Diversity report lauds NBA hiring
A diversity report found the NBA continues to lead men’s professional sports in racialand gender-hiring practices, fueled by more general managers and assistant coaches of color in the league.
The report card from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) at Central Florida assigned an overall B-plus grade, with an A for racial hiring and a B for gender hiring. The report annually examines positions for franchises as well as in league leadership, with this edition using data from early in the 2020-21 season.
The overall and racial-hiring grades were down slightly from last season (A-minus and Aplus, respectively), and numerical scores in all three major categories fell slightly. Institute director and lead report author Richard Lapchick noted that decrease was due largely to a change in methodology that includes team ownership for the first time.
“In the broadest possible sweep, the NBA is the model men’s league in terms of racialand gender-hiring practices, as well as I think social-justice initiatives,” Lapchick said in an interview with the Associated Press.
The report highlighted racial-hiring gains with general managers and assistant coaches to all-time high levels.
There were 12 general managers of color early in the season, up from seven to start the previous year, to earn an Aplus with the 2020 hiring of Chicago’s Marc Eversley, Denver’s Calvin Booth, Detroit’s Troy Weaver and Houston’s Rafael Stone.
In addition, people of color made up 52.7% of assistant coaches for an A-plus, marking the first time that figure surpassed 50%.
The league earned an A for racial hiring with head coaches. And that was before a hiring cycle in which people of color filled seven of eight positions since the start of the season, pushing the league-wide total to 15 — one shy of the league record from the 2011-12 season.
Overall, the league earned an A-plus for diversity initiatives.
⏩ The Minnesota Timberwolves finalized their acquisition of guard Patrick Beverley, sending 2019 first-round pick Jarrett Culver and forward Juancho Hernangomez to the Memphis Grizzlies.
Beverley brings feistiness and experience to a team short on both. He averaged 7.5 points, 3.2 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 22.5 minutes last season for the Clippers.
⏩ Nick Van Exel has returned to the Atlanta Hawks, joining Nate McMillan’s staff as an assistant coach. Van Exel spent the past two years as a scout with the Dallas Mavericks. The former NBA guard was a player-development instructor for Atlanta from 2010 through ’12.
WNBA: Skylar Diggins-Smith scored 27 points, Brittney Griner added 26, including her third dunk of the season, and visiting Phoenix beat the New York Liberty 106-79 for the Mercury’s fifth straight victory.
College baseball: The Pac-12 will hold a conference tournament for the first time.
The inaugural Pac-12 baseball tournament will take place May 25-29 at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona. The top eight teams during the regular season will earn berths into the double-elimination tournament at the spring training home of the Giants.
“Creating this tournament is a meaningful way to showcase Pac-12 baseball at an important time of the year,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said.
The tournament champion will earn an automatic berth into the NCAA postseason. The Pac-12 had six teams reach regional play last season.
College basketball: The Stanford men announced their nonconference schedule, highlighted by a trip to face defending national champion Baylor in Waco, Texas, on Nov. 20.
The Cardinal open their season at home against Tarleton State on Nov. 9. Stanford then has consecutive games against Bay Area schools, playing at Santa Clara on Nov. 12 and hosting San Jose State on Nov. 15.
— Steve Kroner
⏩ Emoni Bates, a 6-foot-8 guard who reclassified to the class of 2021, has committed to Memphis, adding another five-star recruit to head coach Penny Hardaway’s roster.
Bates also considered Michigan State, Oregon and the NBA’s G League.
Projected as the No. 1 overall pick when he becomes eligible for the NBA draft after he turns 19 in 2023. Bates joins fellow five-star recruit and former AAU teammate Jalen Duren on the Tigers’ roster.
Paralympics: Australian cyclist Paige Greco earned the first gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympics, winning the 3,000-meter pursuit on the track at the velodrome.
It was the first of 24 gold medals up for grabs Wednesday as the Paralympics got under way in the middle of a pandemic in which new cases in Tokyo have soared since the Olympics opened just more than a month ago.
Greco was born with cerebral palsy, which affects mostly the right side of her body. It was her first Paralympic medal, winning her race in 3 minutes, 50.815 seconds.