It's clear the Celtics' reputation around the NBA is battered. When Kyrie Irving talked about possibly facing racial taunts at the TD Garden, his All-Star teammate, Kevin Durant, backed him up.
Five nights later, when Irving stepped on "Lucky" following Brooklyn's blowout Game 4 victory, nobody on the Celtics pushed back. The only voices of dissent came from guys who last stepped onto the parquet years ago.
In between, Danny Ainge said he's never heard about racism in Boston, which reportedly sent shockwaves throughout the NBA, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Now Ainge is gone, and Brad Stevens has taken his place. The Celtics seemingly didn't consider any outside candidates.
They stuck with their own.
"It's moments like this where I get on people's nerves — particularly, white America and in the NBA community specifically, because I point out it's beautiful to be a white guy," said Stephen A. Smith on ESPN this week. "You're a question mark as a coach in some people's eyes, including in Boston. But somehow, some way, you're moving upstairs. And the opportunities for African-Americans continue to dwindle and dwindle and dwindle."
Stevens' smooth transition from the sidelines to front office — the definition of "failing upwards" — once again highlights the gross power disparity in the NBA. Though the league is 74.2 percent Black, there are just seven Black head coaches, and 10 Black general managers. Meanwhile, out of 185 assistant-coaching positions, 85 percent of the coaches are people of color.
The opportunities are there for Black coaches, but only to a point. On the whole, they aren't elevated to head coaching positions.
The Celtics have a prime opportunity to help change that, and repair their damaged brand in the process.
Of course, the Celtics should hire the best person for the job. But the numbers indicate that isn't happening across the league — unless you believe nearly every person of color in an assistant-coaching role isn't worthy of being promoted. There are many deserving candidates out there, ranging from Chauncey Billups and Sam Cassel to Phil Handy, who's won championships as an assistant in Cleveland, Toronto and Los Angeles.
Yet, he continues to get passed over for head coaching roles, much like Eric Bieniemy in the NFL.
Black head coaches are also seldom given the opportunity to transition into executive positions, as Kendrick Perkins mentioned this week. "Once an African-American coach gets fired, there's no moving up in front office roles," he said on ESPN. "Once you're fired, you're fired."
The Celtics have a tradition of breaking barriers in the coaching ranks. Red Auerbach named Bill Russell the first Black head coach in league history in 1966, just one year after the end of Jim Crow. K.C. Jones and M.L. Carr also served as head coaches.
More recently, the team employed Kara Lawson as an assistant for the 2019-20 season. She's now the head coach of Duke's women's team.
Brian Scalabrine said he thinks Lawson is the favorite for the job. Duke alumnus Jay Williams also endorsed Lawson, speaking directly to the historic nature of her potential hire.
"Let's bring it up: I understand Danny can only speak from his experiences, but understanding there were some issues racially that were happening in Boston, the history of that, what a statement would it be for the Boston Celtics to hire the first woman head coach of the NBA," Williams said on ESPN. "And then, also to add to that — she's qualified now — but a woman of color to be the head coach of the Boston Celtics? What a grand statement that would be."
It would also be an important statement for Celtics players. As Smith mentioned, while NBA players frequently talk about racial justice issues, they don't always focus on the issues in their own league.
"You got players — NBA players are some of the most powerful people in this world," he said. "When have they spoken up for Black coaches? When? When have they spoken up for Black executives?"
The Celtics can speak up for them with this hire. Their next coach will ultimately be tasked with guiding Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown back on a championship path, but there needs to be a change of perception before that happens. Hiring an accomplished Black or female candidate -- such as Lawson or Becky Hammon -- to be the next coach would help accomplish that.
Then maybe the Celtics won't just accept getting stomped on.
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Celtics' sagging TV ratings reflect low likability: The Celtics averaged a 2.44 TV rating this season, down 15 percent from 2019-20. The Bruins, meanwhile, crushed that number, drawing an average rating of 4.19 on NESN.
Those figures are telling. Unsurprisingly, they show fans become disinterested in inconsistent clubs that underachieve. But the ratings fall also indicates that people don't habitually turn on the game anymore. As the Red Sox learned last year, if the product is bad, viewers will just tune out. There is always something good on Netflix — or Instagram.
NFL keeping locker rooms closed is disgraceful: The NFL will reportedly keep locker rooms closed to reporters when teams report to training camp and play preseason games this season. And that is disgraceful. How can the league justify piling 80,000 people into the stadium, but keeping 20 vaccinated people out of the locker room?
Unless, of course, they want to phase out press access entirely. Dan Shaughnessy told me recently he doesn't think the access is ever coming back. "It's the Pentagon, it's the White House press room," he said. "Everything is kept in-house, exactly the way teams want it. They'll be able to use 'abundance of caution' to stiff-arm us forever now."
This reported move was predictable. Players and coaches loathe open locker rooms, and league executives think they no longer need independent media to help promote their product. They don't care that beat reporters won't be able to cultivate sources, or shower us with anecdotes about which players are bonding over games of ping-pong. Athletes can share examples of team camaraderie on their own time, and most importantly, on their own channels.
Fans may not care either, but they're wrong to feel ambivalent. Less access means less insight into what's actually going on. The Zoom world keeps everybody in the dark.
Missed question for Ainge: On that note, kudos to the Celtics for actually holding a real press conference to announce their big shakeup, and answer questions for an extended period of time, But there is one question that was missed: Did the blowback regarding Ainge's comments about race factor into his departure?
It's an uncomfortable inquiry, but when his exit was announced, the timing was hard to ignore. It almost certainly didn't start the process, but it could've sealed it.
