The racial makeup of those jockeying to become the next Bulls head coach has not gone unnoticed.
It only gained more relevance after Steve Nash smoothly skipped the line Thursday.
Nash, the Hall of Fame point guard and two-time league MVP, swooped in and surprisingly scooped up the NBA’s best job opening. Despite having no prior coaching experience, Nash now gets to guide Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and the championship-ready Brooklyn Nets.
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Nash, of course, is White.
A debate can be had of whether he is deserving. But no one can make a plausible case that Nash was the most qualified.
At a time when the NBA is unapologetically doubling down on diversity, social justice and racial equality, the optics aren’t great. While “Black Lives Matter” is plastered on the league’s courts and jerseys, Black candidates continue to get passed over for the game’s most prestigious leadership positions. A league fueled by Black players, who make up approximately three-quarters of the workforce, fields less than a quarter of head coaches who are Black to lead them. It’s a long-standing problem, and the numbers are only trending downward.
The five current Black head coaches are the Los Angeles Clippers’ Doc Rivers, Detroit’s Dwane Casey, Phoenix’s Monty Williams, Cleveland’s J.B. Bickerstaff and Atlanta’s Lloyd Pierce.
Alvin Gentry and Nate McMillan are two recently fired Black head coaches, and David Fizdale, another Black coach, was fired by the New York Knicks 22 games into the season. The Knicks named former Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau as their new head coach in July.
Four vacancies remain, with the New Orleans Pelicans, Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers joining the Bulls. If all four franchises hire Black coaches, the percentage of NBA head coaches who are Black would rise to 30 percent, still far below the percentage of Black players.
Nash is no doubt capable. He was an offensive genius, a wizard with the ball in his hands and had a feel that made him unstoppable. He isn’t simply one of the all-time greatest players, he’s among the all-time thinkers.
Nash will be successful. It’s almost impossible for him to not be.
Which is why the Nets’ hiring of Nash, while wildly celebrated, raised a few eyebrows and ruffled a handful of feathers. His unforeseen appointment aired an ugly disparity in starting points between some White coaches and most Black coaches. He became the second White guy in the past six years to inherit a championship roster despite having no prior coaching experience. Steve Kerr did it with the Golden State Warriors when he replaced Mark Jackson in 2014. Kerr and the Warriors won the championship in his first season. There hasn’t been a retired Black player to ever walk into a roster so stacked. The only thing close is Bill Russell taking over the Celtics as player/coach in 1967.
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The Nets job was far and away the best on the market. Durant, who some analysts began declaring as the world’s best player over LeBron James, is returning from an Achilles’ tendon injury that robbed him of the entire 2019-20 season. With the two-time Finals MVP-winning Durant pairing with Irving, rising stars Caris LeVert, Joe Harris and Spencer Dinwiddie, the Nets look like an early favorite to represent the East in the 2021 Finals.
“There’s no way around this,” Stephen A. Smith said Thursday on ESPN’s “First Take.” “This is White privilege. This does not happen for a Black man.”
I love Steve Nash! But……. pic.twitter.com/lo73hhoM0q
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 3, 2020
Of the NBA’s current five Black head coaches, only Rivers inherited a championship contender. For that right, Rivers spent the previous nine seasons as head coach in Boston, guiding the Celtics to the 2008 championship. Before that, he led a middling Orlando Magic franchise for four seasons.
Rivers also is among a handful of Black former players who moved immediately into head coaching roles. But none of their rosters came close to rivaling the gems Kerr and now Nash received. Rivers took over the post-Penny Hardaway Magic in 1999 and leaned on Darrell Armstrong as his go-to scorer. Isiah Thomas was awarded the keys in Indiana in 2000, after the Pacers lost their starting point guard, power forward and center but still had a 35-year-old Reggie Miller.
Jackson was named Golden State coach without prior coaching experience. But back in 2011, Klay Thompson was a rookie and Stephen Curry was in his third season and proving to be injury-prone. Jason Kidd took over the star-studded but past-their-prime Brooklyn Nets in 2013. Derek Fisher was named New York Knicks head coach in 2014.
Those were the lucky ones. And still, none could step away in their second seasons and watch their fill-in go 39-4 as Luke Walton did for Kerr in 2015-16 when Kerr underwent back surgery. Walton, mind you, hasn’t reached 39 wins in a single season over the past four years he’s been head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings.
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That’s a reflection of the type of roster Kerr inherited six years ago and the caliber Nash will lead now. Nash benefited from an inside track with Nets GM Sean Marks, a former teammate for two seasons in Phoenix, and pre-existing relationships with Irving and Durant, whom Nash bonded with as a part-time Warriors consultant. Both superstars had input in the decision, and a suggestion for any Black coach who might once again feel overlooked is to ask Durant and Irving why is it they overlooked them.
Meanwhile, plenty of Black head coaching candidates are being considered in Chicago, months after Marc Eversley became the Bulls’ first Black GM under new EVP of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas. Seven of the 10 known Bulls targets are Black. Each carries irrefutable credentials. Mavericks assistant Stephen Silas has 20 years of bench experience. Nuggets assistant Wes Unseld Jr. owns 15. Mavs assistant Jamahl Mosley has been at it 14 years, while current Bulls assistant Roy Rogers has put in 11. Milwaukee assistant Darvin Ham has nine years of paying his dues, Philadelphia assistant Ime Udoka has eight and Minnesota assistant David Vanterpool has seven.
A list so diverse might represent progress for a franchise that’s had only one Black head coach in its 54-year history if not for one simple truth: If the Nets offered the most attractive job, the Bulls offer the least attractive.
The Pelicans have a budding superstar in Zion Williamson and an All-Star in Brandon Ingram. The Sixers, for all their issues, still have Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons. The Pacers have Victor Oladipo, Domantas Sabonis, Myles Turner, Malcolm Brogdon and an established culture to build on.
The Bulls are entering year four of a rebuilding project that’s produced 44 victories in the past two seasons.
It’s not that the Bulls are a bad job. It’s merely the worst of those currently available. One of them has to be. And somebody has to get it.
But the symbolism isn’t lost that seven experienced Black men are lined up for a good job as one inexperienced White man gets fast-tracked past them all for a great one.
(Photo: Noah Graham / NBAE via Getty Images)
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