I noticed in the NFL and NBA that majority of players are black, meanwhile the coaches and team owners tend to always be rich old white guys. I know there are a few exceptions like in the case of Yao Ming. Still it seems rare to see south or east Asian players, middle eastern, or latin Americans from central American countries like Guatemala, Honduras, or Nicaragua.
I know it goes beyond a matter of skill. Some of the best basketball players I grew up with were average to below average height Filipinos.
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In American football, it’s only really played in the US. So that’s why there aren’t a ton of foreigners who play those sports.
As for the NBA, I’m not sure what you’re talking about, because it’s very diverse. A lot of the top players are not American.
Most likely interest levels in communities to invest time and effort in certain sports, I’m guessing.
I think Black Americans are more likely to pursue entertainment based industry in general if I remember the data correctly.
Because they don’t play those sports as much as black people. But the best players in the nba aren’t American rn so idk what league you watching
>I know it goes beyond a matter of skill. Some of the best basketball players I grew up with were below average height Filipinos
I hate to tell you this, but that says more about the caliber of player you grew up around than it does anything about the NBA.
Seems like African-American families value physical fitness and sports while Asian-American families want their kids to pursue futures in STEM. If they do any sports, it’s usually something like tennis or golf. Those with roots in Latin America have a history of support for soccer or baseball.
The NBA is incredibly diverse for a major league.
The best players in the league include a Greek immigrant whose parents fled Nigeria. Another is Serbian, another is Slovenian, another was born in Cameroon and didn’t start playing basketball until he was 15.
Why aren’t more Latinos or Middle Easterners in the NBA? They live in soccer obsessed countries. SE Asians also don’t really play basketball outside of The Philippines and China. Basketball is popular in Europe and it’s growing like mad in Africa.
> meanwhile the coaches and team owners tend to always be rich old white guys
>
Teams are selling for $3-5 billion dollars. How many humans on the planet have that money and an interest in owning a team?
Coaches in the NBA are roughly 50/50 black/white this season and the NFL has diversity rules.
>meanwhile the coaches and team owners tend to always be rich old white guys.
I can’t really speak to the NFL, but there are more black NBA coaches than white NBA coaches. With respect to the owners, that’s really a reflection of American capitalism, the top of which is very much dominated by old white men.
Because its a sport and not a Disney movie.
At this point, the NBA finds talent in all corners of the globe. If there are not players from the Middle East, East Asia, Latin America, etc. then there just aren’t any of the world’s best players from those places. But the NBA is a fairly international league — there are 120 NBA players (out of about 400) who are not from the US, and [represent 40 countries](https://www.nba.com/news/nba-rosters-international-players-2022-23).
Many of the top NBA players are foreign — Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece, Luka Dončić from Slovenia, Nikola Jokić from Serbia, Joel Embiid from Cameroon. In fact, last year’s top 3 vote getters for MVP were all international players.
Professional sports are played by the best athletes in those sports. It just so happens that most of those athletes are black.
Why would we require the composition of a team mimic the population?
Our culture is intended to work on merit. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in sports. You asked why few Mexicans? Hispanics are several inches shorter, on average, than other races. Football and basketball prioritize height. If there were exceptional tall Hispanics, they would be in the NFL and NBA. Tony Gonzalez is a famous Hispanic NFL player, but he’s also 6’5”.
Coaching is changing. It takes generations of owners and players to get more black coaches into the pipeline. We’re seeing more, but it will be based on merit.
1. The Two most popular sports league in the United States are the NFL and MLB, NBA is just a distant third most popular.
2. NFL being primarily Black , White and Latino players has more to do with Gridiron Football being almost secluded to the United States and Canada. Black, White and Latinos make up 88% of the American population. So by numbers an Asian player is unlikely. Moreover the NFL basically requires 95% percentile males in height, weight and physical strength. Because Asians tend to be smaller and less inclined to heavy builds(mostly because of diet), there are few Asian Americans in the NFL.
3. There are also cultural elements in play. Japanese American kids are far more likely to be pushed toward Baseball since the Japanese are fanatic about baseball.
The nba is fairly diverse players from all over
Football is only played in the U.S for the most part
The nfl has pathways for foreign players