I was listening to ESPN radio host Stephen A. Smith recently interviewing NBA head coach Byron Scott. For those of you who keep up with this space, you know that I’m kind of a Scott fan. As a former fan of New Jersey’s Nets, I look back on the Scott years with fondness. Brooklyn is welcome to take the Nets away whenever they can scrape up the cash to tow them out of the impound lot.
Anyway, there I am listening to Smith when he asks Scott about the fact that he has an “all Black” coaching staff. Smith wondered if that was helping Scott produce the terrific year he’s getting out of the New Orleans Hornets. The coach answered yes.
In his own affirmative action, Scott said he purposely put together an all African American coaching staff when he got a shot with New Orleans because he felt that former players who were African American would relate better to today’s NBA players.
I must admit to a few reactions. First, a certain smugness. I’ve sometimes wondered if having a staff that heavily reflects the backgrounds of the players they coach would help a team do better. According to Scott, it does and I’m right. Always a nice feeling, by the way.
Second, I was kind of shocked Scott would come right out and say he purposely hired only Black men. I couldn’t help but think that he was leaving himself and the organization open for some law suits. Picture an NHL executive admitting publicly that he put together an all white staff to relate better to his largely all white team and I think you can see how that might spark some outrage if not legal action.
Finally, I was a bit confused. What does this say about our society at the very time we’re busy trying to get the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to just get along? Clearly African Americans haven’t been given the kinds of opportunities that white coaches have even in sports in which the players are now largely non-white. African Americans have been shafted historically. So, it’s hard for me to get worked up about Scott’s statement.
And yet, something won’t let me let it go completely. Is Scott throwing out the idea that sports ultimately is colorblind and based only on performance come game time? Why shouldn’t people be able to coach even if they don’t look or come from the same background as the people they are teaching?
Ultimately, I guess I wanted Byron Scott to allow for the possibility that he might find a white guy who could relate to his players and teach them effectively despite their differences in background.
For me, a mostly but not entirely African American coaching staff would feel like the best mix for an NBA team these days. After all, Byron Scott, somebody’s got to relate to the Peja Stojakovic’s…
