Because they can. When it comes to billionaires, it seems like half of them in America are Jewish. <\/p>\n
From the Forward in 2014<\/a>:<\/p>\n It will be hard to find Jews on the court in the National Basketball Association playoffs. But toss a basketball into an NBA owners\u2019 meeting, and you\u2019ll probably hit one. Because they can. When it comes to billionaires, it seems like half of them in America are Jewish. From the Forward in 2014: It will be hard to find Jews on the court in the National Basketball Association playoffs. But … Continue reading
\nThere are only three Jewish players in the NBA, and no Jewish head coaches. Yet nearly half the principal owners of NBA teams are Jewish, as are the league\u2019s current commissioner and its immediate past commissioner.
\nNo other major pro league in the United States has such a high proportion of Jewish owners. The NFL comes closest: Roughly a third of that league\u2019s owners are Jewish. Just a handful of pro baseball and hockey owners are Jews.
\nSo why do Jews own so many NBA teams? The answer has to do with the prehistory of pro basketball, the sport\u2019s urban roots and the economics of the modern NBA. Also, Jews are huge basketball fans.
\n\u201cJews love basketball,\u201d said Nathaniel Friedman, who writes widely about basketball under the pen name Bethlehem Shoals. \u201cIf you asked a Jewish multimillionaire what they want, they\u2019d probably say they want to buy the Knicks, in their dreams.\u201d
\nAmerican Jews\u2019 overwhelming dominance of the business side of pro ball slipped awkwardly into the spotlight April 29, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced harsh sanctions against Donald Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, at a press conference in New York. Silver levied fines and a lifetime ban against Sterling, who had been caught on tape expressing racist attitudes toward black people. During the question-and-answer session, a sportswriter named Howard Megdal (who once wrote a book called \u201cThe Baseball Talmud\u201d) asked whether the fact that both Silver and Sterling were Jewish had affected Silver\u2019s response to Sterling\u2019s racist tirade.
\n\u201cI think my response was as a human being,\u201d Silver said.
\nThe interaction highlighted not only the predominance of Jewish ownership in the NBA, but also the near-lack of African-American owners (Michael Jordan famously owns the Charlotte Bobcats). \u201cPeople have difficulty talking about [the] conflicts, tensions, the differential privileges,\u201d said David Leonard, an associate professor at Washington State University, Pullman and the author of the 2012 book \u201cAfter Artest: The NBA and the Assault on Blackness.\u201d \u201cI think moments like this become a moment of anxiety for many in the Jewish community.\u201d
\nThe 14 Jewish principal owners of NBA teams are a diverse group. Some have been in the league for decades, others for just a few years. Herbert Simon has co-owned the Indiana Pacers since 1983. Joe Lacob and his partners bought the Golden State Warriors in 2010. Perennially strong teams, like Micky Arison\u2019s Miami Heat, are owned by Jews, as are longtime losers like the Milwaukee Bucks, which Jewish owner Herbert Kohl is preparing to sell to a group co-led by Jewish hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry.
\nAlso Jews: former NBA commissioner David Stern, current commissioner Silver, legendary basketball broadcaster Marv Albert and Arn Tellem, the league\u2019s leading agent, who represents 44 NBA players with combined salaries of $301 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"