Stephen A: Nash will do a 'hell of a job in Brooklyn,' but being hired with no coaching experience is white privilege Now, I totally believe white privilege is a very serious and real thing but this wasn't the time to talk about it. If you count Bill Russell as a head coach when he was playing which you should then 10 out of the 17 guys who got head coaching positions in the NBA without any other coaching experience were people of color. 9 of them are black men and Jason Kidd's dad is black, I know Jason Kidd is very light skinned. I agree with the outrage of Stephen A. about issues of systemic racism but it was badly badly aimed. I am definitely all for social justice reform, BLM and everything that goes with it but this is a preposterous example given the history of this exact situation. I don't care that the team is in Brooklyn because being in a diverse place would make it a lot easier to do than it was for Red Auerbach to make Bill Russell the first black head coach in league history with no coaching experience, in 1960s Boston, on a six time defending championship team. I mean shit there is a lot of stuff that Stephen A. could have linked that rant to including the response some politicians and others had to players boycotting after Kenosha but not this. Come on!
Thats a bunch of bs, imo. The GM is very tight with Steve and he feels Nash qualifies as well. You can bet that Kyre and Kevin signed off too.
Yeah, it's just a ridiculous place to aim all of that frustration. I can't fathom the frustration but I don't get it being triggered by this, especially with the history of the subject.
unless I'm missing some context, in the last 40 years, 16 NBA coaches have been hired with no coaching experience. And 9 of the 16 were black SAS needs to take the time to look at NBA history before he starts trashing the Nash hire as white privilege.
Exactly, I missed the 40 years part so I guess Russell isn't relevant but he is the first person who came to mind when SAS was going off. I mean 1966 Boston and he's acting like this has never happened for a black man. Again, so many things are unfair for black people in America in my opinion, this just isn't one of them.
Did I mis count or are you counting Jason Kidd as black? I know his dad is black but from what I've seen of current thoughts on this kind of thing, at least from young generations, Jason Kidd doesn't count as black to most black people.
In my neighborhood growing up any of my friends who were 1/2 black were considered by everybody to be black.
Yeah I know that was the more common view, and still is for older (sorry!) generations. I just have encountered a lot of millennials and younger, in person and online, that say people like J Kidd who could pass as white aren't considered black in many ways that matter now. Like that someone who looks like him doesn't face anywhere near the amount of discrimination, or that they can't say the n-word. I'm not saying it's my view, as I don't really know what my view on the topic is, but I have heard it being discussed more and more. I've seen black people flat out saying mixed people aren't black. Which is kinda confused since few black people in america are actually 100% black. Obviously as a white person it's not my place to be declaring anything about it.. but it is confusing and also interesting. I suppose there has to be a "cut off" somewhere, I just have no idea where that might be.
I lived in the same neighborhood as Jason Kidd's dad in the East Bay and he's a really nice guy and he is also black. Kidd was the best player I've ever seen play in high school and I was kinda shocked that his dad is black because he's so light skinned. Incidentally I also count Jason Kidd among the guys that make this Stephen A. shit so shitty.
Fair enough. Like I said I don't have a fully formed opinion about this, I just know there is growing disagreement. Partially because there does have to be a boundary at some point. I think the disagreement is where that point is, and whether it is primarily based on ancestry or appearance. But this probably isn't the place for a discussion on this.
It’s a fine line for sure. I’m HISPANIC on my drivers license and all work paperwork. Since my dad left me and my mom, that was the side of the family I gravitated towards.
Right, I do think there are a lot of qualified black coaches out there and there is a huge discrepancy in how many black men are qualified to be head coaches in the league and how many actually are head coaches. If that were Stephen A Smith's rant, I would be all for it and partially that was his rant but he kicked it off and came back several times to the fact that Steve Nash had never coached before and was getting this job over qualified people who had. That was a horrible place to make his stand because of how many times the same thing has happened and how many times the people getting the opportunity Steve Nash is now getting were black men. It's plain and simple, more black men have benefited from going from no coaching experience to NBA head coach than any other race. Again, there has to be something done in the NBA like the Rooney rule in the NFL, to get more black men in head coaching and general managing roles but Stephen A just picked the completely wrong point to jump off from.
