The Los Angeles Lakers’ hiring of Darvin Ham further demonstrates how far behind the NFL is when it comes to having African-American head coaches.
Half of the 30 nba teams have black coaches, one of which is phoenix suns coach monty williams, who this season won nba and national basketball association coach of the year honors. basketball coaches.
ime udoka has led the boston celtics to this year’s nba finals in his first season as nba head coach.
“Only the opportunity is important,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said during Wednesday’s media availability. “many times we look at things like this more, what are the words I’m looking for? there are things that systematically happen that keep people out of jobs that can go unnoticed, like opportunities.”
mike brown and ham, the new head coach of the sacramento kings, are the last two hires.
the nba also doesn’t have a “rooney rule” like the nfl. The rule is designed to “increase the number of minorities hired in head coaching, general manager and executive positions” in the NFL.
“those make the biggest differences in the world, not being able to go to school, not being able to go to school, not being able to get a job, not being able to get houses, not being able to do things that you should have the right to do, obviously It’s important,” Jaylen Brown continued. “Of course, this is the NBA, and we’re talking about that. but I think that may be related to a larger scheme of things happening in the United States.”
In stark contrast, only four of the 32 NFL head coaches are black: Lovie Smith (Chicago Bears), Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins), Todd Bowles (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Mike Tomlin (Steel). of pittsburgh).
mcdaniel, whose father is black, considers himself biracial.
of those four, tomlin was the only head coach in the nfl in the 2021 season. tomlin was the youngest coach to win a super bowl at the age of 36 when the steelers defeated the arizona cardinals , 27-23, at Super Bowl XLIII.
Sean McVay became the youngest man to lead the Los Angeles Rams over the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. He was only 20 days shy of turning 36, while Tomlin was 36 years, 10 months, and 18 days old when he won the Super Bowl.
tomlin has compiled a record of 154-85-2 in 14 seasons and has never had a losing record in any of those seasons.
the 2021 racial and gender report card further shows how far ahead of the nfl the nba is when it comes to hiring black coaches.
Going into the 2021-22 season, the nba received an a for “racial hiring grade for nba head coaches,” while the nfl earned a c-plus.
directed by richard e. lapchick, founder and director of the institute for diversity and ethics in sports, the racial and gender report card has monitored race and athletics for decades.
More than 50% of players in the nba (73.2%) and nfl (58%) were black in the 2020-21 nba season and 2021 nfl season, according to the rgrc, but The NFL has far fewer black coaches than the NBA.
This was before the Kings hired Brown and the Lakers gave Ham his first chance as an NBA head coach.
“d-ham, that’s one of my guys,” said celtics veteran big al horford, who was with the atlanta hawks when ham was an assistant there.
ham was an assistant at atlanta for five seasons (2013-18).
“A lot of respect for him,” Horford continued at Wednesday’s media availability. he was one of those guys in atlanta who took me under his wing. in fact, along with kenny atkinson, both guys. but darvin, extremely hardworking. we really chase it. he really challenged me to be better on the defensive end. he really challenged me to be a better player overall. darvin is such a good guy as you will see, a great competitor. an extreme competitor. the lakers are very lucky to have a guy like him. he’s the kind of person you want.”
brown coached lebron james and the cleveland cavaliers to the 2007 finals.
Going with a 347-216 record, Brown then coached the Lakers and returned to Cleveland for one season in 2013-14.
A historical racial stigma has been that black people can play sports, but they aren’t smart enough to lead a team as a head coach.
opportunities, followed by victories, continue to change that ridiculous narrative.
Six of the 16 teams that made the playoffs were led by African Americans: Willie Green (New Orleans Pelicans), Nate McMillan (Atlanta Hawks), Doc Rivers (Philadelphia 76ers), Jason Kidd (Dallas Mavericks), Williams and Udoka .
williams coached the suns until the finals last year.
“I think tyronn lue has done an amazing job of silencing those critics in terms of, you know, he’s a very welcoming type of coach, player coach, but he knows what he’s doing, his x’s and o’s.” Warriors veteran forward Andre Iguodala said during Wednesday’s media availability.
lue coached james and the cavaliers to the 2016 nba title over golden state.
the cavs reached the finals in 2017 and 2018 with lue, but lost to the warriors both times.
Last season, Lue led the Los Angeles Clippers to the conference finals.
“He’s probably one of the most feared coaches in the league in terms of when an opposing team goes up against them, his antenna goes up in terms of the scout,” iguodala continued. “You rarely see that kind of energy towards the opposing coach, we know we are in for a tough game because no matter who plays for his team, he will be able to rise to the occasion and expose your weaknesses.”
The six remaining black coaches in the nba are j.b. Bickerstaff (Cleveland Knights), Dwane Casey (Detroit Pistons), Jamahl Mosley (Orlando Magic), Wes Unseld Jr. (washington wizrards), chauncey billups (portland trail blazers), and stephen silas (houston rockets).
Do you have an opinion on the current state of the Suns? contact sols expert duane rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or call him at 480-787-1240. follow him on twitter at @duanerankin.
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