National Basketball Association

Study: NBA tops in diversity hiring

Published Jun. 26, 2012 1:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

The NBA remains the leader among professional sports leagues in diversity hiring practices, according to a new report.

The University of Central Florida's Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sport gave the NBA an A-plus for racial hiring and A-minus for gender hiring in its annual Racial and Gender Report Card released Tuesday.

For the first time in NBA history, there were more head coaches of color (53 percent) than white head coaches. Also, African-Americans comprised 47 percent of all NBA coaches, the highest percentage since 2001-02.

The 20-percentage point increase in coaches of color was the greatest for people of color in any position in 2011-2012.

In the NBA office, 34 percent of all professional employees are people of color and 42 percent are women.