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Forgive a slight detour from Warriors draft rants. I was listening to the hilarious Disciples of Clyde Podcast when their discussion of Patrick Ewing’s coaching prospects chafed my chortles. The DoC guys expressed dismay over Ewing’s meager chances and asked whether GMs are reluctant to hire black non-guards. I’d like to parse the data on black guard coaches, but the sample size is ridiculously tiny. Odd.
Below exists an extensive list of the “white” NBA coaches who paced the sidelines last season. It’s lengthy—there are 23 by my count—and that’s reason to hit the pause button. Such a disproportionately Caucasian group wouldn’t be incongruous at an Indiana Republican’s mixer, but this is the NBA we’re talking about. In the League, 18 out of little more than 30 coaching slots were taken by white American ex-basketball players—the rarest of dodos. The NBA’s sanctuary for this endangered species seems to be the coach’s chair.
Since discussions of racial fairness come with caveats and qualifiers, let me just say: Yes, I’m a self-hating white guy. No, I’m not screaming “racism!” because I lack full knowledge of the NBA and its inner workings.
But let’s be real: Something fishy is likely influencing hiring decisions. How else could Kurt Rambis—he of the idiotically cataclysmic 2009-2010 “Let’s bench Kevin Love and run the Triangle!” Wolves campaign—keep a job? My assumption: Combine a “gritty” white, American player with dorky glasses and you have a hiring strategy. Ewing has to earn in his way into our conception of what a coach is while Rambis embodies that merely by existing. And don’t get me started on Vinny Del Negro. Oh, and welcome back to the club, Doug Collins.
Kim Hughes
Kiki Vandeweghe
Mike D’Antoni
Don Nelson
Paul Westphal
Vinny Del Negro
John Kuester
Scott Skiles
Larry Brown
Mike Dunleavy
Phil Jackson
Rick Carlisle
Rick Adelman
George Karl
Kurt Rambis
Scottie Brooks
Jerry Sloan
Jay Triano DNP
Jeff Bower DNP
Greg Popovich DNP
Stan Van Gundy DNP
Jim O’Brien DNP
I listed the five non-athlete coaches at the end with DNPs. Now, I don’t believe playing experience matters in coaching. But the player-centric list demonstrates that coaches are largely drawn from the pro ranks, ranks that–to put it bluntly–don’t really have USA white dudes. A dearth of black coaches would be more understandable if these jobs were filled by non players. So let’s just say the unbearable whiteness of coaching isn’t easily explained away.
This sticks in whatever “my craw” is, because the NBA puts a transparent effort into apologizing for its “scary” black elements. Why do you think there’s an age limit? Baseball doesn’t fret about young guys getting money. Why do you think NBA fighting is handled with the most draconian of prevention methods? In white-friendly hockey, boxing is half the game. What do you think the “NBA Cares” ads are about? Is it really necessary for the League to desperately brag about charity works? And does any other sport have a publicized “dress code”?
But I digress with the questions. My craw stickage stems from how the NBA tries to control young black players, only to later ignore them in post-retirement. When positions of real authority open up, pro basketball is reluctant to trust black guys. Makes sense from the league that tells young African American players what they should wear and when they’re old enough to play pro.
[...] So many white coaches, Coaching Slots So Few Warriorsworld | Dot Net by Sherwood Strauss forgive a little detour from the Warriors draft rants. I was listening to the hilarious Disciples of Clyde Paul on their podcast discussion. [...]
A lot of the coaches who are non-NBA players still played in college (including some surprises like both VanGundys) often at small schools; so non-player is a little strong a description in these cases in my view. Popovich played on some select team for the Air Force overseas while on active duty. O’Brien was a multi-year starter for St Joseph’s.
This is quick an dmight be a little rough but…
There are only 16 coaches in NBA history who have coached 100+ games and gone .600+, so not many can bragged about a lot. . 3 were “black” including the guy who is highest right now.
I haven’t calculated the ratio for “white” coach successes / “white” total or “black” successes / “black” total for all time by this criteria
But I did count 33 “black” head coaches first hired on or after 1990 who coached at least 40 games and only 4 with career record over .500.
