The National Basketball Association has one of the highest percentages of African American players from the big four professional sports leagues in North America. In 2023, approximately 70.4 percent of NBA players were African American. Meanwhile, ethnically white players constituted a 17.5 percent share of all NBA players that year. After the WNBA and NBA, the National Football League had the largest share of African Americans in a professional sports league in North America.

How do other roles in the NBA compare?

When it comes to African American representation in the NBA, no other role in the NBA is as well represented by African Americans as players. Meanwhile, on the opposite end of the scale, less than five percent of team governors in the NBA were African American in 2023. During the 2022/23 season, the role with the second-highest share of African Americans was head coach, with a share of 50 percent. That season, the number of African American head coaches in the NBA exceeded the number of white head coaches for the first time.

African Americans in the NFL

In 2022, the greatest share of players by ethnicity in the NFL were African American, with more than half of all NFL players falling within this group. The representation of African Americans in American Football extended beyond the playing field, with 36.3 percent of NFL assistant coaches being African American in 2022 as well. However, positions such as vice presidents and head coaches were less representative of the African American population, as less than 10 percent of the individuals fulfilling these roles in 2022 were African American.

Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2023, 70.4 percent of NBA players were African American, as well as half of the head coaches within the league.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league for men with 30 teams competing against each other in the United States. A survey conducted in March 2023 in the United States showed that 40 percent of black respondents had no interest in the NBA.

In 2023, over 92 percent of the team presidents within the NBA were white, while 7.9 percent were African American. This was a slight increase in the share of African American team presidents from the previous year. Meanwhile, the share of female team presidents in the NBA that year was 18.4 percent, which was a significant increase from 2022, when that figure was 10.5 percent.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league in North America. While 27 percent of fans of the NBA were Black, this number varied between fans of each individual team. Approximately 30 percent of Los Angeles Clippers fans were Black, while this figure stood at 19 percent among supporters of the Boston Celtics.

A January 2024 survey in the United States revealed that almost 56 percent of NBA fans who attended or watched games were Caucasian. Meanwhile, 21.1 percent of NBA fans were Hispanic.

Professional sports leagues in North America have traditionally been home to athletes from many backgrounds and ethnicities. In the 2023 season, over 70 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) were African American. In comparison, 17.5 percent of NBA athletes were white and 2.2 percent were Hispanic.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league for men with 30 teams competing against each other in the United States and Canada. During a 2020 survey in the United States, 23 percent of NBA fans were Hispanic.

In 2023, over 60 percent of players in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) were black or African American. Meanwhile, just 1.4 percent of players in the league identified as Asian.

In the 2022/23 NBA season, there were 15 African American head coaches in comparison to 14 white head coaches. Going back to 2010, this was the first time that the number of African American head coaches in the NBA exceeded the number of white head coaches. Head coach of Miami Heat, Erik Spoelstra, remained the only Asian-American coach in the league.

Basketball is a commonly watched sport both in the United States and worldwide. The survey depicts the level of interest in the sport in the United States and it shows that 38 percent of African American respondents were casual fans of NBA as of May 2020.

This graph shows the average minutes of NBA viewed on television during the 2013-2014 in the United States, by ethnicity. According to the source, Asian-Americans watched an average of 729 minutes of NBA games during the 2013-2014 season.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league for men with 30 teams competing against each other across the United States and Canada. International players in the NBA are classified as those born outside of the United States, as well as players born in U.S. overseas territories. In 2020, 21.8 percent of NBA players came were classed as international players.

In 2023, the greatest share of players by ethnic group in the National Football League (NFL) were black or African American athletes, constituting just over 53 percent of players within the NFL. Despite the large population of Hispanic or Latino people within the United States, there is a substantial underrepresentation within the NFL, with only 0.5 percent of players identifying as such.

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that was established in 1920 and now consists of 32 clubs divided into two conferences, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). The league culminates in the Super Bowl, the NFL's annual championship game. As the league’s championship game, the Super Bowl has grown into one of the world's largest single-day sporting events, attracting high television ratings and generating billions of dollars in consumer spending.

NFL revenues The NFL is one of the most profitable sports leagues in the world, generating a staggering 18.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. This total revenue of all 32 NFL teams has constantly increased over the past 15 years and, although this figure dropped significantly in 2020, this was largely as a result of the impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) containment measures. This significant drop in revenue demonstrates one of the primary impacts of COVID-19 on professional sports leagues.

NFL franchises As a result of this profitability in non-pandemic times, the franchises of the NFL are attributed extremely high market values. The Dallas Cowboys were by far the most valuable franchise in the NFL, with a market value of nine billion US dollars in 2023. The high value of NFL franchises can be seen clearly when compared to those of the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Franchises within the NFL had an average market value of approximately 5.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league for men with 30 teams competing against each other in the United States. A survey conducted in March 2023 in the United States showed that 63 percent of female respondents had no interest in the NBA.

The National Basketball Association is a professional basketball league for men with 30 teams competing against each other in the United States. A survey conducted in March 2023 in the United States showed that 63 percent of respondents aged 65 and older had no interest in the NBA.

Of the big four professional sports leagues in North America, the NFL and the NBA have the highest percentage of African American players. In 2024, around 53.5 percent of NFL players were African American, as well as around 36.6 percent of assistant coaches.

NCAA men's basketball is the college level of basketball played in the United States and is seen as the final step up before the NBA. In a survey conducted in March 2023, around 15 percent of Hispanic respondents stated that they were avid fans of NCAA men's college basketball in the United States.

There are widely considered to be four major professional men's sports leagues in the United States and Canada - NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL. The professional soccer league (MLS) has also achieved some popularity in the United States in recent years. During a 2019 survey, 27 percent of Hispanic respondents stated that the National Football League, NFL, was their favorite men's U.S. professional sports league to follow.

A January 2024 survey in the United States revealed that almost 60 percent of NBA fans who attended or watched games were male. Meanwhile, just over 40 percent of NBA fans were female.