The Boston Celtics want to hire a new head coach.
Good luck getting the job if you’re white, though.
The Celtics reportedly have a racial preference when it comes to hiring a replacement for Brad Stevens, their previous head coach, who is white.
“Team personnel contacted by B/R maintain that hiring a Black candidate is another top priority for the Celtics,” a Bleacher Report story from earlier this week says. “If Boston can also land someone who has previous head coaching experience, that person would further meet the Celtics’ criteria, sources said.”
For a team like the Celtics, it’s a move that makes no sense. The team hasn’t won an NBA championship since the 2007-2008 NBA season. To get there, the team should want the best head coach available regardless of race.
The Celtics have enjoyed success over the years with white coaches and black coaches alike. Red Auerbach was the team’s head coach from 1950 to 1966, and the team won nine NBA titles under him.
While Auerbach, Tommy Heinsohn, and Bill Fitch were white head coaches, Bill Russell, KC Jones, and Doc Rivers were black head coaches; they all have at least one NBA championship ring as a Celtics head coach.
If someone is a good coach, that is what should matter. Checking off some diversity box shouldn’t be the priority in a league in which winning championships is the goal. If the best available man for the job is black, that’s great. That’s who the team should hire. However, if the best available candidate for the job is white, that’s also great. That’s who they should hire. Filtering out candidates for the job because of something they can’t control is not only bad policy, but it’s racist.
It’s also insulting to whoever gets the job. It may lead some to wonder if said person only got the job because of the color of his skin. Especially if the team doesn’t perform well!
The move, however, isn’t surprising given the source. One of the Celtics owners is Steve Pagliuca, co-chairman of the private investment firm Bain Capital. It’s exactly the kind of symbolic tokenism that big corporations display during Pride Month. Not to mention, the NBA loves hollow gestures. It’s a league that has embraced the Black Lives Matter movement while refusing to address the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China.
If the Celtics hire someone who isn’t the best man for the job in the name of diversity and suffer as a result, they deserve everything that comes their way. Meritocracy works well in professional sports; keep the meritocracy, even if it bothers a handful of fringe liberals.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
