After playing long illustrious careers in professional sports, many players attempt to move from the field or court to the front office.
Oftentimes, this transition is met with excitement from fans who loved the player, but it often turns into disdain for that person as an executive.
For a number of reasons, not all players are cut out to run teams and help them succeed.
But honestly, when it comes to Black players moving from the playing surface to upstairs, it’s not the success that matters. The fact that they were even able to make it that far is a sign of progress.
It’s why more Black former players should be front-office executives, should be general managers, should be team CEOs, should be team owners.
Professional sports, particularly basketball and football have been criticized for mimicking a slaveholder-slave relationship between team owners and players.
In 2018, NBA superstar LeBron James caught flack for saying in an episode of his HBO show “The Shop” that NFL owners had a “slave mentality.” They uphold a culture that expects players to deal with unfair treatment or be outcasted.
The forced compliance is something quarterback Colin Kaepernick fought back against after being allegedly blackballed from the league. When his Netflix series “Colin in Black and White” came out in 2021, Kaepernick compared the NFL Draft Combine to slave inspection practices.
Players are measured in height, weight, how fast they can run, how strong they are, how quickly they can think, and everything is evaluated critically by scouts and owners.
Several players have spoken out about their experiences at the combine and their discomfort with the line of questioning they received from several teams in the interview portion. There are no boundaries and no lines the interviewers won’t cross, and players are expected to sit there and be subjected to it, or risk having their draft stock fall for being “hot-heads” or “unable to handle pressure.”
The comparison doesn’t stop there. Black athletes in the NFL and NBA are expected to go out every night and risk their health and safety to satisfy rich white owners who hold each player’s fate in their hands. One wrong move and the player is done –released, waived, traded – done.
Although the dynamic has softened over time as America has become arguably less racist, it still exists. While the players live in the modern era of race relations in the 21st century, many owners are older, in their 60s or 70s, and come from a time when it was acceptable to treat Black people like second-class citizens regardless of their job or how much money they make.
For this reason, it’s significant that former NBA player Allan Houston has taken on the role of an executive within the New York Knicks organization. Houston, who spent nine seasons with the New York Knicks is currently the special assistant to the general manager of the New York Knicks and the general manager of the Knicks’ G-League affiliate the Westchester Knicks. He’s also the Vice President of Player Leadership & Development.
He’s served in the Knicks’ front office since 2008. As evidenced by the Knicks’ infrequent success since then, the move didn’t immediately make New York a team drafting, signing and developing a championship-caliber roster. But again, that’s irrelevant.
Houston values his position in the front office, although it was never his initial plan. His career ended prematurely due to his inability to recover from an injury and return to the court in 2005. In the three years between his playing career ending and his executive career starting, the Knicks head coach at the time, Larry Brown, and team president, Donnie Walsh, encouraged Houston to fill a position in the front office because they thought he’d be good at it.
“I didn’t aspire to be in the front office,” Houston said. “But I was assigned into player development, and then Donnie Walsh said, ‘I want you to join the scouting department.’ Then I just was thrown into this, organizing the scouting department, never have never really done it. When I look back on it, I think they trusted me as a person. They trusted my perspective. They trusted my approach.”
Houston found his niche in player development as an extension of his love of coaching. It wasn’t crunching the numbers or doing the math on the salary cap that kept Houston engaged. It was the ability to help different players build their skills and grow in the game of basketball.
“What drove me was, I want to see how he walks in this door one way, and he can still leave a better [player] and be more valuable for the next situation,” Houston said. “So I ended up really focusing more on the development, then player acquisition. But it all works together because it is about a culture.”
That’s the path Allan assumed he would follow after his playing career due to his dad’s stature in basketball as a coach. Wade Houston became the first Black head coach in
the SEC when Tennessee hired him in 1989. Allan played for his father in college at Tennessee. He got an exclusive look at what it took to be a coach and the different barriers his father had to overcome as a Black man coaching basketball in the South in the ’90s.
“We faced a lot of adversity with him being the first black coach in sec history. I felt like I was in a fishbowl a lot. [It] prepared me a lot in that way,” Houston said. “Because of that experience with my father, when I got to the NBA, I got a much better appreciation for his role as a leader. … I was really sensitive to the role of a coach, and that partnership between a good player and a coach, because that’s really what makes a good team and culture.”
Houston has come to enjoy his role in the front office. He works year after year to build up the culture of the franchise and give the Knicks their best chance to win an NBA championship. Although it hasn’t come to fruition in his time with the team since 2008, there’s always another year.
In truth, Houston could finish his executive career without a single ring and the impact and influence of his presence in the team’s front office will not change.
He is a sign of the ever-changing limits on Black professional athletes. He’s part of a new wave of Black executives stepping into the light and pursuing the opportunities those who came before were barred from doing.
He is his own emancipation.
