Tag: Koby Altman

When Koby Altman was hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers in July 2017, he became just the third Black general manager in the league at that time.

Three years later, with the hiring of Troy Weaver by the Detroit Pistons, that number has nearly tripled.

Weaver, the former Thunder vice president of basketball operations, becomes the eighth current Black NBA general manager. The Denver Nuggets have decided to name Calvin Booth as their new general manager, according to the Denver Post and Shams Charania, and Booth will be the ninth once his hiring becomes official.

“In today’s time, with all the unrest, there’s an opportunity for an African American man to be named to this position, and I’m going to credit Tom (Gores) and Arn (Tellem) and Ed (Stefanski) for opening up the door for the opportunity,” Pistons head coach Dwane Casey, also an African American, said during a conference call Monday. “It’s gonna make my heart proud to work next to Troy.”

All current Black GMs, Booth included, have been hired since July 2017, helping to diversify the executive group in a league dominated by African American athletes.

“We do understand the importance of it — it’s exciting that Troy ended up the best dancer; he’s best man for the job here,” Pistons owner Tom Gores said. “As much as it was a priority, and we did focus on it, I can’t take anything away from Troy in that he’s the best man, period. Best person, period, in the world for this job.”

In the 2017 season, Dell Demps of the New Orleans Pelicans and Steve Mills of the New York Knicks were the NBA’s only Black GMs — even though more than 80% of the league’s players are people of color, according to The Institute For Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

Neither Demps nor Mills remain in those positions — Demps was fired, and Mills was promoted to president — but both were succeeded by Black men. Scott Perry was hired as Knicks general manager in 2017, and Trajan Langdon became the Pelicans general manager in 2019.

Langdon is one of three Black former NBA players to currently serve as a general manager in the league. Elton Brand was named general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018, and James Jones, who was the Phoenix Suns’ interim GM in 2018, became full time in 2019.

The NBA’s other two Black GMs are Brian Wright of the San Antonio Spurs, who was promoted from assistant GM in July 2019, and Marc Eversley of the Chicago Bulls, who was hired in May 2020.

These hires all have come since or around the time Commissioner Adam Silver signed the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion pledge in 2017, which committed to increase workplace diversity and inclusion.

The NBA has created several initiatives to promote diversity, ranging from training to recognize and manage unconscious biases, to programs including the NBA Coaches Equality Initiative, which works to identify coaching talent without consideration of race, gender or other discriminatory means, and the Basketball Operations Associates Program, which helps players develop management skills that can lead to front-office roles.

The Global Inclusion Council, with 16 members from around the NBA, issues guidance, benchmarks and policies that can help diversify the league.

The Institute For Diversity and Ethics in Sport has consistently graded the NBA well in racial components of the organization’s racial and gender report card.

With that said, the NBA still has room to improve. While the percentage of employees in the league office who are people of color increased from 2017 to 2019, the latest release of the institute’s report, it is only up to 37.6% from 35.1%.

It’s been just three years since fewer than 7% of NBA general managers were Black. Now at 30%, including Booth, the number is not proportionate, but it doesn’t show the disconnect of previous eras.

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