Billingsley_Episode1.mp3

The podcast discusses the increase in hiring minority coaches and GMs in the NBA. The NBA is leading in minority hiring compared to other men's sports leagues. It is important for cultural understanding and diversity in locker rooms. The NBA received a B+ grade for diversity and ethics in hiring practices. There has been a rise in GMs of color from 7 to 12 in 2020-2021. Teams like Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, and the Suns have hired minority front office GMs. Success has been seen with African-American head coaches in the Boston Celtics. The NBA is creating a more inclusive league by providing equal opportunities for minorities. This is episode one of the podcast miniseries. I am Jaden Billingsley, and I'm joined here with Chase Albanese. We will be discussing NBA hiring minority coaches and GMs. Over the recent years, just the spike we've seen between coaches, GMs, and assistant coaches, and what specific teams have shown this over the years. To start it off, I wanted to talk about how they are actually leading all men's sports leagues in minority hiring, GMs, and assistant coaches. I didn't find this too intriguing, as the NBA is already a pretty diverse league with foreign players, players of color, and white players. It's relatively diverse, so I guess I would expect to see that over in coaching and front office roles. Chase, what are your thoughts on the hirings of minority coaches? Well, I think it's vastly and majorly important for the leagues as a whole, not only the NBA, but across professional sports, because without different cultural norms being solved and understanding what other cultures do and how other people interact, it will be hard for locker rooms to adjust to the new minorities being hired. I say this because the whole cultural norm is, it used to be that the NBA had nothing but white male coaches due to socio-stereotypes and such, and now, to bring awareness and show that it doesn't just need to be the white male, it can be an African-American, it can be an Asian, it can be a Hispanic, because the Hornets had, I forget his name, but it has a Hispanic head coach. If you have the qualified backgrounds to meet the needs of being a head coach, it shouldn't matter what your skin color is. You should have the opportunity. Yeah, going back to what you were talking about with the minority coaches, that's how it used to be the norm of the white male head coach. You've seen that recently in the GM roles with, honestly, leagues all around, but there's been some work towards diversity and inclusion in that role, the front office role. I found from this article, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics, they're located in Florida. They graded the NBA a B plus overall for their diversity and ethics. Hiring practices, they received an A for racial hiring and a B for gender hiring. I thought that was pretty interesting. They are one of the top leagues, top men's leagues for hiring racially, diverse, and for coaches, GMs, and assistant coaches. And then from 2020 to 2021, there was a rise from seven to 12 GMs of color. I thought that was pretty interesting. I know there are a few teams, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Houston, and Minnesota. They are some of these teams that have hired minority front office GMs, I guess you could say, as well as the Suns. I know the Suns had the run to the finals with Monte Williams and James Jones, two minority coaches, one player. That was a pretty good series and a pretty crazy story to see him come in, new coach, minority coach. He had a pretty solid team around him. To tag along, it's not like there's a lot of success to, I mean, in two straight years, the Boston Celtics also, they have had two African-American head coaches. And both years, last year they made it to the finals and lost, and that under Udoka's first year. And then in year two right now, Joe Mizzoula has taken over, and they have the best record in the NBA, and they're playing better than what they ever have. So it is being proven that it doesn't matter who you are, what your background is, where you come from, that you can have success with the ability that you have to coach. Yeah. I think the NBA has done a great job, as they are a diverse league. You've seen the increase in minority coaches, assistant coaches, even medical staff and front office, women and people that are minorities. I think it's a great thing to see for leagues, just to create a more inclusive league, just to show that these minority people have the opportunity, you know, an equal opportunity to obtain these positions. I think it's pretty unique, and it's a great movement for the NBA.