Racial discrimination in recruiting athletes has been dead ever since owners realized it was hurting their profit margins.  Better talent = more wins = more money. Discrimination in the hiring of managers/head coaches took longer to do away with and isn't dead entirely, but it's much better today.  Dusty was a big part of that, both in managing the Giants and in leaving the Dodgers after Al Campanis made an ass of himself on national TV.  Right now the biggest racial problem is baseball's unpopularity among black kids, resulting in the lowest proportion of black MLB players since the beginning of integration.  There's also the positional question in both baseball and football, in the dearth of black pitchers and, more infamously, quarterbacks.

The Utah Jazz.  Or maybe it's just because all of the people that live there hate black people so no black players want to play there...

I don't believe that today there is any sports franchise stupid enough to not realize that accummulating talent is hard enough without adding additional requirements of having a certain ethnic background. A lot of what was perceived of the racial bias of the Boston teams is really the bias of the community. I know that Ellis Burks was very unhappy playing for the Red Sox early in his career, the perceived reason was the lack of fellow black players on the roster. But I believe that it wasn't only the make up of the roster but the racial antipathy that any black person feels in Boston. It is interesting that in spite of Burks' unhappiness that he returned to the Red Sox. Maybe they were the only ones who wanted him; it was the end of his career, but their roster is very much more diverse these days than when he was a rookie.

The Celtics starting unit was 3/5 white back in the '80s and my guess of the favorite players in the white community, in order, was probably: Bird, McHale, Ainge, ...and then the others. I think the racial bias of the community unfairly became associated with the team. As much as I hate the Celtics, and I would love to be able to call them racists, I have to admit that that team was one of the greatest of all time and I can't believe that it was constructed with any racial bias. Parrish was one of the most under-rated centers and was probably the key to their champioships.

As to the second part, I don't think there is one answer for all the different teams. For example, the Yankers spend gobs of money because they have it to spend and always have. They have always made more money than most teams. They make more in their cable deal alone than the bottom 3 teams make combined. They have always spent money, but it is only since Steinbrenner that they have spent it obscenely. Can anyone remember the Yankee ownership before Steinbrenner? Yes, I know it was CBS, but does anyone remember anything about how they conducted business? It is a good thing that Steinbrenner puts all the profits from the team back in, but it's a huge negative that he also supplements the budget with money from his other businesses, primarily his ship-building business. I am not sure if Hank and Hal will be like George, but if they are don't expect the Yankers to change for many years to come.

"J.A. Adande  basically lays to rest any claims that the Celtics are a black un-friendly franchise."???

what a load of crap...i used to root against the Celtics in the 1980's only because they had too many damn white guys, and im white!!

(rooted for Holmes vs. Cooney for the same reason)

Didnt HBO have a special on the Red Sox and how racially discriminatory they have been in their history? I seem to remember that they were the last team to have a black player on their roster. Someone help me out with specifics if you can. Thanks

It should probably be noted that the first professional sporting event Josh Adande attended was a Giants game at Candlestick.

Josh grew up in Santa Monica, but his paternal grandfather and grandmother lived the last 40+ years of their lives in San Francisco.