Posted on 05/12/2005 11:52:03 AM PDT by JZelle
The NBA has the best record in professional sports in hiring black coaches. But the New York Times got that record wrong late last month in a 2,200-word front-page story. The Times' study of the past 15 years found evidence of discrimination against black coaches. A white coach, the paper claimed, typically gets to coach "50 percent longer [than a black coach] and has most of an extra season to prove himself." Discrimination is abhorrent, and the Times' evidence of discrimination caused real, understandable anger in sports pages across the nation.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Even Paul Silas, the black coach that the Times notes was treated poorly in Cleveland, spent 4.4 years with the Charlotte/New Orleans Hornets, as compared to Dave Cowens' 2.1 years — even though his .573 win rate was lower than Cowens' .609 win rate.
Mr. Leonhardt suggests that concerns about issues such as selectively dropping data and statistical significance aren't really relevant because the Times is "not an academic journal, it is a newspaper." Yet the fact remains that the Times — a newspaper with millions of readers — alleges discrimination on the basis of evidence that simply doesn't hold up. That's the equivalent of yelling "fire" in a crowded movie theater.
If you can use only the data you want to get the story you want - wow, you can prove anything you want!
and thus we MUST ignore those trends if we are to get the results we want. There MUST be discrimination... even in we must manufacture it.
And they earn less than Phil Jackson!
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