, the Pacers, and the Bulls are all searching for coaches, so ask yourself, what are the chances any of those teams hire a black head coach?
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