The NY Times wields a broad brush and paints the NBA coaches black and white.
Published March 23, 2005
As is typical with the left leaning NY Times, a recent article, Black Coaches in NBA Have Shorter Tenures, published March 22, 2005, attempts to go into great detail of accusing the NBA owners of racism (you may need to register for free to view this article). Throughout the article they repeatedly drag along statistics of coaching longevity with one team and how the black head coach gets the short straw always. This statistic is not even as close to being as important as how successful they or any coach is with regard to wins and losses and the playoffs. The Times does however agree as any knowledgeable sports fan can attest, that the situation in the NBA and their hiring practices have improved greatly for the black head coach. Well thanks for the pat on the back!
It is clear that they are trying to push their agenda by pumping up the racism propaganda balloon full throttle. Do not be fooled! It pains me to even have to EXPRESS, CATEGORIZE or LABEL myself in this antiquated way, but I am not racist. Even more importantly, I love sports and understand the nature of the coaching and player beast after watching and reading sports since as long as I could run. I have listed below some of the NY Times quotes or myths and I combat them with the reality of today's NBA, though this could speak volumes for all sports today. My only agenda is to show the untruths dished out by the NY Times and others like them.
WINS AND LOSSES
The NY Times quotes:
"But the coaches who have received those opportunities have not had much time to enjoy them. In a pattern that has gone largely unnoticed, except among black coaches themselves, white coaches have been holding on to their jobs for significantly longer than black coaches".
NBA Reality:
Through late last week, there were ten black coaches in the NBA which constitutes a very significant 33% of the league's coaches. Those coaches combined have a career record of 1394 wins and 1494 losses which means that they have won just under half of their games (49%). The average coaching career of a black head coach currently coaching in the NBA (not necessarily with the same team) is 4.67 years.
Comparatively, there are twenty white head coaches in the NBA which constitutes a declining 66% of the league's coaches. Those coaches have a career coaching record of 5980 wins and 4421 losses which calculates them as having won 58% of their games. The average coaching career of a white head coach currently coaching in the NBA (not necessarily with the same team) is 7.15 years.
Color does not equate to longevity with a team or within a coaching career, only winning does. As you can see, the winning percentage is dramatically higher and translates to one thing - the playoffs. This is a goal set by all NBA owners, coaches and players. I am not trying to disparage the black head coach, more so, from the current crop of NBA head coaches these are the statistics the owners "live" by. These numbers determine who stays and who goes but let me break it down some more.
- The NY Times wields a broad brush and paints the NBA coaches black and white.
- Published: March 23, 2005
- Type:
- Section: Culture
- Writer: Richard Porter
- Richard Porter's BC Writer page
- Richard Porter's personal site
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>> The average coaching career of a black head coach currently coaching in the NBA (not necessarily with the same team) is 4.67 years.
.. rather meaningless as the discussion is aobut holding onto one single coaching job, not coaching in the NBA.
Avery Johnson became Head Coach four days ago, though he has filled in a few games.
The only thing I know about Basketball is that, like all the popular US sports, it is derived from an older English sport, in this case, Netball!
But before you flame me for that, flame me for this: The NY Times can only be seen as a left-leaning newspaper if you are a committed rightist. To the, apparently increasingly rare, non-aligned mind, it is right there in the centre of things, pretty mainstream really.
i think the article was pretty good and didnt even talk about the extend of the racism problem in sports ( focused on Coaching)....
white head coaches don't even have to have played in the NBA but black coaches all have been professional player. (i am not saying that the van gundy's or the coach of the nets are bad coaches) but it seems white coaches can get jobs with inferior qualifications... but black coaches cant.
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I haven't read the entuire piece, so I won't comment on the entirety. But at least looking at the longevity stats, it would be interesting to note how long the "white coaches" failed before they righted the ship at their respective teams.
At first glance, it also looks like the NTY was presenting a lot of facts, not an agenda. Note how you take supporting comments from both sides - from the article.
Are you saying they are taking an agenda for simply running the article?