I count 16 “white” coaches in the timeframe and with enough games with a career record over .500 out of maybe 50 to 60 “white coaches”.
People talk about differences in the number of chances given and the quality of those chances but you still have to get it done, especially if you want things to change further. The “white” coaches in the last 20 years were over .500 for their career at least twice as often. It is not as simple as this, but it is part of the picture.
How many of those guys are not worthy of a coaching job?
Mike D’Antoni Don Nelson Paul Westphal Scott Skiles
Larry Brown Flip Saunders Phil Jackson Rick Carlisle
Rick Adelman George Karl Scottie Brooks Jerry Sloan
Greg Popovich DNP Stan Van Gundy DNP
In the remaining list, Mike Dunleavy has been to 3 conference finals with 2 teams, and was one win short with a third team. Jim OBrien has made the playoffs multiple times, as has Vinny Del Negro.
Numerous black coaches have been hired and then fired, for various reasons. Including successful ones like Paul Silas, Mike Brown, and Byron Scott, who will probably be rehired soon. Your comparisons make no sense.
Kim Hughes
Kiki Vandeweghe
Vinny Del Negro
John Kuester
Mike Dunleavy
Kurt Rambis
Jay Triano DNP
Jeff Bower DNP
Jim O’Brien DNP
Jay Triano had a long playing career in Europe and on the Canadian national team.
I think he was considered Canada’s greatest PG of all-time before Nash’s time.
I don’t think it is too surprising if you ask me. I am a realist so do not get all upset if you don’t like what I have to say.
1) Most owners and GM’s are white, they probably feel more comfortable relating to a white coach. They probably perceive a similar background, culture, outlook (like attracts like) whether the similarities exist or not is debatable. Call it racism (if you are that type), but that is just how the world works. People of all skin color, nationalities, regions, cities whatever look for similarities in each other and gravitate towards that (skin tone is an easy thing to identify).
2) Most white players in the NBA (especially 20-30 years ago) were lower on the “athletic scale” relative to black players and had to make up for it in other ways. Maybe this was “court sense”, “basketball IQ”, “leadership skills”, hustle or whatever they could do to make up for real or perceived nonathleticness relative to black players. Much of these skills parlay in to good coaching skills.
Not trying to insight anything here, just throwing out an idea on why in a realistic sense.
jay triano did play. he was cut by the jazz at training camp one year bc they signed a guy named john stockton instead, and i think he also played for the canadian national team.
I think that trend is changing, especially if you look at the assistant coach ranks; they are increasingly being filled with black former players. Quite a few of the coaches on that list have been coaching for a couple of decades back when the racism factor was more pronounced.
However, teams often may have below-radar racism in that they think a black coach as the face of the team might scare off sponsors and fans; that’s doubly true at the college level, where the coach has to schmooze big donors to the school. That’s decreasing; if we’re up to having a black president, we’re up to having black coaches.
Many of those coaches on the list got in back in the 70s when there was a lot more racism and are grandfathered-in via seniority and experience.
There is a simple and obvious explanation, coaching is a celebral pursuit, playing is a physical one. the best players are seldom the best coaches. It has nothing to do with skin color, it has to do with the culture from which the different players come from.
Sherwood-
While I agree with you that there is a great deal of racism in the NBA, I think this evaluation leaves out some things. The primary problem is that many of those white dudes are old, and played back in the day when white players were not nearly as uncommon as they are now.
I think it will be interesting to see if coaching demographics continue to change as these guys ride off into the sunset. Many assistants who will be considered have come up through that same system and happen to be white. Many of them will get jobs, but at some point there will certainly be more black coaches.
Of the 34 men who coached at least one game in the NBA last season (including interim coaches), 18 of them were white former players. That’s 53%. By comparison, only 18% of coaching spots were taken by non-white former players. I’m not surprised that there are more white non-players than non-white non-players coaching in the league, but the former player number seems completely backwards, even when accounting for guys like Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson who played back when there was less of a disparity between white and non-white players.
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Nice extension of the topic on the DOC podcast, Ethan. The numbers you bring up are strange indeed.