Ever since the 1970’s the NBA have been a primarily black sport, it has changed a lot since then in terms of play and rules on the court. But something that hasn’t changed is representation.
The NBA currently consists of 75% African American players, 27% coaches, 10% general managers, owners and Presidents 3%. The numbers after players is worrying and it’s been like this for some time.
The Undefeated’s Marc Spears recently did a piece about this subject, wondering why the numbers are what they are. While the problem won’t be solved immediately, people like Tony Parker, who wants to be a GM once his playing career is done, is a good thing to see.
“The best thing was to be in the office every day during the (2011 NBA) lockout and see the everyday operations,” Parker told The Undefeated. “I looked at everything. How to manage a team, marketing, ticket sales, sponsors. It was a great learning experience for me. It’s getting me ready to work in an NBA front office.”
If Parker gets his wish, the soon-to-be 34-year-old — raised in France but grew to love basketball during summer trips to his father’s hometown of Chicago — will retire from the Spurs with 20 years of NBA playing experience at age 38 and head into management. Upon retirement he will already have acquired an impressive resume to aid his NBA GM dream thanks to his stellar playing days and ASHVEL ownership. Hopefully, the four-time NBA champion’s GM outlook come retirement time will be much better than the current bleak outlook for blacks and black former players who dream of being NBA GMs and coaches.
Now just having Parker hopefully become a general manager won’t make everything balanced but it’s that mindset that’s rarely seen. When players retire they either leave basketball completely or go into TV. There’s many ex-African American players on TV. Shaq, Kenny, Chuck, Jalen, Hill, Webber to name a few, but I don’t think any of them have thought about owning a team or being a GM. Why is that?
Maybe because they had bad relationships with their owners or GM’s at one point and don’t want to become them, that’s just a theory I’m throwing up, but Tony Parker is definitely an outlier in all this.