Allan Houston: Press Conference Recap
After playing long illustrious careers in professional sports, many players attempt to move from the field or court to the front office.
Oftentimes, this transition is met with excitement from fans who loved the player, but it often turns into disdain for that person as an executive.
For a number of reasons, not all players are cut out to run teams and help them succeed.
But honestly, when it comes to Black players moving from the playing surface to upstairs, it’s not the success that matters. The fact that they were even able to make it that far is a sign of progress.
It’s why more Black former players should be front-office executives, should be general managers, should be team CEOs, should be team owners.
Professional sports, particularly basketball and football have been criticized for mimicking a slaveholder-slave relationship between team owners and players.
In 2018, NBA superstar LeBron James caught flack for saying in an episode of his HBO show “The Shop” that NFL owners had a “slave mentality.” They uphold a culture that expects players to deal with unfair treatment or be outcasted.
The forced compliance is something quarterback Colin Kaepernick fought back against after being allegedly blackballed from the league. When his Netflix series “Colin in Black and White” came out in 2021, Kaepernick compared the NFL Draft Combine to slave inspection practices.
Players are measured in height, weight, how fast they can run, how strong they are, how quickly they can think, and everything is evaluated critically by scouts and owners.
Several players have spoken out about their experiences at the combine and their discomfort with the line of questioning they received from several teams in the interview portion. There are no boundaries and no lines the interviewers won’t cross, and players are expected to sit there and be subjected to it, or risk having their draft stock fall for being “hot-heads” or “unable to handle pressure.”
The comparison doesn’t stop there. Black athletes in the NFL and NBA are expected to go out every night and risk their health and safety to satisfy rich white owners who hold each player’s fate in their hands. One wrong move and the player is done –released, waived, traded – done.
Although the dynamic has softened over time as America has become arguably less racist, it still exists. While the players live in the modern era of race relations in the 21st century, many owners are older, in their 60s or 70s, and come from a time when it was acceptable to treat Black people like second-class citizens regardless of their job or how much money they make.
For this reason, it’s significant that former NBA player Allan Houston has taken on the role of an executive within the New York Knicks organization. Houston, who spent nine seasons with the New York Knicks is currently the special assistant to the general manager of the New York Knicks and the general manager of the Knicks’ G-League affiliate the Westchester Knicks. He’s also the Vice President of Player Leadership & Development.
He’s served in the Knicks’ front office since 2008. As evidenced by the Knicks’ infrequent success since then, the move didn’t immediately make New York a team drafting, signing and developing a championship-caliber roster. But again, that’s irrelevant.
Houston values his position in the front office, although it was never his initial plan. His career ended prematurely due to his inability to recover from an injury and return to the court in 2005. In the three years between his playing career ending and his executive career starting, the Knicks head coach at the time, Larry Brown, and team president, Donnie Walsh, encouraged Houston to fill a position in the front office because they thought he’d be good at it.
“I didn’t aspire to be in the front office,” Houston said. “But I was assigned into player development, and then Donnie Walsh said, ‘I want you to join the scouting department.’ Then I just was thrown into this, organizing the scouting department, never have never really done it. When I look back on it, I think they trusted me as a person. They trusted my perspective. They trusted my approach.”
Houston found his niche in player development as an extension of his love of coaching. It wasn’t crunching the numbers or doing the math on the salary cap that kept Houston engaged. It was the ability to help different players build their skills and grow in the game of basketball.
“What drove me was, I want to see how he walks in this door one way, and he can still leave a better [player] and be more valuable for the next situation,” Houston said. “So I ended up really focusing more on the development, then player acquisition. But it all works together because it is about a culture.”
That’s the path Allan assumed he would follow after his playing career due to his dad’s stature in basketball as a coach. Wade Houston became the first Black head coach in
the SEC when Tennessee hired him in 1989. Allan played for his father in college at Tennessee. He got an exclusive look at what it took to be a coach and the different barriers his father had to overcome as a Black man coaching basketball in the South in the ’90s.
“We faced a lot of adversity with him being the first black coach in sec history. I felt like I was in a fishbowl a lot. [It] prepared me a lot in that way,” Houston said. “Because of that experience with my father, when I got to the NBA, I got a much better appreciation for his role as a leader. … I was really sensitive to the role of a coach, and that partnership between a good player and a coach, because that’s really what makes a good team and culture.”
Houston has come to enjoy his role in the front office. He works year after year to build up the culture of the franchise and give the Knicks their best chance to win an NBA championship. Although it hasn’t come to fruition in his time with the team since 2008, there’s always another year.
In truth, Houston could finish his executive career without a single ring and the impact and influence of his presence in the team’s front office will not change.
He is a sign of the ever-changing limits on Black professional athletes. He’s part of a new wave of Black executives stepping into the light and pursuing the opportunities those who came before were barred from doing.
He is his own emancipation.
Tia Reid