The Root
By: Jenee Desmond-Harris Posted: June 17, 2011
The NBA has received the highest grade ever issued on racial and gender hiring practices among men's professional leagues. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida gave it an A-plus for race and an A-minus for gender hiring this year. TIDES has been studying diversity hiring in sports since 1987.
Full Story: http://www.theroot.com/buzz/nbas-diversity-report-card-best-ever
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NBA. Show all posts
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Should the NBA assist white players with affirmative action?
theGrio.com
By Ronda Racha Penrice
9:30 AM on 12/09/2009
Recently, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" ran a segment about the declining number of white American players in the NBA. Apparently the league is currently 71.8 percent African-American, 18.3 percent international and 9.9 percent white American and there's a problem. To underscore the "whiteout" of the NBA, "Outside the Lines" chose to follow the trials and tribulations of Kyle McAlarney, a former standout point guard from Notre Dame whose dream is to play in the NBA. According to McAlarney, his race is keeping him out of the league.
Never mind that he stands only 5'11 or that he was invited to play summer league with the Los Angeles Clippers by Mike Dunleavy, a former white NBA player who is the team's general manager and coach. Currently, McAlarney plays in the NBA's developmental league. Not once is his arrest for marijuana possession as a sophomore mentioned. Yet he is the posterchild for the white American quest to play in the NBA. Dunleavy - whose 6'9 son, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., currently plays for the Indiana Pacers -- didn't pass on McAlarney because he's white; he passed on him because he's not good enough to play in the NBA.
Does the NBA need white players so badly that it is to ignore standards and let them in even when they are clearly not qualified? Is this not the same criticism that is often leveled at affirmative action programs and its beneficiaries - that they are not qualified to do the job but only get a pass because they are a desirable minority? The fact that affirmative action is meant to ensure that a qualified person will not be denied an opportunity because of race, gender and other factors is generally ignored.
According to Wayne Embry, a senior advisor with the Toronto Raptors, the league implemented the zone defense to help white American players and not to advance the game, a charge that Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations, denies. Jackson, through a statement to "Outside the Lines" maintained that the NBA's objective is "to find players with game regardless of what country they come from or what race."
Full Commentary: http://www.thegrio.com/2009/12/should-the-nba-assist-white-players-with-affirmative-action.php
By Ronda Racha Penrice
9:30 AM on 12/09/2009
Recently, ESPN's "Outside the Lines" ran a segment about the declining number of white American players in the NBA. Apparently the league is currently 71.8 percent African-American, 18.3 percent international and 9.9 percent white American and there's a problem. To underscore the "whiteout" of the NBA, "Outside the Lines" chose to follow the trials and tribulations of Kyle McAlarney, a former standout point guard from Notre Dame whose dream is to play in the NBA. According to McAlarney, his race is keeping him out of the league.
Never mind that he stands only 5'11 or that he was invited to play summer league with the Los Angeles Clippers by Mike Dunleavy, a former white NBA player who is the team's general manager and coach. Currently, McAlarney plays in the NBA's developmental league. Not once is his arrest for marijuana possession as a sophomore mentioned. Yet he is the posterchild for the white American quest to play in the NBA. Dunleavy - whose 6'9 son, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., currently plays for the Indiana Pacers -- didn't pass on McAlarney because he's white; he passed on him because he's not good enough to play in the NBA.
Does the NBA need white players so badly that it is to ignore standards and let them in even when they are clearly not qualified? Is this not the same criticism that is often leveled at affirmative action programs and its beneficiaries - that they are not qualified to do the job but only get a pass because they are a desirable minority? The fact that affirmative action is meant to ensure that a qualified person will not be denied an opportunity because of race, gender and other factors is generally ignored.
According to Wayne Embry, a senior advisor with the Toronto Raptors, the league implemented the zone defense to help white American players and not to advance the game, a charge that Stu Jackson, executive vice president of basketball operations, denies. Jackson, through a statement to "Outside the Lines" maintained that the NBA's objective is "to find players with game regardless of what country they come from or what race."
