NEW YORK (AP) — Doc Rivers was a little surprised by the number, though not by the trend.
Fourteen NBA head coaches are black, tying the league’s own record for the most ever in a sport and nearly half of its 30 teams.
With Mexican-American Kaleb Canales of Portland and Miami coach Erik Spoelstra, a Filipino-American, the NBA has 16 coaches of color, its most ever, according to Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport and the primary author of the Racial and Gender Report Card that awards the NBA its highest grades.
Rivers says he didn’t know the total was so high, but doesn’t think it’s a big deal in the NBA because “we probably set the tone in all leagues in that way.”
