[kenjackson]

The NBA cares. In terms of bottom line, they are helped by having diverse players. Yao Ming opened the game up to a billion audience market. Top jersey sales often go to rising white stars in the game.

Ones of the pushes in the league is to make foreign European players appeal more to white Americans. We’re not trying to have the league match US demographics, but make no mistake that diversity is a big deal to the NBA.

[rajin444]

Diversity should only matter in that it furthers the level of basketball being played. Diversity because it opens up additional markets is an awful incentive. That they only care about diversity because it makes them richer is very telling.

On top of that, the NBA is always going to have a problem with height diversity. I don’t think this is a problem, but viewed with an equity lens it is.

[giaour]

> On top of that, the NBA is always going to have a problem with height diversity

When I was a kid, I recall people loving Muggsy Bogues because he was a short guy thriving in a tall man's game. It was really dramatic to watch him start when everybody else on the court was 2+ feet taller.

Professional sports are a performance, and it's ludicrous to say managers and league execs shouldn't take things like viewership and ticket sales into account when planning a season or expanding a team's roster. The "home team" dynamic deliberately encourages spectators to identify with players with whom they share an affinity (even if it's just that they live in the same city), so it's unsurprising that the dynamic extends to nationality, gender, religion, race, etc, too.

[Volundr]

> Diversity should only matter in that it furthers the level of basketball being played.

The NBA is in the business of entertainment. If something means that more people enjoy the game if basketball it IS better basketball, by the only sensible metric.

[kenjackson]

I think you underestimate how single minded business is. In fairness they probably also have some other reasons to care about diversity, but money is the biggest issue.

[ModernMech]

> Diversity should only matter in that it furthers the level of basketball being played.

Why? It seems to me if the NBA wants to continue to exist in the future, they should want to get as many people as possible playing and watching basketball. Why does it have to be about furthering the l bel of play, rather than getting more people playing and watching and participating?

[hombre_fatal]

That just sounds like celebrity, and a celebrity that might come from the fact that there’s only one Yao Ming, not a bunch of them. That seems to work against your supposed argument that NBA should want larger NBA-minority groups.

I don’t think the modern push for diversity means hire a few token members of each minority and them reap their celebrity status.

[ttyprintk]

When it comes to staff, NBA is the only major sport which didn’t need a Rooney rule.