Adam Silver would like to see more female officials and coaches in the NBA down the road, a league that’s mostly comprised of men today, according to NBC Sports. Silver made his comments in an appearance for The Economic Club in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.
“It’s an area, frankly, where I’ve acknowledged that I’m not sure how it was that it remained so male-dominated for so long. Because it’s an area of the game where physically, certainly, there’s no benefit to being a man, as opposed to a woman, when it comes to refereeing,” Silver said.
“The goal is: Going forward, it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering in the league,” he said. “Same for coaches, by the way. We have a program, too. There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball.”
In 72 years of being active, the NBA has never had a female head coach. On the plus side, Kelly Krauskopf became the first female assistant general manager in league history this season, joining the Pacers in early-January.
Among the most influential female figures in the league is current Spurs assistant Becky Hammon. Hammon was the first full-time assistant coach in NBA history, originally heading to Gregg Popovich‘s staff in 2014.
Here are some other odds and ends around the basketball world today:
- Should the NBA abandon the one-and-done rule by 2022, two names to remember are Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren, Adam Zagoria of Forbes writes. Both players are among the top players in the class of 2022, with the NBA continuing to discuss how to remove this rule and allow prospects to declare for the draft after high school. “There are a bunch of issues that need to be worked through between us and the players association, so it’s something we’re in active discussions about,” Adam Silver said this week, according to Rick Maese of the Washington Post. “It’s a few years away, I think.”
- Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic takes an in-depth look at whether it’s possible for the NBA Draft Lottery to be rigged. The lottery will take place this Tuesday, May 14 in Chicago, with the Cavaliers, Knicks and Suns all having a 14% chance at landing the No. 1 pick.
- Kiki VanDeWeghe discussed his viewpoint of the behind-the-scenes draft lottery with Marc Berman of the New York Post. VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s VP of basketball operations, will moderate the actual ping pong ball drawing for the sixth consecutive season on Tuesday. “This is part of my job. I can tell everybody that every assurance is taken that it’s random,” VanDeWeghe said to those who believe the process could be fixed. “Knowing the process very well after three years, there’s no question in my mind.”
Good discussion point and worthy of some infusion. But 50/50? Not sure about that. It’s Men playing. They have women’s league get some women refs there.
Some, but not 50/50. Just my take.
They need to weed out some of the set in their ways, I’m more important than the players refs.
Be careful what you ask for! We need to weed out refs who don’t stick to their standards, who bend to the moment?
“A league that is mostly comprised of men today” lmao no different from the nfl nba and mlb. This sounds sexist (though factual) but male athletes don’t want to be coached by women. I really don’t know if that will ever change.
Comical. The NBA, and other sports, get berated and berate themselves, over the lack of African Americans in key FO positions and HC’ing spots. That can only be based on the assumption that, absent discrimination, key FO people and HC’s would look like the players vs the general population. It’s a moronic assumption, but if were sound, then the presence of a significant number of females in key FO and HC’ing spots would (since they’re zero percent of the league) indicate some form of discriminatory preference for women.
Because half the population is female, right? Half the refs, half the trainers, half the popcorn sellers, half the coaches, and so on.
It’s not complicated.
I’m not sure what either of you are saying but there’s nothing natural or inevitable about a 50/50 split.
Taking NBA players out of high school is boneheaded. 99% of the time they are years away from being ready. The NCAA is their minor leagues. Some maturity growth in college doesn’t hurt either…..
There is no reason to remember those two names. They are CHILDREN. There are enough basketball players around that we don’t need to be scouting 14 year old children.
Hire the best candidate period. If it ends up 100% men, then so be it. It’s crazy how any statistic that shows a single group of people dominating the area, is assumed to be discrimination and makes people cry for diversity, even if it doesn’t produce the best product.
That’s the world we live in now, and it’s only getting worse.
Silver’s “I don’t know why” is oblivious, stagey, and other-blaming. I would say ignorant but I think he knows “why”.
The NBA will hire from the available pool. Silver can have goals if he wants to but I hate white-collar posturing. He should just say what he wants.
There aren’t enough men who work in nail salons. Where is the outrage?