Stephen A. Smith Lauds NBA for Hiring Black Head Coaches and Takes Credit: Nobody ‘Pushed This Narrative More Than Me’
Stephen A. Smith has dedicated many segments on ESPN’s First Take to the lack of Black head coaches in the NBA. So when it looks like there’s progress being made, he deserves some credit.
Smith previously called out the hired of Steve Kerr and Steve Nash as examples of White privilege, being handed championship-ready opportunities despite having zero NBA coaching experience. Last month, Smith stormed off set after ranting and calling on NBA players to vouch for more Black head coaches. But since the regular season ended, seven of the eight NBA head coaching vacancies were filled by Black candidates.
“It’s incredibly significant,” Smith said Monday on First Take. “I don’t know of anybody that has pushed this narrative more than me as it pertains to African Americans needing the opportunities to be head coaches in the National Basketball Association.”
During the 2012-13 season, a record 14 of the NBA’s 30 head coaches were Black. However, eight years later, the league went backward, with just seven of the NBA’s 30 head coaches being Black for the start of the 2020-21 NBA season.
“As it pertains to the NBA, a league that’s over 75 percent Black, you would think that the paucity of opportunities that were being accorded to these guys would have hit the radar for folks long before I had to get on the air and literally go the hell off about it,” Smith told his co-host, Max Kellerman.
According to Smith one of the biggest victories is the fact that these coaches are being offered good opportunities to succeed, whereas previous Black coaching hires looked destined to fail, being handed rosters with no chance of winning.
“The NBA as a whole should be applauded for really stepping up and making sure that something like this happened,” Smith said. “I think it’s a beautiful thing, I think it’s a beautiful day and we should all be incredibly proud of the opportunities that these guys have.”
Watch above via ESPN