Full Commentary: http://www.thegrio.com/2009/12/should-the-nba-assist-white-players-with-affirmative-action.php
Monday, October 15, 2007
Discrimination, harassment, and the NBA
The Boston Globe
By Anita Hill October 15, 2007
THE $11.6 million jury award in Anucha Browne Sanders's sexual harassment case sends a strong message to the New York Knicks sports franchise that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. But the value of the message will be lost if the Knicks and other sports teams respond by hiring fewer, not more, women managers.
Ironically, the NBA has a better record for hiring women than most sports. Though the league does quite well in some categories, this year, the University of Central Florida's Racial and Gender Report Card authored by Richard Lapchick gave the league an "F" for the number of women team vice presidents and a "D" for the number of women employed as senior administrators.
Newspaper accounts of the trial presented a grim picture of Browne Sanders's time with the Knicks. In addition to testifying about how Isiah Thomas harassed her, Browne Sanders, the Knicks' former top marketing executive, described a work environment that was unsupportive of her and her efforts. For example, Browne Sanders recounted that Knicks star player Stephon Marbury called her a bitch because she fired Marbury's cousin for sexually harassing an intern. Both the intern and Marbury's cousin worked for Browne Sanders.
Despite a league policy against sexual harassment, NBA commissioner David Stern has not taken any action against the Knicks. He has said he may recommend "sensitivity training across the league."
In considering the Browne Sanders verdict, I was reminded of an earlier suit that changed the world of sports. In 1977, Melissa Ludtke, a sports writer, successfully sued Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn so that women reporters could have equal access to interview players. The law and the facts were on Ludtke's side and Kuhn, as league leader, should have avoided the litigation.
Even after Ludkte's victory, players verbally and even physically abused female reporters who were simply doing their jobs. The women persevered. But had Kuhn voluntarily opened the door to female journalists he would have sent a message to teams and prevented at least some of the blatantly sexist behavior from occurring.
Sixteen years ago, in the wake of my testimony in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, women coined a phrase, "they just don't get it." "They," of course, were not only members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but men in general.
In the days after the hearing, I received thousands of supportive letters, the overwhelming majority of which were from women who identified personally with my testimony. Many men who wrote characterized sexual harassment as the fantastic, vengeful invention of disgruntled employees or spurned lovers.
Four women and three men made up the federal jury that concluded that the harassment Browne Sanders suffered warranted $11.6 million in punitive damages. On the day of the verdict and in response to Clarence Thomas's renewed challenges to my 1991 testimony, I received hundreds of supportive e-mails and calls from around the country. To my surprise, about 50 percent of those responses came from men who through their own observations or the stories told them by their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters understand the problem and its harm.
Neither the correspondence I received nor the Browne Sanders verdict is a scientific public survey. Yet, they both are signs that some consensus around the issue of sexual harassment is building. A kind of "sensitivity training" is already occurring among the population. But the question of just how far are we willing to go to stop sexual harassment remains.
In the male-dominated world of major league sports, one wrong-headed, knee jerk reaction is to eliminate women from the workplace - no women, no sexual harassment, no problem. Not only would that be unacceptable, but as more women armed with law degrees and MBAs seek entry in the business of sports, it would be impossible to maintain.
Browne Sanders has said that she filed her suit for all women, and women will be served if the verdict encourages them to come forward to report workplace abuses. Women will be better served if more is done to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place. Browne Sanders has done her part. Now the NBA should act.
Stern has vowed to put the issue on the agenda for the NBA board of governors meeting this month. At the very least, he should question whether the lack of women in management roles contributes to sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination against them. Conducting an audit of teams' hiring and other employment policies for their impact on women would be a good start. With the Browne Sanders verdict, indications are that Stern has the law and growing public sentiment to back him up.
Anita F. Hill is a guest columnist and professor of law, social policy, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a visiting scholar at Wellesley College, the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, and Wellesley Center for Women.
