Analytics and black people

2:17 PMThis morning, First Take discussed Michael Wilbon’s column titled “Mission Impossible: African-Americans & analytics.” In it, he argues that black basketball players and coaches are being ostracized surrounding not just the belief in, but the society around the metrics movement.

Hosts Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless also addressed the backlash the piece received, with Smith confirming what Wilbon said and then explaining how black coaches are “becoming an endangered species” and “in a world of trouble.”

“That’s the language that the owners love to hear,” Smith said. “Who do you hire? You hire guys that speak that language; who you’ve ingratiated yourself with them and vice versa; who gravitate to you and vice versa; and who you hang out with and drink together and talk about all of these things, and it’s never us. And then suddenly you’re outside, looking in. And at the rate it’s going, don’t be surprised if in a league where there are 30 teams, and obviously, 30 head coaches, if 10 percent or less of them happen to be black. Black coaches, head coaches are becoming an endangered species. They are in a world of trouble.”

When the Wilbon’s story initially went up, reaction was swift.

“I just think analytics are rarely discussed for large swathes of casual sports fans everywhere,” @mistertoastman wrote. “By loose definition a casual fan is less experienced with the nuances of a sport. How could they be expected to analyze its statistics? I don’t think I agree that there is a correlation between black people and emotion that biases us against analytics. I’ve gone to barbershops and talked basketball, and for sure, there was no mention of win shares or VORP. Is that unique to black experience ?”

https://twitter.com/RocketIntellect/status/735148000683532293

 

I thought Wilbon piece was interesting b/c, right now, on TV, analytics seems like part of the continuing whiteness of management

— profloumoore (@loumoore12) May 24, 2016

 

So Wilbon is learning now, like baseball reporters have known for 20 years, that the players themselves don't care about analytics? Cool.

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) May 24, 2016

 

Yall killing Wilbon for that analytics piece and I just wanna know what the hell is "BlackWorld".

— Beyonce has an uncle named Larry Beyince. Bruh…. (@DragonflyJonez) May 24, 2016

 

Wilbon raised some interesting questions but go to any sports bar and see how many fans of any ethnicity care about analytics

— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) May 25, 2016

 

The shame about Wilbon's (beyond it literally being wrong) is there is a great piece out there about why analytics and (lack of) diversity.

— Andy Glockner (@AndyGlockner) May 25, 2016

 

I thought Black Men Don't Like Analytics was going to be the Moneyball-esque sequel to White Men Can't Jump starring @wesleysnipes as a GM.

— DO NOT CONGRATULATE (@russbengtson) May 24, 2016

Now that’s funny.

Nothing race specific about analytics. it is just the perception that if you into analytics you are white nerd, that is a stereotype

— Robert Littal (@BSO) May 24, 2016

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This last reaction is perhaps most important. In his April 2014 story “Blacks losing the numbers game,” Howard Bryant explained how the mentality applies to baseball.

“On its face, data mining is obviously not a racist practice, but as [Oakland A’s general manager Billy] Beane and I discussed a decade and a half ago, the unintended consequences of a changing world have produced stalls in progress for African-Americans,” Bryant wrote. “As analytics became more prolific in baseball front offices, so have the criteria to be hired. The hiring universe, the game of who gets the jobs, has been changing for more than a decade. … The days of ex-players — black, white or Latino — becoming general managers seem to be coming to an end, a reign of opportunity that was never exactly plentiful.”

That, you can count on.

Rhiannon Walker, associate editor, contributed to this report.