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I've noticed a recent trend in proffesional coaching (especially in the NBA) with black coaches. Being a black man myself, I'm certainly not complaining, but I wonder what the recent incline is about. I highly doubt its Affirmative Action. My personal belief is that its due to the past generation of players who are looking into coaches. With the NBA being predominantly black, it would make sense that those ex-players are black as well. More so, do you think the coaching ranks could be come predominantly black?

You answered it pretty well yourself. The infusion of more black players in the NBA started in the 60s and gradually increased since then. So it'd make sense that most ex-players turning into coaches would also follow similar order.

This topic has come up before, and IIRC another poster mentioned the NBA had a majority of black coaches in the 90s that has decreased somewhat over the past few years.

Players being given more opportunities to get into the coaching side of things.

This guy sucks

Quiet-Storm wrote:This guy sucks

(picture)

Smitch is gonna beat you down....

I think it has alot to do with the NBA willing to hire former players as head coaches even if they have no prior coaching experience, something you rarely see in other sports (though this includes guys like larry bird).

In the nfl, coaches usually have to spend years as an assistant, thus, being a former player doesnt necessarily help you, and can actually hurt you.

I think we'll see an increase of black coaches in the next decade or so. Many of these new black coaches were recent NBA players; Sam Mitchell, Avery Johnson, Terry Porter(former), Mark Jackson (potential), Brian Shaw(potential), Michael Curry (inline to takeover). I wouldn't be surprised to see Derek Fisher go into coaching, if his done gets better, once his career is done.

Kosar86 wrote:I think it has alot to do with the NBA willing to hire former players as head coaches even if they have no prior coaching experience, something you rarely see in other sports (though this includes guys like larry bird).

In the nfl, coaches usually have to spend years as an assistant, thus, being a former player doesnt necessarily help you, and can actually hurt you.

This is partially true, but look at the coaches who were in the second round:

Van Gundy (assistant)
Brown (assistant)
Popovich (assistant)
Scott (assistant)
Flip (college and CBA)

Even Phil was an assistant before he first coached the Bulls.

So it's only really Doc and Byron. Often what you get are the players that are looked at as being cut out to become coaches before the end of their careers - guys like Avery, Sam Mitchell, Doc, and probably Fisher and Mark Jackson now. And even most of those guys are assistants before they get their first head coaching job.

I actually think that the professional ranks we see alot of legit opportunities compared to colleges. I can't honestly name 5 African American coaches in both college basketball and football.

Kosar86 wrote:I think it has alot to do with the NBA willing to hire former players as head coaches even if they have no prior coaching experience, something you rarely see in other sports (though this includes guys like larry bird).

In the nfl, coaches usually have to spend years as an assistant, thus, being a former player doesnt necessarily help you, and can actually hurt you.

Agree, and it's not necessarily new.

Don Nelson became Coach and GM in Milwaukee the year after he retired as a player.
Isaiah Thomas went from player to GM in one year.

With coaching being as much about being able to relate to and motivate your players as drawing up any Xs and Os, it's no surprise teams go with ex-players so much. NBA coaching is a very up-close, man-to-man job. A player can show his ability to relate to and motivate other players even while he is a player himself.


In the NFL a coach is responsible for ~60 players organized into 4 separate units, each with their own coaching staff. It places more of a premium on larger scale managerial and organizational skills, which are hard to display during a playing career.

The recent success of Tony Dungee.

In the Eastern Conference, I believe only Stan Van Gundy and Flip Saunders were the only non-black coaches.

Mike Brown
Eddie Jordan
Mike Woodson
Doc Rivers
Sam Mitchell
Maurice Cheeks

adjacent2bench wrote:In the Eastern Conference, I believe only Stan Van Gundy and Flip Saunders were the only non-black coaches.

Mike Brown
Eddie Jordan
Mike Woodson
Doc Rivers
Sam Mitchell
Maurice Cheeks

Pat Riley, Lawrence Frank, Jim O'Brien, Guy on Milwaukee...

Blame Rasho wrote:I actually think that the professional ranks we see alot of legit opportunities compared to colleges. I can't honestly name 5 African American coaches in both college basketball and football.

I think this is a very good point. Most colleges won't even listen to a black candidate.