Rest Easy, NBA: You Are Diverse

That ref bias study might have been miscontrued by everyone and rejected by players, but it still had negative implications for the NBA. So the league should be happy with this latest formal study of their ranks: one naming them the most diverse sports league in America ever. From Newsday:

Richard Lapchick's Race and Gender Report Card gave the NBA an A-plus for minority hiring, a B for women, and a combined grade of A-minus -- the highest for any sports league in the 15-year history of the study. It was the 15th consecutive time that the NBA received the highest grade for minority hiring among the men's leagues studied.

"The NBA remains the industry leader on issues related to race and gender hiring practices," said Lapchick, head of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida.

The obvious criticism here would be something along the lines of "so what, most of the players are black, what about the front office?" According to Lapchick, the percentage of African-Americans installed in the NBA as coaches, vice presidents, and coaches is the highest in the history of his study. And while Bob Johnson is the only African-American to own most of a franchise, he's also the only one in all of professional sports.

The bottom line? The NBA could do better on this front. But compared to all other sports, they have a lot less to feel ashamed of. Also worth considering: the league itself may be mostly African-American, but don't the numbers for the higher-up position have to also take into account the percentages for the overall population?