{"href":"http://player.captivate.fm/services/oembed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fplayer.captivate.fm%2Fepisode%2Fc1ff0d2b-6c61-4dec-bbda-d10aa62d7305","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Captivate.FM","provider_url":"https://www.captivate.fm","width":600,"height":200,"type":"rich","html":"","title":"Moving Forward Part 4: Breaking Down Barriers to Entry \u2013 Work In Sports podcast","description":"
\nJune 2014, just 6 years ago, the Atlanta Hawks finished their season 38-44 and were bounced in the first round of the playoffs.
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\nTheir General Manager, former NBA player Danny Ferry, was in a conference call with team owners and organizational stakeholders outlining his off-season plans and possible targets in free agency.
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\nLuol Deng, was a free agent.
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\nFerry, during the call, described Deng as a player who \u201chas a little African in him\u201d and \u201ca guy who would have a nice store out front, and sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back.\u201d
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\nThe comments became public after being leaked. Ferry claimed he was only reading comments from a scouting report compiled by someone else. The team concluded from their own commissioned investigation that Ferry\u2019s remarks did not include offensive language, and were not \u201cmotivated by racial or ethnic animus.\u201d
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\nYou can judge that for yourself, with or without a commissioned investigation.
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\nBut that wasn\u2019t the end of the Hawks problems.
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\nAt the same time, the franchise\u2019s controlling owner Bruce Levenson reported that he sent out a racist e-mail two months earlier criticizing the Hawks predominantly African-American fan base. The e-mail sent to Ferry detailed Levenson\u2019s belief that the Hawks\u2019 fan base was \u201coverwhelmingly black\u201d and the \u201cblack people scared away whites\u201d from attending games.
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\nLevenson also wrote that the Hawks games were attended by a 70 percent black crowd with predominantly black cheerleaders, hip-hop music, 90 percent black patrons at the arena\u2019s bars, and fewer fathers and sons at the games. He added that concerts at the games were mostly hip-hop or gospel, thus attracting more African-American fans.
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\nLevenson sold his interest in the Hawks upon revealing his e-mail to the NBA.
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\nOctober 7th, 2014, just a few months later, Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, seeing a need for change in his organization, posts a job listing for a chief diversity and inclusion officer.
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\nWe so often think roles in diversity and inclusion are the norm in sports. That there are people and staff dedicated to the process of equality in workplace, culture, hiring practices, benefits, deeper cultural awareness, education, and sensitivity \u2013 and they have always been there guiding the ship of cultural equity.
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\nBut when Steve Koonin and the Atlanta Hawks hired Nzinga Shaw to be their Chief Diversity and Inclusion officer in the fall of 2014, she was the first in the NBA.
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\nAmazingly, when Zing Shaw left the Hawks in 2019 to join Starbucks as their Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, she was also the first to hold that role at Starbucks.
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\n5 years ago, Diversity and Inclusion roles in sports didn\u2019t exist. And while it is important to note that Diversity Officers and D&I executives are now being included in every sports organization's corporate structure, the fact it took this long, and this big of a problem to make it happen, is sad.
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\nThe Hawks, in case you were wondering, during Shaw\u2019s reign, turned their image in the Atlanta community around.
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\nThey created all-staff service days with six service projects in the city, accumulating 1,000 combined hours of community service. They had a float in the Atlanta Pride Festival, with current and former players and employees riding on the float and throwing 2,000 basketballs to the crowd with pride and Hawks logos on them.","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300,"thumbnail_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/f0ac3d6f-d600-45f4-8eac-c7e44e70fd53/moving-forward-week4.png"}