Steve Nash Has Everything-- Except The Right Skin Colour
It was probably just a matter of time from when Canadian NBA legend Steve Nash was named the new coach of the Brooklyn Nets to a protest from the #BLM crowd. It was almost like the Times Square countdown…5…4…3…2…1…
Happy Grievance Day!
No sooner was the surprise announcement made than Stephen A. Smith, the vox populi of SJW outlet ESPN was demanding to know why a black head coach was not given the coveted post with the Nets. (Currently the NBA has five black head coaches. Twelve NBA coaches were black in 2012.)
While allowing that Nash has most of what you need to coach in the #BLM house league, Smith said Nash has one disqualifying feature.
His skin colour.
“There is no way around it,” Smith said. “This is white privilege. This doesn’t happen for a black man… No experience whatsoever on any level as a coach? And you get the Brooklyn Nets job?” Smith then went into full critical-race-theory mode. "How the hell does this always happen for somebody else, other than us? Why is it we have to be twice as good to get half as much? Why is it that no matter what we do and how hard we work…”
It goes on, but if you’ve heard the dudes burning downtowns in the U.S. or harassing diners you know the rest of the #BLM racial theory diatribe. (BTW: Doc Rivers, legendary black NBA player/ coach praised the Nash hiring,)
At the risk of bringing up no coaching experience whatsoever, how about (to name a few) Bill Russell given the Celtics head coaching job with no experience in 1966, or Al Attles in 1969, Lenny Wilkens in 1969, Tyronn Lue in 2016, Mark Jackson in 2011. All were coaching rookies. Whatever, says Smith.
Give Smith credit. He knows what his bosses at ESPN (and Disney) want to hear. Interceptions are less important than intersectionality. Go guilty or go home. As seen by its capitulation to #BLM no league or its broadcaster has tried harder to appease its black workforce (or the Chinese running shoe manufacturers).
So how did this hiring happen with Nash, not black interim coach Jaque Vaughn, getting the job? Apparently it was Nash’s ability to function as a white star (he won two MVPs) in a league that is over 80 percent black— and, as we’ve seen lately, radically political. His relationship with Nets superstar Kevin Durant and his willingness to put his reputation on the line with coach-killer Kyrie Irving also distinguished him.
In a superstar league handling massive egos is as important as Xs and 0s. Plus, Nash is a nine on the SJW scale of progressive adherence. This is not Mike Pence.
As an aside, while the progressive left is long on the topic of feeling put-upon, talk to white players about the bias against them from black NBA players. In a sample case, NBA star Montrezl Harrell of the L.A. Clippers called Dallas Mavericks’ Slovenian guard, Luka Doncic, a “pussy bitch-ass white boy” on TV cameras during a scuffle last week. Were it a racial slur against Harrell then Doncic would be banned for life.
But racism only goes one way in Grievance Inc. ® The NBA looked the other way. You can’t insult whites enough. Imagine what would happen to Stephen A.’s head if the Mavs win the NBA championship with Doncic, Latvian Kristaps Porzingis, Serbian Boban Marjanovic, and German Maxi Kleban? Whites can win in the NBA?
But you’d never hear this from Stephen A. Just his well-worn racist cop meme. (In 2019 an unarmed black was twice as likely to be hit by lightning than by a police bullet.) Does Smith want a quota? If so, should it be relative to blacks in the NBA (81.8 percent) or blacks in the U.S. (12 percent)? He’s not saying what’s an acceptable level of blackness.
Byron Scott, himself a black NBA coach, thinks that “our players don’t do a good enough job for advocating for black coaches, and that’s just something that we need to change..” Much of the U.S. hoops coaching tree starts at the college level— the top of which is often dominated by longtime white coaching legends. That factory churns out many black players but a limited supply of black coaches such as 38-year-old Monty Williams, the coach in Phoenix. If Smith has a beef it’s probably with that level of the chain, not Nash getting the Nets post,
The situation is similar to the NHL Montreal Canadiens. The nationalist sentiment in Quebec now appears to dictate that any GM or head coach of the Habs must not only be fluent in French (as was Bob Gainey) but be pur laine. And so the Canadiens have run through a series of francophone coaches (Alain Vigneault, Claude Julien, Guy Carbonneau, Michel Therrien, Jacques Martin). Marc Bergevin, another Quebecker, has been the GM since 2012.
For all their ethnic purity the Canadiens have not won a Stanley Cup since 1993 and have gotten to the Conference finals just once (2013-14 where they lost) since Bergevin took over as GM. Which might make some nationalists happy but probably isn’t the record to satisfy notoriously fickle Habs fans who consider winning, not SJW points, to be their birthright.
By contrast, the top soccer teams in the world regularly hire from outside their national or cultural community. The English Premiership— considered the top soccer league in the world— had ten non-UK managers this past season (50 percent of teams). Liverpool, champions last season, are coached by German Jürgen Klopp. While there are a few complaints, the Premiership’s pursuit of winning seems to overcome the need for ethnic purity in its manager ranks.
Wonder how Stephen A. Could twist that into a grievance?
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand is also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his next book Personal Account with Tony Comper will be available on BruceDowbigginBooks.ca this fall.