According to Professor Richard Lapchick, author of the recent Racial and Gender Report Card for the NBA, Commissioner David Stern has taken the lead in professional sport when it comes to diversity. Lapchick had this to say about Stern:

"As he has since becoming the NBA Commissioner in 1984, David Stern has taken the lead on diversity issues in sport. In the NBA League Office 36 percent of the professional positions are held by people of color while women held 44 percent of the professional positions. Both are higher than any other men's professional league in any previous Report Card. David Stern continues to set the standard."

The annual report card, issued by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, measures the commitment to diversity of several professional sports leagues, and the NCAA. The NBA consistently gets high marks, as it has shown a serious commitment to diversity both on the court and off it.

The report broke the grades into various categories. In terms of players, the NBA got an A+, due to the fact that 77 percent of all NBA players are black, and 82 percent of NBA players are people of color. Anyone watching the NBA finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics notices that there are usually no less than nine black players on the court at any given time.

In central office, head coach and assistant positions, the NBA received a grade of A+. For CEO and GM positions, the NBA received a grade of B, implying that there is more work to be done.

The NBA didn't seem to do as well as the institute might expect when it comes to gender. For Vice President and Senior Administrative positions, the NBA received grades of F and D+, respectively. But this is in contradiction to a statement issued by the institute, claiming that:

Women held 44 percent of the professional positions in the NBA League Office. This increased by one percentage point from the previous Report Card and was higher than any other men's professional league in any previous Report Card though still below the NBA's high of 49 percent female professionals in the league office in 1995-96.

The report measures grades based on overall patterns in society. Therefore, if 24 percent of the population consists of people of color, the organization receives an A for having 24 percent representation. In the case of gender, there is ultimately the question of whether or not the NBA front office would have more men because the entire league consists of men, similar to the WNBA having more women in the front office. This debate has yet to be decided, but as it stands, the NBA did not receive equivalent marks on race and gender.

Other notes from the report card:

- Professional opportunities for people of color in NBA League offices stands at 36 percent. This is the highest in the history of any professional sport.

- Michael Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Bobcats, is the only African American team majority owner in any men's professional sport.

- People of color represented 41 percent of the assistant coaches in the NBA and 30 percent of the head coaches.

- There were four African American NBA presidents at the start of the 2009 - 2010 season, more than any other professional sport.

- At the end of the 2009 - 2010 season, 41 percent of NBA referees were African American, and one was a woman.

To see the entire report card, please click here.

I admit that I was once hard on David Stern as NBA commissioner. I was disappointed by his approach to collective bargaining agreements, since they seemed to undermine the labor rights of athletes on the court. While I still stand by many of those critiques, the other truth is that Stern is an amazing businessman and seems to open the door of opportunity for many African American players. He has turned the NBA into a global brand, and appears to be well on his way to making the NBA as popular in China and Europe as it is in the United States.

The NCAA could learn a great deal from David Stern. While there appears to be some degree of equity at the professional level, the college level still presents a plantation-like system, in which black athletes are kept at the bottom of the barrel and used for their talents. This is especially true in college football, where black men are invited to risk life and limb on the field, but are given almost no coaching opportunities when their careers are offer. To make matters worse, many of these so-called academic institutions are not graduating players, nor adequately compensating their families for the billions of dollars they create with their labor on the field. The system is despicable.



Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the Athlete Liberation and Academic Reform Movement (ALARM). To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.