[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/10/15/discrimination_harassment_and_the_nba/]
By Anita Hill October 15, 2007
THE $11.6 million jury award in Anucha Browne Sanders's sexual harassment case sends a strong message to the New York Knicks sports franchise that sexual harassment will not be tolerated. But the value of the message will be lost if the Knicks and other sports teams respond by hiring fewer, not more, women managers.
Ironically, the NBA has a better record for hiring women than most sports. Though the league does quite well in some categories, this year, the University of Central Florida's Racial and Gender Report Card authored by Richard Lapchick gave the league an "F" for the number of women team vice presidents and a "D" for the number of women employed as senior administrators.
Newspaper accounts of the trial presented a grim picture of Browne Sanders's time with the Knicks. In addition to testifying about how Isiah Thomas harassed her, Browne Sanders, the Knicks' former top marketing executive, described a work environment that was unsupportive of her and her efforts. For example, Browne Sanders recounted that Knicks star player Stephon Marbury called her a bitch because she fired Marbury's cousin for sexually harassing an intern. Both the intern and Marbury's cousin worked for Browne Sanders.
Despite a league policy against sexual harassment, NBA commissioner David Stern has not taken any action against the Knicks. He has said he may recommend "sensitivity training across the league."
In considering the Browne Sanders verdict, I was reminded of an earlier suit that changed the world of sports. In 1977, Melissa Ludtke, a sports writer, successfully sued Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn so that women reporters could have equal access to interview players. The law and the facts were on Ludtke's side and Kuhn, as league leader, should have avoided the litigation.
Even after Ludkte's victory, players verbally and even physically abused female reporters who were simply doing their jobs. The women persevered. But had Kuhn voluntarily opened the door to female journalists he would have sent a message to teams and prevented at least some of the blatantly sexist behavior from occurring.
Sixteen years ago, in the wake of my testimony in the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing, women coined a phrase, "they just don't get it." "They," of course, were not only members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, but men in general.
In the days after the hearing, I received thousands of supportive letters, the overwhelming majority of which were from women who identified personally with my testimony. Many men who wrote characterized sexual harassment as the fantastic, vengeful invention of disgruntled employees or spurned lovers.
Four women and three men made up the federal jury that concluded that the harassment Browne Sanders suffered warranted $11.6 million in punitive damages. On the day of the verdict and in response to Clarence Thomas's renewed challenges to my 1991 testimony, I received hundreds of supportive e-mails and calls from around the country. To my surprise, about 50 percent of those responses came from men who through their own observations or the stories told them by their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters understand the problem and its harm.
Neither the correspondence I received nor the Browne Sanders verdict is a scientific public survey. Yet, they both are signs that some consensus around the issue of sexual harassment is building. A kind of "sensitivity training" is already occurring among the population. But the question of just how far are we willing to go to stop sexual harassment remains.
In the male-dominated world of major league sports, one wrong-headed, knee jerk reaction is to eliminate women from the workplace - no women, no sexual harassment, no problem. Not only would that be unacceptable, but as more women armed with law degrees and MBAs seek entry in the business of sports, it would be impossible to maintain.
Browne Sanders has said that she filed her suit for all women, and women will be served if the verdict encourages them to come forward to report workplace abuses. Women will be better served if more is done to prevent abuse from occurring in the first place. Browne Sanders has done her part. Now the NBA should act.
Stern has vowed to put the issue on the agenda for the NBA board of governors meeting this month. At the very least, he should question whether the lack of women in management roles contributes to sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination against them. Conducting an audit of teams' hiring and other employment policies for their impact on women would be a good start. With the Browne Sanders verdict, indications are that Stern has the law and growing public sentiment to back him up.
Anita F. Hill is a guest columnist and professor of law, social policy, and women's studies at Brandeis University and a visiting scholar at Wellesley College, the Newhouse Center for the Humanities, and Wellesley Center for Women.
[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/10/15/discrimination_harassment_and_the_nba/]
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