Has the NBA become color blind? - NYT

The men coaching N.B.A. teams in recent seasons have looked like no other group of head coaches in the history of major American professional sports. Today, 10 of the league's 30 coaches are black, ranging from young former players like Terry Porter in Milwaukee to veterans of multiple coaching jobs like Bernie Bickerstaff in Charlotte. At a time when the National Football League can count only 10 black head coaches in its history, the National Basketball Association has reached a position rare for any business: when a black coach or executive is hired or fired, almost nobody mentions race. Opportunity in the N.B.A. appears to have become color blind.

NFL v. NBA

In the N.F.L., where a majority of players are also black, 3 of the 10 black men who became head coaches have been hired since 2002, when two outside lawyers and an economist released a report showing that black coaches had a better won-loss record, on average, when fired than white coaches did. The league later instituted a rule requiring teams looking for a head coach to interview at least one minority candidate or face a fine.

But

Over the last decade, black N.B.A. coaches have lasted an average of just 1.6 seasons, compared with 2.4 seasons for white coaches, according to a review of coaching records by The New York Times. That means the typical white coach lasts almost 50 percent longer and has most of an extra season to prove himself.

The competition argument

Some, including Commissioner David Stern, said the numbers surprised them and called them largely a coincidence. Doc Rivers, the coach of the Boston Celtics, who is black, said he thought that owners and general managers now gave white and black coaches equal chances to succeed. The league, some people said, is simply too competitive for race to affect executives.

But

The pattern holds in almost any important category of coaches. Winning black coaches have been replaced sooner than winning white coaches on average, and experienced black coaches have served shorter tenures than experienced white coaches. The same is true among losing coaches, among rookie coaches and among coaches who played in the N.B.A. and those who did not.

Unexplained gap

But researchers - whether they study sports or the job market - said the pattern in the N.B.A. matched that of many businesses. Across the economy, black workers have shorter job tenures on average than white workers. Some of the difference reflects the jobs blacks hold and the experience they bring. But some of the gap has no clear explanation.

Reason for silence

A number of other coaches, current and former, declined to comment. Agents and team spokesmen said that coaches had little to gain by discussing a controversial topic that made some team executives uncomfortable.

Katz speaks

Lawrence F. Katz, an economics professor at Harvard, said that past discrimination could be contributing to the difference in coaching tenures. With more opportunities to coach in the past, white coaches could bring better résumés to a job vacancy and might be able to negotiate longer, richer contracts, making owners less willing to fire them. "You would think that would erode over time," Katz said. "But 'over time' can take a real long time."

The "is it the coach or the team uncertainty"

A losing record combined with faint doubts about a coach's work ethic or leadership ability can lead to a quick pink slip, they said. "You still fight the myths and stereotypes," said Wayne Embry, a senior adviser to the Toronto Raptors, who in 1971, with the Bucks, became the first black general manager in a major sports league. "I hate even talking about all these things, but that's where it is."
....
For black coaches, you have to be a Jesus miracle worker," said Butch Beard, who was fired after two disappointing years with the Nets in the mid-1990's and is now the head coach at Morgan State. "With a bad team, ownership wants you to do more than what the team is capable of doing. If you don't pull it off right away, they think it is the coach's fault."

Unexplained: Why is this uncertainty larger for blacks? Because of white owner prejudice?