The NBA leads the way in men’s professional sports when it comes to racial and gender hiring practices D.J. Fluker Color Rush Jersey , according to a diversity report released Tuesday.

The league earned an A for racial hiring practices and a B for gender hiring practices for an overall grade of an A. That keeps the NBA ”significantly above” other professional sports, according to Richard Lapchick, the report’s author and the director of The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport.

”The NBA remains the industry leader among men’s sports for racial and gender hiring practices even with the increased grading scales introduced last season,” Lapchick said.

The report states that the NBA league office has the best record for people of color in men’s professional sports at a 36.4 percent (357 of 980) employment rate.

The league, which was first to have three team owners who are people of color, had seven women who served as team presidents/CEOs during the 2017-2018 season – the highest among men’s professional sports.

The report states there are also more NBA general managers and head coaches of color than in the past.

The general managers who are people of color doubled last season from 10 percent (3 of 30) to 20 percent (6 of 30), which puts the NBA well ahead of other men’s sports leagues.

That’s a big positive, Lapchick said.

Nine of 30 NBA head coaches were people of color last season. But following changes at the end of this past season, one-third (10 of 30) of all NBA head coaches are now people of color.

The same trend has trickled down to the assistant coach level, where the percentage of people of color increased from 45.4 percent (74 of 163) in 2016-2017 to 45.7 percent (79 of 173) this past season.

Likewise, there was an increase in the percentage of people of color as vice presidents at the team level, increasing to 25.4 percent (148 of 583) this past season Saquon Barkley Jersey Youth , up nearly six percent (86 of 442) from the previous season.

Lapchick also said that in two of the other categories that were reclassified – team management and team professional staff – the percentage of people of color increased significantly from 23.4 percent (174 of 744) to 31.2 percent (771 of 2,469) and from 32.6 percent (976 of 2,997) to 39.5 percent (1,135 of 2,871), respectively.

Lapchick had some concerns when it comes to gender hiring at the team level, a category which dropped for the third straight year.

The percentage of women decreased for team vice presidents and team professional staff. Women who held team vice president positions made up 23.5 percent (137 of 583), a slight decrease from last year’s study. The percentage of women in team professional staff positions decreased by 2.9 percentage points from 40.1 percent (1,202 of 2,997) in to 37.2 percent (1,068 of 2,871).

”It’s something we are keeping an eye on Jonathan Allen Jersey Redskins ,” Lapchick said. ”In men’s sports in general gender hiring is a major concern.”

However, Lapchick said the NBA still outpaces other leagues in gender hiring.

Despite those slight drop-offs in gender hiring, Lapchick called Commissioner Adam Silver and the NBA the ”industry leaders” among all men’s professional sports leagues in overall racial and gender hiring practices.

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The San Antonio Spurs are not going to win 50 games this season, nor have they been able to produce the game-to-game dominance in 2017-18 that has been commonplace during a two-decade run of NBA excellence.

But the Spurs still have a chance to make the playoffs for the 21st consecutive year. That goal, no, accomplishment, can be reached with a win in one of their final two games, the first of which is Monday against the Sacramento Kings at the AT&T Center in San Antonio.

The Spurs (46-34) took another step toward the postseason with a 116-105 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday behind 28 points from LaMarcus Aldridge and 17 from ageless (actually, 40-year-old) guard Manu Ginobili.

Ten of Ginobili’s points came in the fourth quarter, including eight straight in a 49-second stretch midway through the quarter that pushed the Spurs’ advantage to 101-89 and allowed San Antonio to cruise down the stretch.

“I was just feeling good,” Ginobili said about the decisive sequence. “A couple of shots went in, and I was feeling that type of rush and that type of excitement. Flow Cheap Thomas Rawls Jersey , they call it. So I was trying to use it.”

Ginobili hit all seven of his shots in the win, three of which came from behind the 3-point line. He was 4 of 4 from the field and 2 of 2 from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter.

“I’m very happy that it happened again today in an important moment,” Ginobili said. “It made me feel good, and it helped the team get a lead and then rest of the guys that were in there the last five minutes were amazing both defensively and offensively, so very solid game.”

Point guard Dejounte Murray added 17 points for San Antonio, Rudy Gay scored 16 and Patty Mills had 13 for the Spurs.

The Spurs remained sixth in the Western Conference standings. If the playoffs started today, San Antonio and Portland would play each other in the first round.

“Our team defense was good, tough cover,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Our big guys were at the rim the way they needed to be. Our smalls chased really well, so I thought our team defense gave us the opportunity to win the basketball game.”

Monday’s game will be the regular-season home finale for the Spurs, who have won 32 of 40 games at AT&T Center this season, the third-best home record in the league.

The Kings have an opportunity to put a monkey wrench into all of the Spurs’ good feelings with an upset. Sacramento can draw on the momentum it built Friday with a 94-93 win at Memphis.

The Kings won when guard Bogdan Bogdanovic knocked down a 16-foot jumper with 1.1 seconds remaining. He then stole the inbounds pass to end the game.

Willie Cauley-Stein led the Kings with 18 points Michael Gallup Jersey , Buddy Hield finished with 14, and De’Aaron Fox and Justin Jackson each scored 13. Bogdanovic had just eight points but made the game’s biggest shot.

“He’s struggled shooting the basketball, it didn’t seem like he had a lot of energy,” Kings coach Dave Joerger said about Bogdanovic. “And he’s got the purest heart ever — he’s just exhausted mentally and so he kind of lost focus. We got him some good looks.”

Bogdanovic said the games at this point of the season are a grind on his psyche and don’t give him the same feedback at the end.

“It’s more mental because we’re out of the playoffs,” Bogdanovic said. “But we’re still trying to win and still trying to play the right way. It’s tough, but we’ll figure it out, and we want to finish the season strong.”

Kings forward Zach Randolph missed his eighth straight game, the last four for personal reasons. Monday’s game is the road finale this season for Sacramento.

San Antonio has won 13 straight games over Sacramento and has beaten the Kings 10 consecutive times at the AT&T Center.

A Kings win would allow Sacramento to avoid the season series sweep by San Antonio or the fourth consecutive year.

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