By Henry Johnson
On June 24, The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDE) released its evaluation of the NBA in terms of racial and gender hiring practices for executives, referees, announcers, coaches, and players. The league earned a grade of āA+ā from TIDE, as 80.5% of players and 43.3% of coaches during the 2013-2014 season were people of color.
While the NBA has done a fantastic job in providing opportunities to women and minorities in a once white-male dominated industry, it hasnāt necessarily achieved literal diversity.Ā There are signs suggesting that diversity could be a precious commodity in sports. AnĀ analysisĀ of TV viewer demographics inĀ The AtlanticĀ seems to indicate a correlation between playersā and fansā racial composition; as American sports leagues compete with each other for ratings, having strong player diversity that appeals to a wide array of viewers will translate to enormous gains in TV revenue down the line.
So here, I will measure diversity in a more literal way using Simpsonās Index, developed by ecologists to measure biodiversity. In the context of sports, a leagueās diversity score is equal to the probability that two players drawn at random will be of different races or ethnicities. The higher the score, the more diverse a league is. In terms of interpretation, Simpsonās Index is very similar to the USA Today Diversity Index, which has been used to look at racial and ethnic spread across the country.
We can also use TIDEās data on the MLB, MLS, NFL, and WNBA to see which leagues are most diverse according to this metric. (Note that our categories will be the same as TIDEās: White, African-American, Latino, Asian, and Other.) According to Simpsonās Index, the NBA is lacking in diversity relative to other leagues; in fact, thereās about a 66% chance that two randomly drawn NBA players will be of the same race (including a 58% chance two randomly drawn players are both African-American). Two randomly drawn MLS players, by contrast, have only about a 32% chance of belonging to the same race. The MLS is also the only league in which no single race represents a majority of players.*
Second to the MLS is the MLB, with an index of 0.542. This is largely driven by the presence of international players from Latin American and Asian countries. The league appears eager to diversify further by recruiting more African-American ballplayers, an effort which is reflected in programs like Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, or RBI. According to TIDE, African-Americans make up just 8.2% of major league rosters this season.
The third and fourth most diverse leagues are the NFL and WNBA, which had Simpsonās Indices of .469 and .425, respectively. Like the NBA, these leagues are dominated by two races. In fact, in the three leagues that Simpsonās Index identifies as the least diverse, over 90% of players fall into two racial categories: Black and White.
The ways in which diversity affects sports clubs warrant further exploration. There are indications, though, that it may have beneficial impacts: Recently, a trio of professorsĀ found a positive linkĀ between winning percentage and linguistic diversity of soccer teams. Whether an analysis of racial diversity would yield similar results may be a topic for future research.
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*The MLSā diversity score is aided by the high number of players in the āOtherā category. If every single āOtherā player were White, the leagueās Simpsonās Index would dip to .522, just below the MLB. But TIDE explains that āthis dramatic change [in āOtherā] is because in the previous RGRC an international player who was Black was counted as an African-American.ā So unless more than 73 of the 89 soccer players listed as āOtherā are White, the MLS remains the most diverse as per the index
You just ignore the existence of the NHL? You include the WNBA and the Soccer League but you leave out the NHL?
true, the NHL is a much bigger league than both MLS and WNBA.
The NBA should strive for racial parity approximating the general population of the US. Any less goal is hypocrisy. Until then I will not attend or watch a game.
I would argue that the 90% doesn’t consist of white and black in consists of white and African American making it even less diverse. White is including the entire world of white people where as African American took the entire world of black and then narrowed it down to one nationality of black. White may not look diverse, but remember it is encompassing every participating nation of white people not just white Americans.
Isn’t it possible that the disparity is a reflection of the lack of desire to play a given sport.